Ave Regina

Summer is going on, and it is as usual packed with projects for my part. Last week, I was a leader at a Catholic youth camp, which was wonderful (though exhausting) as usual, and next week I’m having a LAN party for altar servers with one of the priests of my parish. This week I’ve been doing almost nothing except relaxing and playing World of Warcraft. I’ve also got my hands on an iPhone 3G, which exceeds expectations - I’m writing this in an application which connects directly to my blog so I can write articles on the fly without having to use a web browser. Perfect for traveling blogs and so on, as you can post pictures taken with the phone directly without having to bring a laptop or go to an Internet cafe. Typing on the device is somewhat difficult at first, but it corrects most typos automatically, so you get used to it pretty fast.

As to serious business, I’ve just bought the 1988 edition of The Little Office of The Blessed Virgin Mary, which is structured like the post-reform Divine Office, and I will review it as soon as possible. At a first glance it looks great (if you prefer the new form of the Breviary), the book itself looks good and is for the most part practically structured, and for those of you who prefer it, there is a different Office for every day of the week. I’ll get back to it after I’ve recited it for a while.

That’s it for now, hope you’re having a great summer :-)

Yesterday I served at the Altar in the Gregorian Rite / Traditional Latin Mass for the first time! It was also the first time my parish priest celebrated this Mass, so we are not yet “fluent,” but it went pretty well and Father has at least become idoneus, which is the requirement of Summorum Pontificum. We’re going to celebrate in private again today, and tomorrow Father will say Nuptial Mass, probably the first public Traditional Mass celebrated in this parish since the reform (there may have been some single occurences but I haven’t heard of any). The Mass yesterday (and probably today) took place in a chapel nearby instead of the parish church, partly because it’s almost unaltered - they’ve placed another wooden, freestanding Altar in front of the Sanctuary, and removed the altar rails, but the High Altar, side Altars etc. are still there. It’s also a good place for private Masses, as it’s usually closed except for scheduled Masses. The Nuptial Mass tomorrow will take place in the parish church however, which was heavily altered (I try not to say “devastated”…) in the 70′ies, so we’ll have to rearrange the Sanctuary and use the new Altar, but it’ll work. At any rate I’m glad to see the Traditional Mass returning, though slowly - I doubt we’ll see scheduled Masses in the Gregorian Rite for a while, but at least things have started happening. May the fruits of our Holy Father’s pontificate be manyfold through our Blessed Mother’s intercession and the Grace of Our Lord.