I found this video on Fr. Ray Blake's website, a video I had sought for years and thought quite lost. The video is two separate features, one focused on the traditionalist movement in the wake of Msgr. Lefebvre's episcopal consecrations and the other a series of vignettes of Norman life called Fr. Quintin's Normandy.
This clip gives us some insight as to what life was like in good parishes "back in the day." Fr. Montgomery-Wright sought eccentricity at every step, but aside from wearing an unnecessary monocle he had a remarkable genteel pastoral demeanor, a kindred spirit for the farming community.
The Masses he celebrated were more elaborate and less ceremonial than today's traddy Masses: coped cantors, servers in tunics, a full choir, and the priest yelling the Gloria, laus, et honor tibi sit when no one else will. His movements are both reverent and not contrived. There is a holy informality which compliments country life and which I miss greatly in Dallas.
Montgomery-Wright cared for a disabled person named Christian and extended his caring outlook to the rest of his 1,000 faithful scattered across three parishes and the Mass center in another town he ran. Even at 75 he gave no thought to leaving what he was ordained to do.
The same person who posted the clips of Fr. Montgomery-Wright also has another video entitled "SSPX UK History", which is three hours long and only worth occasionally skipping through. It is presented by Fr. Edward Black, then district superior of the Fraternity. Around the 17 minute mark there are pictures of the real Roman Holy Week at St. Joseph's in London. A few minutes later comes footage taken by a local news crew of Palm Sunday, which shows the knocking at the door and the haunting Gospel tone as Fr. Black tells the interviewer about the dilution of rites. Later on bishop Richard Williamson is shown celebrating a pontifical Mass from the faldstool in a garden; evidently the Fraternity bishops had not yet abusively assumed the practice of celebrating Mass from the throne, which was a prerogative Lefebvre was granted by Pius XII as an apostolic delegate. Most Masses for pilgrimages and special events were sung and Tenebrae was observed during Holy Week. The crowd noticeably evolves from an older group dressed quite casually (women in trousers sometimes, not all the ladies veiled, not all the men in ties) to a younger, more formal set of congregants.
Seeing these two pieces makes one wish the old rite communities nowadays had the same pastoral zeal and familiarity that those groups had in their early days, as well as their desire to maximize their liturgical functions. Have we lost something of the way we were?
Yes indeed, some subject. I have written With the passing years…
ReplyDeleteListening to him in the video rang many bells. He was very lucky to have Bishop Jacques Gaillot who was so "liberal" that he thought that traditionalists should be tolerated too. Fr Montgomery was indeed a man to be remembered.
It seems that since we've lost most of our roots, we've had to re-invent them, almost to the point that in some places "traditionalism" is more of an ideology than anything else; orthodoxy becomes a beating stick to club your oponents over the head with. Certain groups go so far as to prescribe dress codes, thinking that the previous generations's standard was THE standard. Sometimes it seems as tough certain trads forget we're supposed to apply the Gospel in our generation.
ReplyDeleteFor Father Montgomery-Wrighht, the holy informality comes from there having been only a brief break, when he used French and the reforms through 1967 or so. In places which generations can grow up with something like this, it’s possible... You have to have well-formed priests, who not only love the authentic tradition but who are good people and not abusive towards the people in any way.
ReplyDeleteAnother difficulty is community building. Even parishes that are doctrinally and liturgically sound are often not quite in the midst of daily life in the town market, as in a rural village or a medieval city, but are rather destinations, not unlike shopping malls.
DeleteWe need priests who understand people and who are not very taken by the fact that they are in Holy Orders.
Absolutely. I implied that, but you made it clear. The ICRSS does an OK job. Mater Ecclesiae has community. Their advantage is that they are suburban. At least some people live close by. But this is why more celebrations of the Office are needed. You can have a meal and activity before Vespers, say following Sunday Mass or even just before Vespers or Compline on a weeknight.
DeleteI knew a SSPX priest, like that: formerly in the Novus Ordo seminary, but turned off by it. He always was for doing some sort of public singing of the Divine Office, even if it had to be Saturday. He was all for being very pastoral, doing many of the little things. I think his stay in the Novus Ordo seminary was beneficial for him. He always wanted to do more, but the higher-ups always put a brake on his activities!
DeleteHaving been at that Pontifical Mass in the garden of the, then, St. Michael's House, Burghclere, I found the second video - having just skimmed through it - very sad indeed seeing so many people who are no longer with us in this life.
ReplyDeleteSorry for 'Burghclere' pls read Highclere.
DeleteThere is no doubt we have lost a great deal indeed over the years.
The one thing that really survives from the era of the Fr. M film, albeit fractured, is the Chartres walk.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the little stole things the servers wear?
ReplyDelete