Communion in the hand?
Catholics in America are free to receive the Holy Eucharist in their hands, but the way Cardinal Bernardin forced this issue is disturbing.
Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”
A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He completed studies in Education and Musicology at the graduate level. Having worked as a church musician in Los Angeles for ten years, in 2024 he accepted a position as choirmaster for Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan, where he resides with his wife and children. —Read full biography (with photographs).

Catholics in America are free to receive the Holy Eucharist in their hands, but the way Cardinal Bernardin forced this issue is disturbing.

Extraordinary photographs of a 1949 Pontifical Mass for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in Japan.

“The scribes seldom knew Greek, so these renderings of Greek texts in Latin characters teem with mistakes of every kind.” — Dr. Peter Wagner

How would you like to have the United States army escort you to school each day?

“The scribes seldom knew Greek, and so these renderings of Greek texts in Latin characters teem with mistakes of every kind.” — Dr. Peter Wagner (1903)

“Where it can be done away with without too much difficulty on the part of the faithful, it should be abrogated.” — Pope Pius XI on “orchestral Masses” (private letter)

Who should start the “Glory to God” at Mass? Who should intone the Gloria? Ordinary Form.

The second half of an article about the most important book you’ve never seen.

Gone forever? “A portable Latin missal which contains everything said or read at Mass.”
Photograph of “Father Schmitt” of Boys Town taken during the 1950s.

Do you recall trying to memorize the “Confiteor” and the dreaded “Suscipiat” to serve at Mass?

“The altar versus populum is not a new idea brought in by the reforms of Paul VI. The Mass could always be celebrated with the priest facing the people, as indeed it was in Rome and in many other places for centuries. True, it was not the usual way, but it did exist.” — Monsignor Richard J. Schuler

“In the encyclical Mediator Dei, Pius XII regarded as ‘archeologists those who presumed to speak of the altar as a simple table.” — Newsletter of the Vatican Congregation of Divine Worship.

Ruth Slenczynska wasn’t right about everything … but she was right about this.
Imagine my astonishment to see the date assigned to us by the State of Texas back in 2006!
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