Our Worship and the Celebration of the Sacraments
The worship of God is the highest priority of the Oratory of Ss. Gregory and Augustine. We strive to make our celebration of Holy Mass as dignified and reverent as our limited circumstances allow, in obedient fidelity to the 1962 Liturgical books. Although we are not at a point where we can have a fully sung solemn celebration of Holy Mass, we hope that day is not far off. In this our first year, we have been able to have High Mass followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on the great feasts of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. The 10:30 Sunday Mass always concludes with one of the Great Marian Antiphons, according to the season, sung with a filial love that makes up for its musical inadequacies.
Our custom at the Oratory is to celebrate the Dialogue Mass, in which the faithful make the responses together with the servers. In this way we seek to revive the aspirations of the mid-twentieth century Liturgical Movement as the Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council knew it. The Council taught that Holy Mass is "the source for achieving in the most effective way possible human sanctification and God’s glorification, the end to which all the Church’s other activities are directed", thus the "full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered above all else” We seek to foster this goal according to the mind of Holy Church and in particular the teaching of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, who has pointed out that liturgical participation in the sacred rites happens on many levels and should never be one-sidedly reduced either to complete passivity or to noisy activisim.
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
“the faithful assemble to draw that spirit from its primary
and indispensable source, that is, from active participation in the sacred
mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church.”
—- His Holiness, Pope Pius X, Tra le solicitudini, 1903