THE TRUE MASS

When we discuss the Mass in these pages, we must note that it is the traditional Catholic Mass to which we refer—the Mass given to the Apostles at the Last Supper and handed down to us by his successors, essentially unchanged.  More specifically our references are to the Roman rite of that Mass, although their application to the Divine Liturgies of the various Eastern rites would have been equally appropriate.

Many of us still attend this traditional Latin Mass in spite of the devil's attempts to rob us of its graces.  Others today no longer have access to the traditional Mass, but the older ones will no doubt remember it, uneasily aware that what they see going on in their local church today is far removed from the Mass of their youth.  Others are too young to know anything at all about the traditional Mass, and for them it is as foreign as the language in which it is celebrated.  Others still are too corrupted by the endless barrage of modernist propaganda to even care there was a break between the Catholic Mass and the new Protestant-style service in their churches today.  But no matter who you are, if you say the Rosary, you are being drawn, whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not, to the wealth of graces contained only in the traditional Holy Apostolic Mass, that most essential gift our divine Savior left us immediately before he died for our sins:  "Who on the night he was betrayed, took bread into his sacred hands..."

This Mass is our inheritance and our birthright, and no one has the right to deny it to us.  Christ our Saviour commanded his apostles:  “Do this in remembrance of me!”  Do this, not any manufactured substitute devised by man.  Our Lord's parting gift was passed down intact by the apostles and their successors, until in 1969 it was suddenly abolished by Paul VI.  And yet this traditional Apostolic Mass continues through the perseverance of those Catholics who are now referred to, often with contempt, as "traditionalists."  Who are these traditionalists?  Just a group of old-fashioned reactionaries on the right-wing fringe of the Church, clinging to the ancient ways out of nostalgia?  Or is there more to it than that?  In truth, the Church should not be divided into right- and left-wing factions.  The Church has no divisions, she is One, united in her beliefs and worship of God.  She is also Holy, Catholic and (let's not forget) Apostolic.   We inherit our beliefs and our form of worship from the apostles.  

The word “tradition” comes from the Latin word traditio, which means the passing down of something from one person or generation to another.  To be a “traditionalist” therefore means that we accept the FAITH passed down to us from the apostles to whom God revealed it, as well as the form of WORSHIP he commanded them to continue “in remembrance of me.” Moreover, it means that we must continue passing on that Faith and Worship to the generations that succeed us.  “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.”[1] Without tradition, we are not Catholic.  Without it the Catholic Church would never have survived.

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[1] II Thessalonians 2 : 15

THE PURPOSE OF OUR MEDITATIONS

The series of meditations that follow are an attempt to identify God’s plan of salvation for us, as contained in both the Rosary and the Mass.  Many are the distractions the devil sends our way when we try to pray our beads properly and keep our minds focused on the Holy Sacrifice.  Nevertheless, we struggle on in the knowledge that it is God’s will that we do so.  The meditations contained in this book are a humble attempt to provide us with more “food for thought” when we approach the mysteries contained in both Rosary and Mass, that we may better understand them, and thus come to love God more fervently and unite with him more completely.

Both the Rosary and Mass play a key role in God’s eternal plan for our salvation.  To grasp just how important they are, our approach must be to invoke the help of our Blessed Mother and her Son, who gave us these tools.  After all, who better than they can fill our minds with the knowledge of the depths of God's love contained in the fifteen mysteries and in the words and actions of the Mass?  I hope that the following meditations will allow the reader to peer into those depths and find for himself a little of the truth and love of God that the sacred mysteries contain.  Any words that attempt to describe such divine love must necessarily be flawed and inadequate, but, with your good will and indulgence, I hope we can all find in these pages a useful outline from which to approach both Rosary and Mass afresh, refocusing our thoughts and rekindling in us the fire of God's love.

 In these meditations we will learn how the Rosary leads us inevitably to the Mass.  This progression is natural and logical—the Rosary tells the story of our Redemption, while the Mass applies the graces of that Redemption to us today.  Rosary and Mass represent our Faith and our Worship, the very essence of our religion.  Just as our faith leads us to worship God, so the mysteries of the Rosary lead us to the fulfillment of those mysteries in the Mass. 

When we meditate on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary and immerse ourselves in the story of Redemption they portray, we are gathering together into one unified narrative the very basic truths of our Faith.  When we get over the fact that this Redemption story isn't just a legend, but actual reality, we very quickly realize that we have to participate actively in that reality ourselves.  We do so by trying to return to God some of the love he showed for us throughout the joyful and sorrowful events contained in our meditations.  When he gave us the Mass he showed us exactly how he wanted us to return that love as fully as we poor humans are capable.  No finite sacrifice devised by mortal man could ever be sufficient to repay God for the love he showed by creating us and then restoring us to the grace we lost.  But God himself has provided us with a sacrifice of infinite love.  Only the sacrifice of his only-begotten Son is sufficient to please God, and he allows that extraordinary and eternal act of love offered on Calvary to be continued by his Church in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  We adore God in the way he instructed us to do so, through that traditional Holy Sacrifice, and most especially, by uniting with him in the reception of his most sacred Body and Blood in Holy Communion.