I don't go to daily Mass these days. One of the things that impacted my decision was a description of a wedding a priest friend attended at a very conservative Lutheran parish. The groom, a widower and a Catholic was marrying a Lutheran woman whose branch of Lutheranism is the most conservative, even more than the Missouri Synod Lutherans. She wanted to be married in her church by her minister. They got permission from the bishop so all was in order.
My priest friend, a relative of the groom, could not even enter the Lutheran sanctuary much less officiate. He sat with the congregation. Describing the service, he said it was almost identical to the Novus Ordo. Most NO masses fit the same description. That conversation disturbed me. Since then the only NO masses I've attended have been weddings, funerals, and the sacramental events of grandchildren. The NO, it seems to me, is the same mass so many recusants in England refused to attend. They risked their lives for the mass being suppressed today by Pope Leo and his cohort of TLM haters. Many of the priests who came from the continent to feed the persecuted English flock with the Body and Blood of the Savior were martyred as they tried to keep the faith alive on that poor island. They died for the Mass being suppressed today with unprecedented cruelty.
How many Catholics today have access to a NO Mass like the one described by Bishop Schneider? Few indeed. How many bishops forbid the ad orientem position with the priest leading the people to God as we all face liturgical east? How many priests act like ringmasters on the altar as if the mass has become, not the reenactment of the holy sacrifice of Calvary, but reenactment of the greatest show on earth?
I'm not questioning the validity of the NO, and I don't think I'm holier than those who attend it. On the contrary. God made me a Catholic, I think, because He knew I would be lost if He didn't give me the fullness of the faith. I would probably still be falling down the rabbit hole with Alice if I'd been born into a Protestant or Muslim or pagan family. I go to the TLM, not because I'm smarter or better than anyone else, but because I'm not. I need it -- like I need oxygen and I have the means and opportunity to attend it. Most people don't. They must do the best they can to keep the third commandment, especially when they are being persecuted by their spiritual fathers like the poor people of Knoxville, Detroit, Charlotte, etc.
What a mess! Crush the people who oppose Traditionis Custodes and want to worship at the Mass of the ages that nurtured so many saints, converted so many sinners, and brought so many to the foot of the altar. I'm reminded of Anne Roche Muggeridge's book, The Desolate City. She describes how she was so angry about the situation in the Church that she vented to a friend that she was considering leaving. Her friend replied, "Don't let the bastards drive you out." She didn't and died a traditional Catholic (what used to just be "a Catholic") in 2010.
The cruelty of those we call Father is sad indeed. Traditional Catholics today are victims of spiritual abuse from the very shepherds called to love us and nourish us. Instead they have driven us out of the home, tongue-lashed us and accused us of breaking the unity of the family. No, bishops and holy father! It is you who have broken the unity. Are we really called to a unity synodality that sacrifices truth to progressivism, that welcomes and elevates those who are pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-sodomy, and heretical, etc. to the table while sending the children to bed without any supper? No, no, and no! We are in union with the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, the recusants of England, the persecuted Irish, the martyrs of Japan and China and every other place on the globe. We are in union with Jesus Christ our King! That the persecution is coming, not from outside, but from within is a particular kind of pain. Our Lady warned about it in numerous apparitions, so we simply need to put on the armor of Christ and persevere.
Here is my message to the false shepherds. Do your worst. I will keep the faith of the fathers. Do your worst, I will pray the rosary begging the help of Mary, Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all Graces. Do your worst, I will pray for you every day. Do your worst, I will thank God like the apostles and rejoice to be found worthy to suffer for the Lord.
Keep the faith, friends, but keep it with joy. You have Jesus, Mary, the angels and saints, and, especially your guardian angel to protect you from anger, bitterness, and revenge. To embrace suffering is to embrace true unity, unity with Christ on the cross.
Viva Cristo Rey!
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