
From a testimony of Sister Mary Wilhelmina Lancaster, the Sister who founded a new Religious Order, to save Catholic Tradition and defend “the Holy Mass in Latin”.
Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster writes:
«I have finally opened my eyes!
I am determined to return to the Traditional Latin Mass so that I can pray to God without distractions.
In times past, before the Novus Ordo, my eyes were always wide open, focused on observing the mysterious and fascinating actions of the Priest on the Holy Altar.
With the Novus Ordo, on the other hand, I find myself sometimes forced to close my eyes, so as not to see what the Celebrant is doing.
My neighbor once seemed as focused on the Altar as I am; now he seems more interested in something else, distracted by those around him.
I have never tolerated the handshakes, hugs and even kisses that take place just before Holy Communion, which distract from the “sacredness of the moment”.
For justice, charity and respect, there should be, in all Masses of the Novus Ordo, an area reserved for those who do not wish to exchange greetings and embraces during the Eucharistic Celebration.
Those who want to kiss and embrace their neighbors should stay out of it, without disturbing the others, in a moment of maximum concentration to go and receive Our Lord.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always been an advocate of active participation in Holy Mass.
For years, before Vatican II, I did my best to promote the “Recited Mass”, but I also always appreciated the fact that the Holy Mass is a public and liturgical prayer, different from private and personal prayer.
In private prayer, at any time, any personal word, book, or posture may be used, for there are no rules, much less specific headings.
In the Holy Mass, however, everything is prescribed, because the Liturgy is the Prayer not only of the local Community, but of the entire Holy Church, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman, of the entire Mystical Body of Christ.
That is why, for the Liturgy, the question of “approved texts” is fundamental.
The liturgical norms allow and even encourage the Priest to vary, in the context of the Holy Mass, the words of the greetings, to give explanations at certain moments, with Warnings and more, sometimes personalizing the whole, even if the content of the Prayers, the Readings and, above all, the Eucharistic Prayers must be only that of the approved Texts.
Frankly, I’m tired and sorry for all the improvisations that happen in the Holy Mass today.
In my opinion, the worst confusion since the promulgation of the Novus Ordo has resulted precisely from this personalization, or replacement of personal prayer in the Liturgy, which has literally alienated some people from the Assembly.
Now, as if that were not enough, there is a campaign underway to change the existing “English translations” of both the Novus Ordo Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, reportedly “to make them more inclusive of women”.
What nonsense!
Who does not have enough understanding of our language, to understand that women have always been included in different terms, in the essence of their “humanity”, which should not correct the tasks of the third grade, let alone the “language of the Liturgy”.
That’s enough! Enough of these improvised musicians, these illiterate reviewers, these tireless reformers, these “liturgical lobbyists”, who treat the Holy Mass as if it were their “personal instrument of propaganda”.
Finally, I return to the tried and true, the fixed and immutable: the Traditional Latin Holy Mass.»
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Short Bio of Sister Mary Wilhelmina Lancaster
Sister Mary Wilhelmina is known for her devotion and love of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Mary Wilhelmina Lancaster, (born Elisabeth Lancaster, later taking the religious name Mary Wilhelmina of the Most Holy Rosary; April 13, 1924 – May 29, 2019), was a nun from rural Missouri who founded the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.
Her remains were discovered as incorrupt in May 2023. She was previously a member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
Mary Wilhelmina was born Mary Elizabeth Lancaster on April 13, 1924 in St. Louis, Missouri. She joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a congregation of black religious sisters in Baltimore, Maryland, when she was 17 years old and adopted the name Wilhelmina. After joining the congregation, Sister Wilhelmina was a schoolteacher in the eastern United States for over 50 years.
In 1995, at the age of 70, disturbed by what she saw as the modernistic loosening of standards and lax observance of the Rule of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, she left and founded the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
In 2005, the sisters’ community, which attends the Tridentine Mass in Ecclesiastical Latin liturgical language and prays using the 1962 monastic breviary, moved to Gower, Missouri. Sister Wilhelmina died in Gower on May 29, 2019. (Wikipedia)
In memory of Suor Mary Wilhelmina Lancaster (PDF) : learn more…
Source: The Remnant