Hello Everyone.
I did put out an open invitation on my mentions of the Solemn Latin Mass this past Saturday, for anyone attending to give a report on how it went. The Mass was celebrated at St. Joseph's "Streetsville," Missisauga at 11am for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
One of the altar servers for this mass has graciously sent me a report of the Mass, to be placed here on this blog.
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Hi Julian, I'm one of the altar servers who assisted at the Mass of June 29th, 2013 at St. Joseph Parish in Streetsville (Mississauga). Here follows an anecdotal account of my own experience in assisting, noting that I'm not a parishioner of St. Joseph's and that I do not speak directly on its behalf.
I was contacted directly by St. Joseph's associate pastor, Fr. Kim D'Souza, about helping out for this Mass: to that end we held a practice for five altar boys from the parish on the preceding Wednesday, going over the ceremony in general and specifically their functioning as torchbearers and the roles of Acolyte/Thurifer for the fifth server (who served as Second Acolyte on Saturday). To my knowledge the Toronto Traditional Mass Society (TTMS) *may* have provided the high altar cards (though I would have to confirm such a detail for myself), but I gather that literally everything else (sacred music, vestments and vesture, instruments e.g. torches, thurible, candles, etc., etc.) came from within the Parish itself, alongside two sacred ministers and four altar boys recruited from other Archdiocesan parishes (recruited directly by the Parish) who generously donated their time and services for this occasion.
(And yes, this might mean the use of the term "to host" by the Toronto Catholic Witness blog was singularly incorrect - again, any desired clarification on this point ought to be sought directly from St. Joseph Parish and/or the TTMS, I think.)
The Mass itself went off without a hitch, from my perspective at least: the sacred music went very well, with a schola of around a dozen strong (expanded from four cantors in their previous Mass of Corpus Christi Thursday); the in-house sacristans were very generous with their time and expertise, and the parish has virtually everything on hand to confect future ceremonies handily; the Parish's altar boys did very well (even though the four torchbearers had no prior experience in the Traditional Latin Mass, they hit all their marks and served in a mature and dignified manner); the sermon was likewise worthy of the Feast, being preached by a priest of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Canada who was edified by the beauty of the Traditional Roman Liturgy, noting this in the sermon itself as well as in the sacristy after Mass.
So, it's onwards and upwards for St. Joseph Parish as it continues to autonomize its grounding in confecting the Traditional Roman Liturgy, and I for one look forward to the days when there will be as many Traditional Latin Masses being celebrated in the Archdiocese of Toronto as there are stars in the sky! Christe eleison.
Pax, Andrew R.
© 2013 Andrew Rivera. All Rights Reserved.
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So there is development going on at St. Joseph's in terms of a Latin Mass program. This could be quite interesting. Regardless this is a good contribution here on Servimus. Thank you for your report Andrew.
Pax, Julian.
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