EWTN to Air Traditional Latin Mass for Advent

2007-11-12

Irondale, AL (EWTN) - EWTN Global Catholic Network will air a Solemn High Tridentine Mass, live from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama on Saturday, December 15, at 8 AM ET .

Known as the Rorate Mass, the liturgy will be celebrated by clergy of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP). The Rorate Mass, so called because it begins with the words, “Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant iustum…” (“Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down upon the Just One…”), is a votive Mass offered within the season of Advent in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Celebrated by candlelight and traditionally held before dawn, this beautiful liturgy is esteemed particularly as part of the patrimony of the German-speaking peoples.

Very Rev. Fr. John Berg, FSSP, the Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity, will travel from the community’s headquarters in Switzerland and will serve both as the celebrant and preacher. Priests and seminarians from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, the FSSP’s international seminary in North America, will also travel to Alabama to assist.

Pilgrim groups are invited to attend this public Mass, to be offered in the extraordinary form, and should visit the Shrine’s webpage (www.olamshrine.com) for information on accommodation options.

About EWTN Global Catholic Network

Founded by Mother Angelica, a Poor Clare nun, the Eternal Word Television Network is available in more than 140 million television households in 144 countries and territories. With its worldwide short-wave radio station, its direct broadcast satellite service, AM & FM radio network, website (www.ewtn.com) and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.

About the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP)

Established in 1988 by Pope John Paul II, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is an international society of Catholic priests entrusted with the administration of the Catholic Church's ancient Latin liturgical traditions, trains priests in the extraordinary form of the Latin Roman Rite, and has over 120 seminarians preparing for the priesthood in the Fraternity’s two seminaries in Bavaria, Germany and Denton, Nebraska.