Quam dilecta tabernacula tua, Domine

The Latin Novus Ordo Midnight Mass at St. Joseph's in Detroit City was wonderful. The picture I have with this post doesn't do justice to the magnificent appearance of this church in the dark of a Christmas Eve. We knew it was going to be good even when we saw it from afar. The tower appears to go up into the sky forever. Inside, the church is breathtakingly beautiful; I have never been, in America, in such a richly (and well) decorated church. Everything is in the original style; as far as I observed, there had not been a single Novus Ordo wreckovation, e.g. there is no moveable altar in front of the high altar.

There are large statues of the saints everywhere. The beautiful pulpit is surmounted by a large statue of Our Lord, and the whole thing easily goes 30 feet into the air. The main altar is equally magnificent and nearly as tall at its pinnacle.


The music, primarily the Missa Pastoralis in B Flat by Jakub Jan Ryba, was quite fine and included one of the most beautiful settings of the Agnus Dei that I have ever heard.

I was somewhat surprised that the priest celebrant was unassisted by any other clergy, though he did have five servers or so. The homily was good, conservative, though no Leo the Great.

There were, as might be expected, the usual Novus Ordo idiocies: they left the people standing throughout the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. This would be fine, as far as it goes, at a low Mass, but during a beautiful orchestral setting, it doesn't make sense to stand there like you're waiting for something to happen. So my friend and I knelt, as one would during those parts of the old Mass. The other thing that came home to me again is that the priest, in the new rite, waits until the Sanctus is finished before saying the great words, "Te igitur clementissime Pater...", so the priest is just standing at the altar, doing nothing, for long stretches of time. Oddly, they didn't sing the Nicene Creed, but spoke it; a terrible loss, at least for me, as it's one of my favorite parts of the sung Mass.

One of the more memorable pictures in my mind from the night was the sight of a 50 something man, receding dyed blond hair line, long magenta polished finger nails, earrings, some kind of strange perfume, a black (but not full length) fur coat, and reading glasses. His attendance upon the ceremonies of the Mass was quite studied; this impression was accentuated by the glasses perched on his nose and the fact that he looked not at all like a woman, though he had decorated himself as one. My friend and I sat right at the front of the church, or nearly so, and he came and occupied a prominent place one pew in front of us. His appearance reminded me that we were, in fact, in Detroit City and not in Heaven -- not that I'm suggesting that God has also commissioned Annibale Bugnini to redo the Heavenly Liturgy.

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