We were literally blessed to have a Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament after Mass at our chapel last Sunday. Benedictio is Latin for “blessing”. A lot has changed in the Church since Vatican 2 started in 1962, but there are still places where everything is beautifully and perfectly Catholic. A church here, a small chapel there. Resistance to reckless change is a virtue. (How sad that a reverent Mass is now something extraordinary! In fact, the modern Church even calls our Tridentine Mass the Extraordinary Form) We sang O Salutaris Hostia, Tantum Ergo, and many other traditional Catholic hymns in Latin. Everyone in the chapel was glad to have attended, and all were very grateful to Fr. Zendejas. I’m sure St. Anthony is also grateful that there is such a devout and faithful priest near the city named after him (San Antonio).
But here’s a thought — The blessed Patron of our city, San Antonio, if he came back to earth today, he would instantly recognize our Mass (1962 Missal) as a Mass of the Catholic Church, since the form is almost the same. But what would he think of the Novus Ordo? This Mass (Novus Ordo Missae) is more than just a new form of Mass; it suits a whole different religion. It is the Tridentine Mass stripped down to a bare skeleton, with new human elements inserted to flesh out its form. Thus we must keep up our resistance to the modern world and Vatican 2, even though both are embraced completely by the modern Church. Countless damage was done to the Church after the changes of Vatican 2 were implemented in the early 1970’s. By the Church’s direction, our arms were laid down, the white flag was raised, and our resistance to the evils of the modern world was dropped. Many Catholics stopped going to Mass (at least regular weekly Mass), vocations were abandoned or lost, and some Catholics stopped believing many dogmas of our Catholic Faith over the course of the next few decades.
Here is a video of the entire Benediction:
St. Dominic's Chapel - Traditional Latin Mass in San Antonio - Seguin, TX 