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<\/a>Mother’s Day Mass at Holy Rosary, 2017 (photo by Francine Mastini)<\/p><\/div> This is a laudable custom, and I hope it continues.<\/p>\n Obviously, these Masses are celebrated Ad Orientem<\/em><\/a>. We have celebrated a number of Masses in this fashion over the years. For several years, we have celebrated Corpus Christi<\/a> Masses on our high altar. It has become our custom.<\/p>\n In addition to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Corpus Christi, we have also celebrated a number of other Masses Ad Orientem<\/em>: last year the second Sunday in Advent, and further back the third Mass of All Souls in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Well, for the side altars you could be forgiven for assuming that it is a simple matter of logistics. But why use the high altar instead of the front (low) altar at Corpus Christi and on the other occasions? Here’s how it’s described in a brochure we put together several years ago:<\/p>\n The point of facing east is to emphasize the essential character of the liturgy: that of a procession out of time and into eternity in Heaven. We see and taste this procession in the course of the liturgy. <\/p>\n The celebrant, standing in the person of Christ, leads the way, but we are all moving together, as a community and as the people of God, as part of the same procession that begins at the Introit, continues through the Offertory, and culminates with our reception of Holy Communion.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And in the words of Pope Benedict XVI:<\/p>\n Despite all the variations in practice that have taken place far into the second millennium, one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying toward the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning. <\/p>\n Moreover, it is a fundamental expression of the Christian synthesis of cosmos and history, of being rooted in the once-for-all events of salvation history while going out to meet the Lord who is to come again.<\/p>\n (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So it is not only our parish custom, but it is also firmly rooted in the history and tradition of the church.<\/p>\n
\nY<\/span>esterday at my parish of Holy Rosary<\/a>, we celebrated a votive Mass<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> on the Marian altar. This was more or less our Mother’s Day Mass. We have been doing this for a couple of years now, and last year we added a Father’s Day Mass in June at the Saint Joseph altar.<\/p>\n
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