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Traditional Palm Sunday at St. Stephen Church, Chattanooga, April 4th, 2004
St Stephen's

 Palm Sunday at St. Stephen Church saw the first Solemn High Mass of the Tridentine Latin rite celebrated in the Diocese of Knoxville in recent decades.
 
Fr. Demets imposes the incense.

A half hour before the start of the Mass scheduled for 5 pm, Fr. Laurent Demets — visiting from St. Francis de Sales Church in Atlanta and attended by two deacons  and six altar boys who had accompanied him — blessed the palms with ancient ceremony as both incense and Latin chant filled the narthex of the church.

 
Processing around the church led by Fr McGinnity, Pastor. Next is Fr Fromageot, followed by Fr Demets, (in red cope). On his right is Rev. Mr. Rigoberto Santiago, Permanent Deacon

After each congregant had knelt individually to kiss and receive his or her own palm, Fr. P. J. McGinnity, pastor of St. Stephen, led a procession out of the church to encircle it entirely before returning. The front doors of the church were opened for re-entrance upon being struck with the foot of the processional cross.
 
 

 
 Re entering the church

After processing to the altar area wearing cope and white albs, the priest celebrant and deacons paused in view of the congregation to don the distinctive Roman style vestments that many older Catholics remember from pre-Vatican II days. The opening prayers of the Mass itself began with the three ministers standing before the tabernacle, which was centered on the altar itself for this special Mass.
 
The celebrant and deacons listen to Fr. Fromageot's sermon.
All Catholics associate Palm Sunday with a lengthy reading of the Passion. But on this occasion the singing of the Passion of St. Matthew in elaborate Gregorian chant by priest and deacons took 39 minutes(!), with many of the congregants following the English translation in their own missals. Fr. Robert Fromageot, pastor of St. Francis de Sales, began his ensuing homily with the remark that those present surely would agree that he could, just this once, omit the proclamation of the Gospel in the vernacular.
 
The St Stephen's Choir 

Following the sermon, the congregation joined the St. Stephen choir in singing the Creed in Latin. During the remainder of the Mass, the ministers and congregation all faced the altar, all symbolically looking Eastward toward the direction from which ancient tradition says we anticipate the second coming of Christ
 
The celebrant and deacons during the Creed
 

 
Rev. Mr. Anderson (left), Fr. Demets, Rev. Mr. Santiago
 

 
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 The Sacred Host is incensed as it is elevated following the consecration.

Throughout the Mass, incense hung in the air and altar bells were frequently heard as the priest and deacons and altar boys often appeared to move as though choreographed. Of many transcendant moments, perhaps the most memorable was the elevation following the consecration, when the sacred host was incensed as the celebrant held it high aloft while deacons, altar boys, and people knelt in adoration.
 
"Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world." 
 

 

The Final Bessing

"Bendicus vos omnipotens Deus, Pater et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus"

May almighty God, the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. bless you.
 
At 7 pm, after almost two and a half hours of glittering ceremony and solemn worship in prayer and sacrifice — about twice the length of the typical sung Latin Mass — all present knelt for the celebrant's final blessing.
 

The altar with tabernacle prepared for traditional Latin Mass (The tabernacle at right is open and empty)
 
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