Sunday 22 February 2009

Mariawald moves to Traditional Latin Mass

A reader of What Does the Prayer Really Say? reports:-

You might be interested in the fact that, starting next Monday, the Trappist abbey of Mariawald, Germany, will begin the transition to the usus antiquor. As can be seen here, daily Holy Mass in the "Tridentine Rite" is being announced. I do not know if this includes the Hours, too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is fantastic news.
In that the Trappist Order has universally discarded not only Catholic Mass in the form of the Tridentine Latin Mass, but also the Trappist Cistercian traditions and liturgical observances, disiplines and other elements distinctly Trappist (silence, Cistercian sign language, etc.), this is an awesome achievement in the right direction not only back to the True Mass, but also monastic disiplines which have been totally discarded.
Beginning in 1970, the Trappist Order went from being one of the strictest and most flourishing comtemplative/cloistered Orders for men in the Church ( and there are basically only three for men in the Church....This includes only SOME Benedictine abbies, the entire Carthusian Order, MOST Cistercian abbies, the entire Trappist Order, and the extremely small(and dying out) Camaldolese Order.) to a community of extreme liturgical radicals, dissenters and experimentors. The entire tradition of the Church was discarded in most Trappist monasteries, replaced with the updated Novus Ordo (of course), as well as ecumenical services and inter-religious traditions which included SOME Trappist abbies of introducing Hindu and Buddhist religious symbols and traditions into the daily life of the monastery...in addition to Catholic.
St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, MA, and Gethsemani Abbey in Ky, USA, not to mention monasteries in France, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, and other places are famous for bizarre and heterodox liturgies and lifestyle.
As a result, the number of Trappists has declined from close to 5,100 during Vatican II, to less than 2,000 today with a median age of 75. The majority of the 90+ Trappist abbies have less than 25 monks, mostly all over 70...whereas fifty years ago, most houses had a population of anywhere between 40-80 monks, with some such as Gethsemani and others in Europe having as many as 200+ monks, and 35-40 novices.
Bernardo Olivera, a Spaniard who was Abbot General from 1991-2008 was a radical liturgical and theological dissident who did much to destroy the Trappist Order. He was replaced by an Irishman in his late 60's who was abbot of a monastery in Ireland composed of aged monks, and nearly empty.
When Mariawald made the wise decision to return to Catholic tradition, this new Abbot General wrote a letter of protest to the Vatican. But he was overturned/ignored. Thank God.

Let us all pray for the Trappists at Mariawald, and for the great flowering of the Catholic Faith and belief, and a restoration of monastic observance, tradition, and vocations that will surely come to the great foundation.
Within a few years, there might be a 2nd Trappist foundation in Germany, following the courageous example of Mariawald.

Anonymous said...

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna
Good lent from Santander, Spain

P. Alkuin said...

http://cistercium.blogspot.com/ also commented on the news from Mariawald.

Unknown said...

i'm a postuLant supposed to be here in Trappist phiLippines abbey. But since of my age is 23 & they accept 25 yrs old. they accepted me. But deep within is a struggle of not finding what i really wanted though the life is ok. But after attending my first Tridentine. much has changed since then. Yes, i was once a member of a former traditional institute who told to try entering a contemplative order. so, i did. but after having been expose much to tradition & love for the true reverence in the liturgy i felt so much torture thinking how fortunate are they who enter a community who observed the charism of their order & at the same time use tridentine rite. though, my love for Novus Ordo will never wane. But there is so much abuses. My experience in the former community who uses Latin Novus Ordo made me see how much is lacking though it's vaLid but the sense of holy is there. how much more is the Tridentine rite. wow! i said to myself something truly is there like your attending calvary itself for real. i don't know i can relate to this to people who has experienced it. perhaps have a mystical experienced? i'm not saying i'm a mystic but the sense of being heavenly carried away by such a mystery i hope until death daily i can again attend. By the way, my name is Bro. Blain Alondres i'm from the philippines. Pax!