Saturday 25 June 2011

The Finest of Wheat on Park Lawn Road

"Qui pacem ponit fines Ecclesiae, frumenti adipe satiat nos Dominus"--The LORD establishes peace in the borderlands of His Church and feeds His people with the finest of wheat. These were the words from scripture of the anthem, Qui Pacem Ponit by Jean-François Lallouette (1651–1728) sung last night after Holy Communion at St. Mark's in Toronto at the Missa Solemnis in honour of our Eucharistic LORD on the Feast of Corpus Christi.
  
At 6:30, a half-hour before Mass, it was evident that we had miscalculated. There were only 100 red missal books and 100 printed translation aids. These were gone not too many minutes later. Last night in Toronto, 225 souls attended the Holy Mass and were fed the Finest of Wheat by the Priest Celebrant who confected the Holy Eucharist on the original High Altar at St. Mark's, not used in more forty-five years for this sacred purpose. That priest was ordained less than two months ago in Toronto and will shortly begin his parish duties. He was assisted by two other priests as Deacon and Subdeacon ordained in 2010. The parish's pastor provided the homily and assisted at the distribution of the Holy Eucharist.

Except for perhaps the Holy Mass at The Toronto Oratory Church of St. Vincent de Paul in honour of Blessed John Henry Newman last September, this was the largest number of Catholics gathered for the Usus Antiquior of the Latin Church since it was falsely abolished by the episcopacy in this diocese and in this country. Pope Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum has written that this liturgy "was never abrogated."

There will be more Masses of this nature. This liturgy will save our faith.