Recently, in the bulletin for St. John the Evangelist Parish in Spencerport, Father Peter Mottola announced he was starting a Latin Mass on Fridays, at 8:00 AM. He quoted from Canon 276 of Canon Law:
“In leading their lives, clerics are bound in a special way to pursue holiness […]
therefore, priests are earnestly invited to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice daily.”
Father Mottola stated: “My greatest joy as a priest is to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In keeping with the law of the Church cited above, I have endeavored to do so every day. Given that there is now only one priest in residence in the parish, and that there would otherwise be no opportunity to assist at Mass in our beautiful church on Fridays, I will offer Mass each week on Friday morning at eight o’clock.” He continued: “In keeping with what has been my weekly custom, this Mass will be a Traditional Latin Mass.”
Further Excerpts from St. John the Evangelist Bulletin:
“Because I know this form of the Mass will be unfamiliar to many, I want to say a word about what you can expect in this ancient form of the Roman Rite. The thing that most strikes people about the Latin Mass is the quantity of silence. For instance, the entire Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer) is whispered by the priest at the altar—an experience quite different from the constant noise of the rest of our day! … silence … actually fosters a more profound silence within our heart that allows us to transcend for a time our daily cares and thus enter more deeply into prayer as we rest in God. If we are not used to spending prolonged periods of time in silent prayer, this can actually be quite uncomfortable at first, but as we accustom our hearts to silence, God fills us with that peace that passes all understanding.”
St. John the Evangelist Church
55 Martha St. (@ Amity St.)
Spencerport, NY 14559
“I love the Latin Mass because it taught me how to pray. When I first began assisting at daily Mass, I loved it not only because of the opportunity to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion each day, but also because the Scriptures or the preaching or the prayers always gave me something to pray about. But when I came to frequent the Latin Mass, I realized that I had begun to pray the Mass—rather than using my experience of Mass as a kind of fuel for later private prayer, the Mass itself became the time when I would grow closer to God and decide to live in a way more pleasing to Him. … I do believe that this form of the Mass, developed over many centuries, is the crown jewel of the cultural and religious expression of western civilization. … And don’t let the language fool you into thinking you don’t know what’s going on—as a priest once told me when I went to Mass in Japan and got flustered trying to follow the prayers in a foreign language: ‘You know the Mass in your heart!’ May God give us the blessing of truly knowing the Mass in our hearts, so that we may come to more perfectly know, love, and serve Him.”
God Bless, Fr. Peter Mottola
To Cleansing Fire readers: if you know of another DoR Church with weekday Latin Mass, please comment so others will be aware. A regular Sunday Latin Mass is held at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Irondequoit at 11:15 AM each Sunday.
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