Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish at 156 Valley SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504-6194 US - LATIN MASS
|
LATIN MASS |
 |
On Sunday, November 18, 1990, with the permission of Bishop Robert Rose, the “Tridentine” or Latin Mass according to the Missal of 1962 was officially celebrated in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. At that time it was to be celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of every month. Due to its popularity, it didn’t take long before it was celebrated every week. In April of 1994 that liturgy was moved to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish on the Westside of Grand Rapids. It has been here ever since, every Sunday at 12:30pm.
Why the Mass of 1962? Although obedient to the reforms of the liturgy as determined by the Second Vatican Council, there were many of the faithful, as well as scholars and leaders in the Church, who came to believe that something may have been “left behind” as the reforms went on during the 1960s and 1970s.
So it was that Pope John Paul II issued a pastoral letter, the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei (2 July 1988) encouraging bishops to allow the use of the form of the Mass, according to the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII of 1962.
In time there was a surge of interest in that liturgy, not just for the sake of nostalgia, but there were older Catholics and younger people as well, who found the 1962 Mass “a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist that suited them.” So wrote Pope Benedict XVI in his letter of explanation to the world’s bishops, in anticipation of his own pastoral letter on the subject.
Finally His Holiness issued the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, on 7 July 2007. In that letter Pope Benedict cited the reforms of the Roman Liturgy over the centuries. The Mass, as it has always been understood, was never “chiseled in stone” so that it could not be amended and adapted to the needs of each new generation of Catholics. What was equally important was that the form of the Liturgy “reinforce many peoples in the virtue of religion and fecundate their piety.” At the same time the Pontiffs have worked to ensure that the Mass should “appear resplendent for its dignity and harmony.” To that end Pope Benedict issued his letter. And so it is that this form of the Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated here at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, along with the form of Mass according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI.
Join us every Sunday at 12:30 p.m. for our Latin Mass.