Solemnity of the Assumption

I get email every day about EF Masses popping up around the country - certainly more than I can keep up with. The latest comes from St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Duluth, Minnesota.

St. Benedict's will celebrate the Extraordinary Form 1:00pm as a high Mass with Incense to the polyphonic setting - Missa Pange Lingua by Des Prez. This celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary will feature a mixed chorus of men and women raising their voices in polyphony.

The above photo was taken just this week. This looks like a typical 1960s church in the round. Rev. Hastings reports:

The Triptych depicting the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection evoking the Ascension in the style of Raphael - imaging the Paschal Mystery made present in the bloodless Sacrifice of the Mass.

Hastings offers as well these earlier photos of the same sanctuary as it underwent transformation.

Use of color to help a drab space during Advent.

Beginning of the Pope Benedict altar crucifix/cross to begin reorientation of the liturgy ad Deum/ad orientem/ad apsidem.

All the Masses at St. Benedict's parish (with the exception of the early Sunday morning Mass) are celebrated in the common posture turned towards the Lord (ad orientem) in the direction of the liturgical east. The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is offered on the 1st & 3rd Sundays at 1 PM. The other Masses are offered in the Ordinary Form with an increasing use of chant (vernacular plainchant and simpler forms of Gregorian chant) for the ordinary and some antiphons.