Motu Mania

The latest in a series of publications aimed at helping priests learn to celebrate the Extraordinary Use of the Roman Rite is called A Guide to the Celebration of Low Mass, by Lee Bradshaw. You can order it here, for $19.95.
It uses those remarkable drawings of the celebration of low Mass by the late Martin Travers, himself, I think, an atheist, but somebody who, with Ninian Comper, was the guiding spirit of the aesthetics of the Anglo Catholic movement in the first half of the twentieth century. The book functions as both a missal and guide while learning; I suppose along the lines of a book I produced myself (but never published), with the text of the ordinary of the Missal, laid out just as in the missal itself, and with guidelines, explanations and hints in English in the margins. Thanks to Alcuin Reid for alerting me to this. I imagine he had more than a little to do with it, and seems to have written the introduction.

There really seems to be more interest in the traditional rite now that it is permitted. I laid a celebration on in my parish for the Assumption, and the church was nearly full, including a couple of families. One 14-year-old lad, whose grandfather served the Mass described it as 'cool'. Whether everyone else was equally impressed, I don't know. By the time I'd taken off my vestments, most people had departed, as they usually do. Normally I'd go straight to the door to say goodbye, but that's harder to do if you're still holding a chalice.