Glorious sermon on the TLM by Archbishop Sample

Archbishop Alexander Sample has long been known as one of the most orthodox and tradition-friendly bishops in the United States.  Here he gives a sermon during a Pontifical High Mass offered as the crowning event of a 3-day conference on Gregorian Chant and the role of sacred music in the liturgy at a Brigittine Monastery in Oregon.

“Young people who experience this Liturgy are amazed.”  Indeed!  I was blown away repeatedly when I first experienced the TLM.  I still get goosebumps – and have even had a transport or two – when I assist at Mass, at least on occasion.  It is beyond doubt in my mind that the way forward for true liturgical reform is to re-adopt the TLM on a mass scale (heh), and, almost as importantly, to properly form souls in the true nature of the Mass as Holy Sacrifice and the highest form of worship it is humanly possible to offer to God.  The reductive tendency inherit in the Novus Ordo towards community aspects and the numerous overt protestant characteristics which have been incorporated into it are a liturgical – and pastoral – blind alley.

“You’re looking at this beautiful Liturgy tonight with all of its beauty, all of its solemnity, all of its precision, and even its pageantry……..how did we get to some of the abuses that we have experienced since the Second Vatican Council?”  Indeed……I think more and more liturgical experts, if they are orthodox and honest, are coming to understand that the Novus Ordo is inherently problematic, even disordered, to a degree that true liturgical reform must be based on the Mass of All Ages.

Archbishop Sample all but agrees with me @12:30-13:00, claiming that the TLM, esp. the Pontifical High Mass, with all its sublime, supernatural glory, should serve as the exemplar or touchstone for all future liturgical developments.  Deo Gratias!

Archbishop Sample’s enormous love for the traditional Mass shines brightly through this entire sermon.

A rather pointed comment about the paramount need to have love as Catholic Christians attached to the TLM.  That is an exceedingly valuable and powerful reminder of the basis for all Catholic life, which should be especially obvious among adherents to the Traditional Mass.  In all the mountains of scandal we are exposed to on a constant basis, it is easy to become jaded or cynical.  I have probably, far too many times, given witness to that sad propensity.  Of course, true charity doesn’t mean accepting the world’s sick and twisted understanding of same, nor does it imply that we gloss over hard truths.  But it’s a good Lenten reminder to me to never allow fervor for the Faith to become a mask for being uncharitable.

Pray for Archbishop Sample!  Let us have more bishops like him! And pray for the restoration of the glorious order of the Brigittines, there is a brand-new Brigittine monastery in Tyler which could really use your support.  The Brigittines were once a very large order, but it was severely wounded by the protestant revolution against the Church.

I will pray for Fr. Charles Vreeland, noted by Archbishop Sample at the beginning of the sermon.

Thanks to reader TC for the link.