Sacred Heart
Traditional Catholic Church Lawrence, MA: the Traditional Catholic
Mass Unchanged — in Latin
321 South Broadway
Lawrence MA 01843
(Dominican Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters, O.P. — Ordo
Praedicatorum)
978-686-7921
The Traditional Holy Sacrifice
of the
Mass —
in Latin only—
is offered at Sacred Heart Traditional
Catholic Church daily,
weekends and Sunday (High Mass) 10 AM,
and at 9AM
on weekdays and Saturdays.
(Click on any image to expand it)
“We promote separation from the world,
simply because if we live by the world we will lose our souls to the
world.”
I was struck by this statement. There was
no guile in it, no equivocation — It was another way of saying,
“For
what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer
the loss of his soul?”
(Saint Mark 8.36)
Just twenty minutes north of the junction of I-93
and I-95 (128) you will encounter at Sacred Heart what you
have found to be painfully absent virtually throughout the
archdiocese of Boston since Vatican II: SANCTITY.
The
distinctive white tunic, or habit, and black scapular of the
Dominicans are the first intimation that things at Sacred Heart are
different from most parishes — and distinctly different from
Novus Ordo parishes — the more one enters into the Church. Holy
statuary, beautifully crafted, abounds. There is a Communion
Rail! An Altar
of marble (an Altar of
Sacrifice!) majestically ascends to the Sanctuary — in place of the
dreary wooden “table of
the Lord” that became the pseudo-Catholic equivalent of Protestant
disdain for the Sacraments ... and most especially “the Holy
Eucharist as really and truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Only at an
Altar does a real
Sacrifice occur — not at a
Protestantized “table of the
Lord” where edible “things” are shared and eaten as becoming any meal: the bread is
simply bread ... nothing more. The wine is just that: wine ... nothing
more. A “commemoration” takes place — but not a sacrifice! Christ is
no more in the bread and wine than He is in the table and the pews.
The Real Presence becomes a blasphemous Absence.
Alchemy?
The
alchemy of Ecumenism can only change so much — and not merely
in the way of appearances. It can replace Stained Glass — the
art-work of centuries that made them inimitable and emblematic of
our holy Catholic Faith. Real stained glass! Not the geometrically
plasticized imposter that became prevalent with arbitrary lines and
angles of pale, incongruous colors filling newly minted Bauhaus church
buildings — and which made them even more strikingly
Protestant in appearance. It was Modern Art — and every bit as trite
and ugly. It was essentially matter without distinguishable
form — anything and nothing.
But
beyond appearances, realities stubbornly remained — until the
realities themselves were finally repudiated — not in
the Name of Christ —
but in the name of the heresy of Ecumenism: the
imperative was no longer to bring the world to Christ, but to
accommodate a counterfeit
“christ”
to a dissolute world. The χριστός — “the anointed one” — was no
longer the Person Christ called Jesus of Nazareth, but the
fabricated notion of Ecumenism — a dialectic of contradictory
and irreconcilable religions anointed by the
world through the specious
distortions of Vatican II.
But I digress. The most striking surprise
encountered at the Sacred Heart Traditional Catholic Chapel in
Lawrence — is the people. They are
meticulously attired. They have dressed to meet the King of Kings.
Children no less than adults, the young no less than the old.
Mantillas (elegant lacey head coverings) adorn little girls and
matrons alike; the young women are modest — beautifully so.
Men and
women must observe a very strict dress code. Remember
“Sunday Best”?
Men and young boys suit up. Women are
encouraged to holy modesty: no hemlines above knee,
no bare shoulders, no plunging necklines,
no dresses with slits beyond the knee, head-covering
required (mantillas are provided if needed).
And it is quiet! No discussions are
taking place. People are praying, and other people are respectful of
the silence that seems to waft to Heaven itself on pale incense
borne by unseen Angels — to the Throne of God.
Would you
really meet the President of the
United States or the Queen of England in
your gym clothes or a hoodie if you knew
that you were going to meet them?
Absolutely not! But alas, for sorrow, we accord Jesus Christ Himself
less respect than we lavish upon petty political functionaries and
figures who only covet our votes and otherwise care nothing for us.
We have become accustomed to such an absence of respect for our Lord
in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar that we have utterly
forgotten where we are and in
Whose Presence we stand.
Indeed, to Whom we come!
You
go to meet the King of Kings — Christ Himself!
Sacred Heart Church has kept the Faith, the Tradition, the
infallible Teachings, and the Sacred Magisterium that the Second
Vatican Council repudiated. Sacred Heart does not recognize Vatican II
and has kept the Mass as it had been prayed
by Holy Mother Church for over 2000 years.
From the junction of I-93 and 95 (Rt. 128)
it is a twenty minute drive north.
Go!
You will be welcomed — and you will be humbled by the majesty of
the Sacred — something long
forgotten and now deeply disdained.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
November 3, 2019
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