Latin Mass at St Joseph's
Cum beáto Joseph ad Missam Latinam s College (Latin Mass at St Joseph’s College)
For secondary school students born prior to the year 2000, there’s a fair chance that they’d never have heard of a Latin Mass before. This was the case recently at St Joseph’s College, Echuca, when Year 10 students studying a unit on the ‘Church Through Time’ celebrated Mass pre-Vatican II style.
Leading up to the celebration of the Mass, students were fortunate enough to hear from Father Ashley Caldow of the neighbouring Rochester Parish, who came into the school to speak about the history of the Catholic Church. Topics covered in the session focused on the Jewish influence on church traditions, vestments worn by the priest, as well as an indication to the students of what to expect when the Latin Mass was celebrated the following Friday. Students engaged thoroughly with the content being covered in the session, with one student commenting afterwards “ It was good how Fr Caldow was able to relate with our age group.”
The St Joseph’s College Chapel was the perfect location for Latin Mass to be celebrated on the Friday, with the original high marble altar being decorated with a majestic display of altar cloths, flowers and brass candle sticks. Accompanying Fr Ashley in the celebration of the Latin Mass was a soloist reciting prayers and chants in Latin, as well as several altar servers. Students immediately noticed the differences between the pre- and post-Vatican II rites of the Mass.
Some of the student reflections included:
“It was interesting how the priest faces the other way the whole time of the mass and there wasn’t much interaction between the congregation and the priest”
“It was a positive to see a new style of mass”
“I got to experience something that I haven’t before and learnt new things”
“The incense was really different to what I am used to”
“The Latin Mass opened my eyes to a new format of Mass and a new experience.”
In hosting the Latin Mass at school, members of the Rochester parish were also invited to attend, with several families and retired couples joining students in celebrating the Eucharist. Assistant to the Principal, Kirrilee Westblade, said after the Mass, that hosting it at school was a great way for the school community to connect with the parishes that our students live in and belong to.
Hosting the Latin Mass was just one experience for the Year 10 students in their ‘Church Through Time’ unit. Other aspects that the unit covered were how Catholicism made its way to Australia, as well as our Brigidine heritage and that of similar church organisations in Australia.
It is hoped that the inaugural Latin Mass for Year 10 students might become part of the curriculum next year for another group of students to experience as a way of deepening our students’ connections to the long and rich traditions of our Catholic heritage.
Matthew Scott
Teacher
St Joseph’s College