Photopost Reminder for December: Tradition Will Always Be for the Young

This year, Christmas being on a Monday, Advent is the shortest it can be (three weeks and one day), and we are already at the end of the first week, so I thought it would be a good idea to put out a distant-early-warning photopost request. As we do every year, we will have a photopost series for Rorate Masses, which will also include photos of Gaudete Sunday liturgies, yesterday’s feast of the Immaculate Conception, and anything else people care to share with us. Of course, we welcome photos of the EF, the OF, the Ordinariate Rite, the Eastern liturgies etc., as well as pictures of other services such as Vespers and processions. Please send them to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org, and remember to include the name and location of the church, and any other information which you think important.

Last year, we reached a record-breaking six posts in this series, with over 270 photos from churches in 19 American states and 11 other countries (with several duplicates: three Canadian provinces, three locations in England etc.) By the time the last of them went up on December 29th, it had been announced that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was in his final illness, and he died two days later. I mention this first and foremost as a reminder to pray for his eternal repose, and to thank God for all the benefits that accrued to the Church from his great pastoral wisdom.

But I also mention it because two days ago, a student senator at a Catholic university told a cardinal that the question he was asked most often by his fellow students is “Why is there no traditional Latin Mass on campus?”, and asked the cardinal for advice on how he ought to respond. That very day being His Eminence’s own 76th birthday, his response was that the young people need to get with the times, and that “tradition dies a slow death, sometimes a bloody death.” The rest of his response made no mention of Pope Benedict at all, much less of any of the reasons why he chose to issue Summorum Pontificum, after decades of serious consideration of the state of the liturgy, and the importance of preserving continuity with our history, and the inestimable treasures of the Roman liturgical patrimony.

Let’s see what we can do to show the world that tradition is not dying, and will always be for the young!

From the first post in last year’s Advent series: the feast of the Immaculate Conception at the church of the Annunciation in Imperia, Italy.

From the second post: Mass in the Dominican Rite on the feast of St Lucy, celebrated more rorante by our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew O.P. at Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic in London, England.

From the third post: Rorate Mass at the church of St Paul in Birkirkara, Malta.

From the fourth post: a procession in honor of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Premonstratensian Abbey of St Michael in Silverado, California.

From the fifth post: Vespers of Gaudete Sunday at the Church of the Assumption in Nashville, Tennessee.

From the sixth post: Rorate Mass at the Church of St Peter in Waco, Texas.