The Pope!

I know this is old news, but it's news that bears repeating and it's just big enough news to not ignore. On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (New Calender) the Pope celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel ad orientem. This is definitely a step in the right direction and a pretty big step at that. (Although, I would argue that when he rearranged the altar at St. Peters that he began celebrating Mass ad orientem a month ago!) Now, I'm just hoping to see the Traditional Mass used by the Pope. Well, I guess I'll keep praying.

A Cool Picture

I was just working at Holy Family this morning and found a great picture from a book on the Holy Family. I have seen pictures of the Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart but I've never seen all of the Holy Family depicted with St. Joseph's Chaste Heart. Either way, I thought it to be very cool.

House of Ephesus

All of your priest out there who need new vestments need to check out the Benedictine Nuns in Kansas City, Missouri. Their main income for their traditional monastary is from making and selling some absolutely stunning vestments. Their store is called The House of Ephesus, and everyone should check it out. The picture here is but a small taste of what these nuns can do.

In the Footsteps of Mary

For all of the ladies who read my blog, I know that I promised to do this a while ago, but I finally added it. Please feel free to check out the list for women religious over in the new section on my blog "In the Footsteps of Mary." If any of you have any suggestions as to anything that can be added to that list, please let me know.

From the Sacristy

I figured since my last post that I would do a couple of entries on the various vestments here at Holy Family. This post is on one of my favorite vestments here. This is our Roman set of Marian vestments. The center embroidery on this vestment is actually quite old. It was taken off of it's original vestment and sent to the Benedictine nuns in Kansas City to be placed on one of their new vestments. The results are stunning!The really amazing thing about this vestment is the detail in the embroidery. Even as old as this centerpiece is on this vestment, which is over 100 years if I remember correctly, it retains a tremendous amount of detail. I know that the Benedictines in Kansas City are building skills to embroider like this, but I don't know if they've reached this point quite yet. This is really a case of "they don't build them like they used to."

Cleaning Out the Closet

I spent all afternoon yesterday organizing the sacristy in the church and found some wonderful supprises. I found out that Holy Family has sets for Solemn High Masses in all liturgical colors except for silver. The best find, in my opinion, was this Solemn High rose vestment set that included everything (Cope, Chasuble, Dalmatic, Tunicle, Humeral Veil, Chalice Veil, Burse, Tabernacle Veil, Priest Stole, Deacon Stole) except for rose maniples. Check it out!

Monks at Clear Creek OK

I just saw some of these pictures over at the NLM blog and thought I would share them here as well. If you haven't heard of the Benedictine monks at Clear Creek, Oklahoma, then you need to check them out. They are traditional monks who live out the rule of St. Benedict to a "t." They have been working on their monastary for some time now and it appears that they have made some major progress. It's my hope now that they begin to use the Missal of John XXIII to match their new monastary.