Over the last fifty years, a plethora of liturgical traditions and ceremonial have undeniably been lost. Today, many Catholics experience a growing hunger for the mystery and beauty that they never knew.
To feed this longing, the Roman Catholic parish of Mater Ecclesiae of Berlin, New Jersey offered an August 15 Solemn High Mass in honor of the Feast of the Assumption at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in nearby Camden.
Fr. Robert Pasley celebrated the mass, while a professional choir and orchestra performed Mozart’s Missa Brevis in C, to a congregation of almost 600 people.
Members of The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) also attended and were invited to carry a papal banner and two small TFP standards in the entrance procession.
“This is one of the most beautiful masses I have ever attended,” said TFP attendee Benjamin Hiegert. “Just hearing this music in the original setting for which it was intended, gives you an idea of the esteem with which our ancestors held the Faith.”
It is said that giving a starving man a cracker increases his hunger. Likewise, the mass curbed the hunger for tradition and beauty so often felt in modern society, but left many attendees desiring more.