Cardinal Tagle on Ash Wednesday (CBCPNews File)
QUEZON City, Feb. 17, 2015—In view of the forthcoming Lenten season set to open on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, a parish in Quezon City’s Roxas District promises to give the faithful a one-of-a-kind spiritual experience in a Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) with its emphasis on the “sense of the sacred” and the Holy Father’s call for a “formation of the heart” .
Defined as the “profound impression a person experiences when encountering the tremendous and awe-inspiring mystery of God’s transcendence,” Miguel Madarang, master of liturgical ceremonies of Societas Ecclesia Dei Sancti Ioseph – Una Voce Philippines (SEDSI – UVP), also called sense of the sacred the “overwhelming holiness of His Being”.
Formation of the heart
Madarang told CBCP News his group intends to hold the Ash Wednesday TLM in response to the Holy Father’s message for Lent 2015 in which he reiterated the need for the Catholic faithful to “engage in a formation of the heart”.
Citing his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in his encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” (“God is Love”), the Argentine pontiff stressed a “merciful heart does not mean a weak heart”.
“Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others,” he shared.
Taking on Pope’s challenge
Madarang explained SEDSI-UVP aims to do its part in living out the Pope’s challenge by highlighting the “sense of the sacred’ in the Liturgy of Lent.
The lay liturgist quoted Pope Francis as saying in an Oct. 2014 homily at Casa Santa Marta that “we would do well today to ask the Lord to give to each of us this ‘sense of the sacred’” in the liturgy.
‘Openness of heaven’
“The liturgical celebration, as Pope Francis says, is not a social act, nor a gathering of the faithful to pray together. Pope Francis likens it to the ‘Theophany of Solomon’ when the Lord came down like a cloud upon the temple, which was filled with the glory of God,” Madarang noted.
According to him, TLM gives prominence to sacred space, sacred time, and mediating symbols, through which the faithful learn to see the “openness of heaven”.
The Ash Wednesday TLM is scheduled on Feb. 18, 8:00 p.m. at the Holy Family Parish Church, Roxas District, Quezon City, near Amoranto Stadium and Pantranco.
Regular TLM
Masses are offered daily at 8:00 a.m., and on Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
For inquiries, interested parties are encouraged to contact SEDSI-UVP at (+63) 917-6227-187 or (+63) 916-2290-128. (Raymond A. Sebastián/CBCP News)
