And it could be: the first few Sung Masses at H.I. one could count the number of worshipers on one hand--two hands, if the weather was fine--but the number seems to have risen with each passing week. Fr. Kallumady, the pastor, has certainly noticed that and today he made grateful mention of the increased numbers in his homily. It is all the more gratifying since H.I. is not located in a residential neighborhood and most people attending Mass there must go through at least some trouble to get to the church (including your Bloviator). Interestingly, young worshipers seem to outnumber oldsters like myself, some of those young being of a decidedly "hipster" bent. I wonder if their attending the Tridentine Mass is in at least partial reaction to being subjected to the excruciating post-Vatican II "reforms" when they were growing up? That works for me and the irony of seemingly trendy young people turning up their noses at stale contemporary worship practices, whose grayed-haired proponents insist to this day are essential to attracting them to Mass, is delicious indeed.
2 comments:
With the addition of the Sunday Sung Mass, it could well be the only Catholic church in the country offering a Tridentine Mass every day.
I'm pleased to report that HI is not the only church doing this - I've been to several others, e.g. Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, NJ (http://www.materecclesiae.org/), Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton, MA (http://www.maryimmaculatenewton.org/), St. John Cantius in Chicago (http://www.cantius.org/), all of which were doing so well before HI. There are also a number of Latin-only parishes in the U.S. run by the FSSP (http://www.fssp.org/) with diocesan approval, so yes, it does seem to be infectious! Deo gratias!
I have noticed the same thing about the demographics of the Latin Mass in my parish. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the majority of the worshipers (of which I would estimate there are about 150-200 per week) are either young hipsters or young families. Deo gratias, indeed.
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