I apologize, dear readers, for the brevity of this article, and I ask you to pray for me and my family as we attempt to move across the country to settle in a Traditional Latin Mass parish.

Prior to our family vacation last month, it had been quite some time since last I was exposed to the Novus Ordo (or Missal of Paul VI or Ordinary Form – I consider all three titles to be equally and sufficiently derogatory). Having banished it completely from my mind for so long and avoiding (as much as possible) the steady stream of shrill, outraged articles/blogposts/conversations about the latest abuse at the local NO Mass (most written by people who really shouldn't be scandalized by this kind of consistent inanity anymore), my opinion of it had perhaps softened somewhat. This is probably due, no doubt, to my Indultery (as my S.S.P.X friends would say), but that is neither here nor there. The point is that I was taken somewhat by surprise.

Though unprepared for the utter banality and lack of piety/respect/clothing, I wasn't shocked by the whole affair (I grew up in this... um... milieux), but it was still rather depressing. It is never easier to understand the motives of the sede-vacantists than when confronted by the stark acatholicism of the New Mass. I could say more, but the excellent Professor Blosser has already summed it up much better and more charitably than I could hope to (http://pblosser.blogspot.com/2008/08/summer-travels-liturgical-thoughts.html).

So why was I at the new Mass? We were visiting my parents, who currently live in Bozeman, Montana. Living about 2,000 miles away and having small children (the only grandchildren thus far), we try to visit the grandparents at least once a year. There is no TLM for hundreds of miles. The closest TLM is 4 hours away on First Sundays only, and it's new for this year (the local Bishop's “generous” response to Summorum Pontificum). Still, why not just pass? Why not just say, “well, it's not my fault there's no TLM here...” like we had, in fact, done in the past?

Our Chaplain in Pittsburgh has a very good sermon that he trots out every year - either around summer vacation season or deer hunting season. It has convinced my wife and I, and I encourage Trads of all stripes to at least give it some thought. The essence of his argument is this (broadly paraphrased and extremely condensed):

I'm not going to argue with people who don't think they can go to the Novus Ordo to fulfill their Sunday obligation. If you believe that, however, then you must treat areas with no Traditional Latin Mass just as you would areas with no Mass at all. You cannot voluntarily choose to go to a place where you cannot satisfy your Sunday obligation. If you plan to travel to such areas, you must also plan to go somewhere else, somewhere with a TLM, on every Sunday of your trip. Willingly planning to miss Holy Mass is a mortal sin, and always has been. So either alter your travel plans to include trips to the nearest TLM, wherever that might be, or do not go. And if you come to the Confessional to confess that you willingly missed Holy Mass, and at the same time, you know in your heart that you are planning to do it again for next year's summer vacation/deer hunting season/etc., then you will have made a bad confession and compounded your sin.

So there you go. We were unwilling to not visit my parents, even though we would be unable to get to a Traditional Latin Mass on two of the Sundays of the visit (though we did manage while traveling to hear the First Friday Mass at the excellent F.S.S.P. Apostolate in Rapid City, South Dakota). Because it was our own free choice to go to a place where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was only offered in the oh-so-Ordinary Form, we felt, well, obligated to go to the Novus Ordo on those Sundays.

I'm not saying this is the only answer to this problem, though I do think that it is squarely in line with tradition. Again, I urge my fellow Trads to at least consider this position, and talk to your confessor about it. And if you find yourself, like we did, as the only people kneeling for the Consecration in a funky-looking Church with no kneelers, you can at least console yourself with the thought that, were you not there, no one would be there kneeling before our Blessed Lord.

Nicholas Trandem for Volume I., Issue 7