The Twelve Baskets Of Leftovers

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The twelve baskets of leftovers after the feeding of the five thousand can be thought of as illustrating the abundance of good things that God freely offers to us, not least the Liturgy. And the Liturgy isn't just the Mass: it is the other six sacraments and the Divine Office as well. And the Mass isn't just the New Mass we've have known since 1973, but is also the 1962 Missal of Bl John XXIII. Thus the start of a sermon this morning by a priest who has spent the last week in Merton and is on fire with what he has discovered.

Whatever the fruits that the Church in England and Wales will enjoy, and which arise from the training sessions organised by the LMS at Merton College this year and last, we owe a tremendous debt is to those few heroes who understood what the Pope intended and worked out how to implement it. As Moretben wrote in my combox:

"It's mainstream, even establishment people like Fr Finigan who are the real radicals - who are prepared to go fearlessly to the roots of the crisis, unconstrained by a monocular, dualistic obsession with Modernism."

So as I heard the announcement of the return of the Extraordinary Form to a parish, to complement and enrich normal parish worship, I gave thanks for all those who have laboured to make it so, and who are seeing the fruits of their labour being gathered without great rancour, without great argument, without great fuss.

And I'll repeat them here.

Thank you.