Since returning to "in-person" church following the COVID lockdowns, I have been attending the traditional Latin mass, or TLM. The TLM has been in the news lately, for bad reasons and for good. The bad news has been the attacks on the TLM by Cardinal Culpich in the Archdiocese of Chicago and, more recently, by Cardinal Gregory in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C..
One bit of good news for the TLM came last week when news broke that actor Shia Labeouf had converted to Catholicism while making the movie Padre Pio. He discussed his conversion, and the "leading role" that the Latin mass had in it, in an interview with Bishop Barron. A rather interesting coincidence is that the news of Mr. Labeouf's conversion came on August 25th, the feast day of Saint Genesius of Rome. Saint Genesius was a Roman actor who was jokingly baptized during a performance mocking Christianity. After this, he began to profess the faith and was later martyred by beheading when he refused an order to deny the faith.
I had recently watched another moving conversion story about how UFC fighting champion Bas Rutten returned to the Catholic faith while making the movie Here Comes the Boom with actor Kevin James, a devout Catholic. I have seen Mr. Rutten at mass, and had the opportunity to meet him a few weeks back.
But, back to the topic at hand and an explanation of the image above. Yesterday, the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost, I attended mass and used my mother's old Sunday missal. Normally, I use this modern missal, which is based on the 1962 Typical Edition of the Missale Romanum:
My mother received her missal as a gift on June 23, 1952, according to an inscription inside the cover.
She continued to use this missal for years after that. Evidence of that use are the torn pages and ink marks made by yours truly:
Although it was a beautiful experience to pray the mass using the missal that my mother had used while I was an infant, I think I'll keep it at home to avoid damage. The pages are pretty delicate, and I don't want to damage any more as an adult than I did as a child.
If you read this far, I hope you found the story interesting. If you would like to know more about the TLM, I recommend watching The Mass of the Ages. The camera crew for part three of MOTA was at my church a couple of weeks ago. I was told they interviewed Bas Rutten. I can't wait for that video to drop...
