Asking Whom does the Grail Serve.

It's nearly closing time on Saturday and I am looking forward to tomorrow.  Once a month I go down to the cellars and sweep and mop  the floor that leads to the door behind which the Holy Grail sits in its  Sanctum.

Then I go to Mass.

I go to a small Church in the village below the mountain from upon which the Tavern gets its magnificent view of the world. And there they 'do' a Latin Mass.

It is an almost renegade act on the part of a small group of 'old' Catholics. Old as in Traditional. It is a wonderful family occasion with many children, babies, young 'marrieds' and older folk too. It is renegade in that just as in most Parishes around our civilised western world, the PTB in the Church hierarchy do not like the Latin Mass. It reminds them too much of God and detracts from what really interests them: Zozchial Justiz, careers, budgets with which they can buy favour with the Lefty heretics that run pissant Governments. Sometimes one gets the impression, at 'local' level, that the Protestants won.

Modernism' post-Vatican 2, has taken much of the Majesty from Catholicism.

But this small Church is a haven of sanctity. It was part of a Nunnery that is now a residential place for older people. A 'Retirement' village.

Father Gerald, who is the Priest leading this small, tranquil congregation, is an old gentleman. He also works tirelessly leading Prayer for Mothers and babies in many Churches around, and not confined to Catholics. This Holy man prays for the tide of abortion to abate.

 A very small choir of staunch chaps and lovely ladies sings. In Latin.

No guitars !! No Bob Dylan wannabees.

This is a time of Worship, not entertainment.  It is not provided to 'draw in Yoof'. It is not trying to be 'relevant' nor 'inclusive' nor 'diverse'.

For 2000 years Many have been called, all over the world. The Mass is inclusive already.

They have little in the way of Grandeur about them. It is not as though we run to an orchestra and a hundred voices and we don't quite get up to the standard of Mozart's Requiem nor Karajan conducting it.

But here, in the Tavern Music room we can do something like that for you as a 'warm up' to the main event. So sit back and listen to a section. If you wish to. Just a small part. I will put the Full Monte at the end.

*A small note of alarm, however. This section is conducted by a very strange young man leaping about, and the audience appears to subscribe more to the 'New Religion' of 'Progressive Euro-Bureaucrat-Kommissars' than to the Body of Christ. The EU seems to have put this on. They seem to take over all in their path, the Catholic Church included.

One wonders why the massed ranks of atheists, Darwinites, Dawkinites - who one suspects are seated in the plastic chairs, - even Calvinists and Lutherans and assorted other Protestants who have not managed to have been inspired to produce so much beauty and adortation.

There are many people who have never asked the most fundamental of all questions -

'Whom Does The Grail Serve?'.

Latin is quiet. It has a melodie to it. Mind you, some of the intonation can do with work but most Priests who are still familiar (not many) with the 'sung' Mass are not choristers.

But. To get along. Here is a Full Sung Latin Mass for all those who miss it or have not heard it.

Now, just as a way of explanation for those of you who are not Catholic or not familiar with the Mass, here below is a rather detailed 'Training' explanation that is provided to Novice Priests. I will quite understand if some of you want to take a pint out onto the Patio instead of watching it.

Now, as Promised. Karajan. Follow the sections of the Mass with the timings below.

 

 

wolfgang amadeus mozart
requiem in d minor, k 626
herbert von karajan
wiener philharmoniker
wiener singverein
1986
anna tomowa sintow
helga muller molinari
vinson cole
paata burchuladze

2:05 I. Introitus
7:34 II. Kyrie
III. Sequentia
10:16 1. Dies irae
12:09 2. Tuba mirum
16:01 3. Rex tremendae
18:22 4. Recordare
23:32 5. Confutatis
25:54 6. Lacrimosa
IV. Offertorium
29:29 1. Domine Jesu
33:22 2. Hostias
38:00 V. Sanctus
39:50 VI. Benedictus
45:30 VII. Agnus Dei
49:13 VIII. Communio

Come along Time. Fly.

I just might have a nightcap.