The Church's Latin Mass as the 'vast river of Tradition'

A “new generation of children of the Church” are indeed nourished by “the vast river of Tradition” which is the traditional Mass.

(PerMariam) — “It is an impressive sight to see and be part of a crowd that learns and wants to unite its sacrifice to the incomparable sacrifice of Christ on the Cross that is perpetuated in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar.” Such were the thoughts of Monsignor Marco Agostini, papal ceremoniare and official in the Secretariat of State, following the fourth annual walking pilgrimage of Our Lady of Christendom in Spain.

The pilgrimage draws hundreds of devotees of the traditional Mass to walk nearly 100km in three days, and is one of many such walking pilgrimages about which insightful and moving passages have previously been written in these pages and those of the Mass of Ages magazine. {This article was originally published in the Winter 2025 edition of the Gregorius Magnus magazine - available here}

Mgr. Agostini. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=542086688144400&set=pb.100070292198091.-2207520000

But Mgr. Agostini’s reflection is not just a commentary on the pilgrimage itself. Rather he points at something so fundamental to the current growth of attendance at the traditional Mass: he highlights the desire of faithful Catholics to join Christ in His sacrifice and to render to God the most perfect act of adoration of which they are able. Remarking on the sight of many tired, yet happy pilgrims, Mgr. Agostini opined that it was a spectacle “that would not leave even the most sophisticated detractors indifferent if they had been there.”

“I saw tears flow through the fresh, though tired, faces of these young people as they received the Holy Eucharist on their knees and with their hands together,” he lauded. Tears of joy of having completed an arduous pilgrimage, but also tears of joy at being able to worship God in the manner afforded by the traditional liturgy.

“The ‘true bread’ of the pilgrims was the ‘Bread of the Angels’ received at the solemn and ancient Masses that marked the days of pilgrimage of this new generation of children of the Church,” he noted. “These sons replenished their strength by drinking, just as the three hundred of Gideon (Judges 7,1-8), in the vast river of Tradition.”

There are many scholarly treatises expounding the immense qualities of the ancient rite. Some attendees of the old Mass are indeed ‘won over’ by these arguments alone, or after having studied the great theological and spiritual riches offered through the traditional Mass and concluding that it is an especially lofty manner of giving worship to God. Such ‘converts’ to the traditional Mass (for lack of a better term) could be described as having taken the academic route of discovery.

But often the most compelling and beautiful argument in favor of those same qualities of the old Mass is the first-hand experience of the Mass itself, as testified to by the statements of those who discover it and come to love it simply through their encounters with God in the ancient rite. These same souls are those who find in the rites and prayers of the traditional Mass the safe home where they can – in the words of Mgr. Agostini – unite their sacrifice to the “incomparable sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.”

One such example is found in Father Gerard Quirke, who was ordained as a diocesan priest in Ireland, yet discovered the traditional Mass only after his ordination – a discovery which led to his eventual entering of the FSSP. Recounting his introduction to the traditional Mass he recalled not fully knowing what was happening at first, but simply “focusing on the priest at the moment of consecration, and just wanting to hold onto his chasuble. Because I knew that he was going to Heaven and that he was bringing us all with us.”

“I remember just being struck by the truth of it, by the pathos that was there,” he told this correspondent. Fr. Quirke described his encounter with the traditional Mass as revealing to him “the truth of my priesthood” and of providing him with fruitful ground for his priestly ministry.

Indeed, the beauties and mysteries of the traditional Mass provide this fertile soul. With the Mass being the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary it is naturally the focal point of the spiritual life for all Catholics, but especially so for priests, who – as the alter Christus – offer the sacrifice, making Christ manifest upon the altar and being the physical medium whereby Catholics receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the form of the Sacred Host.

It is this natural yet compelling draw of the traditional Mass, and the desire to unite oneself with the sacrifice of Calvary, that sees the continued flourishing of traditional orders, with old rite seminaries having to implement waiting lists and receiving five times as many applicants as there are places. The priestly life, a life of uniting oneself to Christ and bringing His Truth to souls, takes on a special meaning when nourished by the fruitful ground and the “vast river of Tradition” which is found in the old Mass.

Souls are drawn to the life-giving river of Tradition “because of the silence they encounter, because of the beauty, some talk about the reverent gestures toward the blessed Sacrament,” Father Lawrence Lew O.P. told me. “Those who first stumble across it then they realize there is something very beautiful, something which helps them to contemplate God better.”

Contemplation is aided by silence, and it is often the silence of the old rite which is the most immediately striking and compelling factor calling souls to drink at the river of Tradition. “Silence speaks very eloquently of the coming of God, of the Word made flesh in our world, and at that point we become worthless, we can say nothing, because we give way to God’s Incarnate Word who is speaking to us on the altar,” he remarked.

EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Burke on Latin Mass ‘persecution’ & need for ‘profound reform’ in Church

As Raymond Cardinal Burke noted in 2022 “I know so many lay faithful and also priests who have told me that being able to assist at the Holy Mass according to the usus antiquior has so helped them to deepen their understanding and their appreciation and their participation in the Holy Mass.”

The cardinal’s comment denotes the international nature of the phenomena which Mgr. Agostini highlighted at the local level: namely, that in a manner concordant with Scripture, the “new generation of children of the Church” are indeed nourished by “the vast river of Tradition” which is the traditional Mass.

{This article was originally published in the Winter 2025 edition of the Gregorius Magnus magazine - available here}