https://onepeterfive.com/grotto-sanity Go to the Grotto of Sanity Raymond KowalskiJanuary 8, 2019 One Comment When the day comes where you bury your head in your hands and say, “This cannot be right,” start your search for the nearest Latin Mass. I am talking here about Mass in the “extraordinary form,” the Tridentine Mass, the usus antiquior, the Mass according to the Roman Missal promulgated by St. John XXIII in 1962, the “traditional Latin Mass.” You will find in the traditional Latin Mass a shelter from the storm, a place to rest from the turmoil. The traditional Latin Mass is a grotto of sanity, where the holy angel from Heaven guards, cherishes, protects, visits, and defends all who are assembled in that place. The storm and turmoil of which I speak are the visible and accelerating disintegration of the institutional Catholic Church playing out in our time. Perhaps you are a Catholic who supports wholeheartedly what has been labeled a “paradigm shift” in Catholic faith and morals. You may love the idea that the Church is breaking away from hidebound and difficult principles of belief and behavior. I do not disparage you. You have been conditioned for fifty years to think this way. You have been cheated of your birthright. Once you are sensitized to it, you see it everywhere. Can this be happening? You turn on EWTN and watch the “papal posse.” The trusted trio is deeply disturbed by the things they must report. You consult Catholic blogs like this one, where you can calibrate your own perceptions. You read modern books like To Change the Church by Ross Douthat or The Dictator Pope by Henry Sire and the scope and scale of the upheaval begins to sink in. You stumble upon YouTube channels like that of Dr. Taylor Marshall, and you are reintroduced to the Catholicism you have always known and that attracted converts to the faith. Slowly, you begin to understand that you have been betrayed by the Church you trusted. Your own intellect and reason are confronting you with a narrative that reads like a Dan Brown novel. Eventually, the day comes when you read something that rocks you to your core, and you mutter, “This cannot be right.” That is when you need the comfort of the traditional Latin Mass. That is when you must go to the grotto and reconnect with God in the deepest way possible. The traditional Latin Mass is your personal lifeline to the Truth. In this grotto, the questions of the day – Is the pope a heretic? Can the dogmas of the Church evolve? Is sodomy not gravely sinful? – are secondary. For the brief time that you are in the grotto, all that matters is your worship of the God Who created you from the beginning of time and Who gave you a Way to join Him in eternal life. Don’t worry that you do not know Latin. The priest does all the work. The altar boys make answer to him on your behalf. There will probably be something like a “missalette” available for your use. It will have the English translation of the Latin that is being said and instructions for when to sit, stand, kneel, and genuflect. At first, all you have to do is follow along. Don’t worry about “fitting in” with the congregation. You will be surprised at who’s in church with you. It will not be all aged, pre-Vatican II Catholics. There will be a surprising number of young families. There will be crying babies. There will be reverent teenagers. Many races and ethnicities will be represented. In fact, you may wonder why it took you so long to discover what these people already know. The people in church with you will have some things in common. Most noticeably, they are not in a hurry. This is their day’s main event. They are not there simply to “get it over with.” They probably arrived well before the scheduled Mass time. They are quiet and lost in prayer before Mass begins. If the priest is late, they do not seem to notice. Most of the women have a mantilla or some other head covering. Many of the gentlemen are wearing suits or sport coats. The people stay through the recessional hymn, and then they stay even longer, offering prayers of thanksgiving. Eventually, they drift out, as if reluctant to return to the valley of tears. After you have done this a couple of times, you will become more at ease with the Latin and the flow of the Mass. You will know that the power of the grotto has done its work when you finally unite your mind to that of the celebrant. Through the priest, you are offering to God his divine Son, in thanksgiving for all He has done for you and in reparation for all you have failed to do for Him. This is the worship of the ages, the usus antiquior. Every word of the Mass, every gesture, every vestment of the celebrant, every position of the celebrant at or near the altar, every candle, every item used during Mass, has meaning rooted in antiquity. The grotto has many chambers and passageways in which to take refuge from the storm. In addition to the Low Mass, there are High Masses, Solemn High Masses, Solemn Pontifical High Masses, and Requiem Masses. There are deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, and choirs who have roles to play in them. There is much richness to discover, much peace to be had. Go to the grotto. Be refreshed; be strengthened. Stand watch at the entrance against the day when the wicked come to seal it off. Then you will rise up and say to them, “Thus far shall you come and no farther.”
I love it too Brian...get there once a month...( can’t beat that great breakfast afterwards too).... But you are in a great place Brian...God planted you there!
Great article and spot on description of the parish near by. I just wish that my family would take to it. They still prefer the New Order Mass and it is painful for me to attend it at times when I know I have a LR Parish nearby. We compromise on it but I wish I didn't have to because I would like to make it my home parish. I will just keep saying my prayers and hope. I have been rubbing off on them slowly, my wife is saying Holy Ghost now rather than Holy Spirit when we pray the rosary.
Don_D, I think the pastor at St. Joseph’s near you is our former pastor here at Mater Dei in Dallas. He is truly a holy priest and we miss him very much. You are blessed indeed and I will pray that the Holy Ghost will turn the hearts of your family toward the TLM very soon! God love you all! TM of 2
I just found the following online which may help those in the USA or Canada who are looking for a Church approved TLM. It is "a sample of the approved Traditional Latin Masses being offered in the US and Canada as of November 27, 2018" http://ecclesiadei.org/masses.cfm . Since, I am in the Rockville Centre diocese there appears to be 3 options to attend TLM on Sundays on a regular basis. That is better than I thought but the closest one to me is held in the chapel of a Church which I know is not very big at all, still it is better than nothing. I also came across the following which helps "Find traditional Latin Masses worldwide" which are also approved by the Church https://www.latinmassdir.org/ and the following which includes TLM's which are both Church approved and not Church approved http://www.latinmasstimes.com/ . I have included all three links for the purpose of cross-reference since I believe that some of these lists may not be up to date. *** On another note, I just saw a story on my local news station this morning when I was checking out the weather report for my husband as he was leaving for work (it's cold here today, 22°F and with the wind chill factor it feels like the single digits). It appears that my diocese is continuing to shrink in terms of Catholic schools. It is a very sad situation. The year that I started Catholic grammar school in 1969 it was the first year that a tuition was required for attendance and I am certain that it was not very much. Now, we are faced with huge school taxes which we need to pay regardless of whether we use the school system or not (I do understand why) and in addition, the tuition for the Catholic schools has gone up immensely. My husband and I made a big sacrifice to send our children to Catholic high school but unfortunately we felt we could not afford to send them to Catholic grammar schools nor did we think that the education they would receive would be comparable to what they would receive in the public grammar school. Here is the story I am referring to and thanks for listening, https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/catholic-schools-closing-1.25789486 .
Already in 2016 Peter K. comments on Mosebach’'s Paradox (Book: Heresy of Formlessness) and writes: It (The traditional Latin Mass) is a recipe for sanity and sanctity in a world that is characterized by escalating insanity and unholiness. https://onepeterfive.com/mosebachs-paradox/ He could not know then that the grotto would be much more necessary in the years to come
