18 January 2008

Traditional Latin Mass Update from Assumption Parish


I recently emailed Fr. Gregory Lockwood from Assumption Parish in South County and asked if he would mind updating readers on how the parish's weekly Mass in the Extraordinary Form is going.  He was kind enough to send the reply, the bulk of which is reprinted below:
We had about 125 folks at the first regular mass last week, and I anticipate that number will hold and eventually increase slowly. The choir is making a good effort to keep up
with the work from week to week; my daughter, Christina, is a classically
trained soprano who is acting cantor as of now; we are looking for some male
voices (women tend to join choirs more these days); our organist/ music
director is learning well. We use a combination of propers from the Graduale
and Rossini right now, hoping to eventually have all sung from the Graduale.
Our servers-we have five in training, and they are making good progress; we
need to recruit more from our school (and we would always welcome volunteers
from outside), but I wanted to train a good core group first. Serving the
TLM is much more difficult than the Novus Ordo, and the servers are a very
important part of a smoothly sung liturgy, as I'm sure you know from
watching the great group Fr.Lenhardt has at the oratory. I don't anticipate
doing many low masses here; all ours have been at least missa cantatas so
far; the desire of the church is foremost for me in this, so we go on doing
sung masses each week. My fine pastor has learned how to distribute
communion and has helped at each mass; we have two deacons here I will
eventually train to handle this also. Originally I didn't anticipate needing
help because I thought our numbers would be small, but, Deo gratias, we have
been blessed with good crowds necessitating the help. We plan to have an Ash
Wednesday TLM, as well as Easter Sunday, so the learning curve for the
celebrant has been steep and won't flatten out anytime soon, but it has been
a joy to celebrate the traditional mass, and it has done a great deal for my
celebration of the Novus Ordo as well...
Fr. GJL
Thank you very much, Father Lockwood, for the update and for your kind words otherwise. I ask that all my readers keep you, your pastor, Fathers Lenhardt and Avis, and all priests who seek to do the will of Christ and His Vicar so diligently in their prayers.  

4 comments:

cmziall said...

I'm confused. . .the letter is from Fr. Lockwood and at the beginning he says "my daughter is a classically trained soprano". Am I not understanding something?

We'll have to check it out. . .Assumption is only about 10-12 minutes away from us! Did he, by chance, mention Mass times for the TLM?

Anonymous said...

Father Lockwood has a daughter! That must be a good story. Was he an Anglican priest who "Poped it" as the English say? Or is he a widower who took the cloth later in life?

Again, I think your readers might enjoy that story. Anglicans who "swim the Tiber" usually have great conversion stories.

The wanting to become a priest late in life is a great story too.

thetimman said...

I will leave it to Father Lockwood if he wants to tell the nitty gritty, but I, too, thought anglican. I was wrong. He is a former pastor in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod denomination, now a Catholic, and a priest.

thetimman said...

cmziall, I did an earlier story, but I think 1pm. Check out the link to the parish site above and they have it in the bulletin.