Some clergy are advised by the ORDO RECITANDI on their desks to say the third of their three All Souls Day Masses for "the Roman Pontiff's Intentions". As I understand it, and subject to correction, that Mass should be said according to the Intentions of Pope Benedict XV, "for the souls of all, especially youth, who fall victim to the appalling carnage of war."
Pope Benedict XV also linked in here "and to make up for testamentary masses neglected or forgotten".
Since we have most of November, the Month of the Departed, still before us, I take the liberty of deferentially suggesting to my reverend brethren in the Sacred Priesthood the good sense of that last Intention. In England, thousands of Masses endowed before 1559 are never said. I try to remember to say Masses for those who endowed Masses but whose endowments were, at the 'Reformation', annexed to either my own School, or my College, or my University, thus making me one of their beneficiaries; and also for some whom I got to know because I met them in my historical researches as I wandered around in the period 1490-1510 within the County of Devon.
Yes, Archdeacon Holyborton (I hope you enjoyed your pilgrimage to Jerusalem ... but I have to tell you that the splendid purple humeral veil you brought back for Exeter Cathedral did not survive the Tudors) ... Yes, Dame Thomasina (what a good idea it was to found that school, but I don't think the ad scalas Masses you endowed in Westminster Abbey are still being said) ... I mean you ... among so many others ...
And I sometimes say the Votive of the Five Wounds, which was so often endowed in medieval England instead of Requiems. A translation of the once immensely popular old Sarum texts for that Votive is to be found in the Ordinariate Missal.
Those texts are closely similar to the Tridentine Votive Humiliavit. Clergy without Ordinariate faculties could say that Mass.
5 comments:
Dear Father, It seems to me that from its inception the Ordinariate has been pushed into a corner by the provision allowing only Ordinariate clergy to perform its rites. If the Ordinariate is truly part of the Roman Church, then surely all Roman Catholic priests should be allowed to use its rites?
I have always understood the “intentions of the Pope” to refer to a document published by the Vatican giving an intention for each month of the coming year.
The one for 2021 is here:
https://www.popesprayer.va/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/INTENZIONI-DEL-PAPA-2021-ENG-DEF.pdf
As I understand it, it isn’t necessary to look up the document before praying but simply to pray “for the intention of the Pope” intending that to mean whatever is stated for the month in the document
>>In England, thousands of Masses endowed before 1559 are never said. I try to remember to say Masses for those who endowed Masses but whose endowments were, at the 'Reformation', annexed to either my own School, or my College, or my University, thus making me one of their beneficiaries<<
Bless you, a priest and gentleman!
Sadly it is not just pre-reformation endowed Masses that don’t get said. There are a number of side chapels in Westminster Cathedral with plaques proclaiming such endowments that I suspect are neglected or, for lack of priests, cannot be said.
I think this is pretty usual a prescription: the Carmelits f. i. are truly a part of the Roman Church, but their rites are exclusively for their own use.
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