I have now seen Fr. Pfeiffer remove the mandible and place it over the
altar missal during his sermon. I had been blessed. For I had not seen
and yet I had believed. And now I see. It starts with little things.
10 years ago people were willing to hear the truth. But today, they stop
their ears and violently reject it.
The majority of priest in the SSPX do not want to read the so-called
doctrinal preamble of +Fellay (that he hid for a whole year).
I had an acquaintance who had attended the same high school I had. I
didn't know him in those days, but I ran into him many years later, when
a Salesian priest, Fr. Paul Caporali SDB, came to preach a sermon at my
local NovusOrdo parish. I was very excited to hear him. I recalled the
days of my youth when the preaching of good priests was music to my
ears. I went to the sacristy after Mass and stood afar off in the room
when he was divesting. I said, "Aaayyy, Goombah!" And he turned
around to look at me with a beaming smile. He used to say that 30 years
before to the students in his class, and I guess he had hoped that
someone, someday, would remember. I remembered. I met him again
when he was finished, and talked to him for a while. There was only one
other who wanted to talk, my acquaintance. He seemed to be a duck out
of water, as Fr. Caproali and I recalled the religious teachings of those
days long ago, and my acquaintance could only recall worldly things,
such as sports games, scheduling, activities, industrial shops, other
students' names, other priests' names. Fr. seemed to be greatly
encouraged to hear me say that I learned Catholic doctrine in his classes.
Not long later, a few weeks, there was a gathering in that church of
various area choirs with our choir. We were having an ecuмenical
workshop with Protestants. When I entered the nave (Protestants call the
area where the congregation sits the "sanctuary" you know) and crossed
the center aisle, I genuflected out of habit, for I've done that since my
youth. I heard an audible gasp from the crowd behind me, followed by
murmuring. Then, as I proceeded to the other side of the pews, I could
feel the eyes of many following me, like the pictures of old people on
the wall at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. When I arrived at my
seat, my acquaintance was there, eager to inform me that "We don't do
that anymore." He was talking about genuflection. I asked him, "So are
you telling me that I did something wrong?" And he responded, "I just
thought you may want to know that we don't do that anymore."
To make a long story short, several years later, after I had given up on
the NovusOrdo, I went to Mel Gibson's chapel in Malibu and found my
old acquaintance there in the choir! So maybe my genuflection and my
focus on doctrine had an effect on him? You never know how small things
will affect people. I was brought back to the Old Mass when I saw
a family receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, kneeling, and the
children were all lined up obediently reading their missals during Mass.
They read the TLM missal but it was a NovusOrdo Newmass. I found
them outside after Mass and had a nice talk. They told me about a
chapel in Burbank where I could find a shrine to St. Philomena. And
that was my beginning to return to the CTLM of my youth.
It starts with little things.