I journeyed to fair Albion to provide a lecture at Oxford University, sponsored by the Thomistic Institute at Blackfriars, around which accumulated other pleasant obligations, appointments and connections with old friends.
I packed my raincoat, not knowing that I would enjoy four perfect days of 60 degrees Fahrenheit weather (if you will permit me my American loyalty to old ways when it comes to units of measure).
The 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time found me at the London Oratory High Mass. I’m not a regular Latin Mass-goer and did not know what to expect, other than “a very fine liturgy”, as a knowledgeable friend informed me. I was taken aback by the excellence of the music and the accessibility of the Mass. One would think a Latin-challenged Philistine such as myself would feel like an outsider. Yet the use of the Novus Ordo means that a regular Mass-goer knows where he is in the liturgy, even if he doesn’t know the meaning of the words. The liturgical formality was dignified, not fussy, and the voices of the choir were angelic.
