Raised on the Upper West Side of New York City, daughter of a Jewish mother and Anglican father, both non-practicing, I was introduced to religion later in life.
As it happened, following graduation from university, I signed on to spend a year at a Benedictine abbey in New England (in a town aptly called Bethlehem)! Not only home to a community of nuns, this was also a working farm of some 450 acres.
Working alongside and learning from the nuns, I was exposed to the faith via osmosis. As a shepherd’s assistant, I passed several icy January nights during lambing season by witnessing the miracle of birth and learning how to make preserves, bringing jam forth from the fruit I had helped to pick the previous summer. I milked a cow, appreciating the origin of my butter, cheese, and milk.
Mass was every morning, and Vespers closed each day with a half-hour of Psalms sung by the nuns in Gregorian chant, a mystical, meditative time to sit and become enveloped by the gently penetrating tones. The abbey’s program was designed to go through a four-season cycle so to have the fullest possible experience. It was with this excellent foundation in the faith that, years later, I would decide to enter the Catholic Church.
Only then did I learn that the Mass I had experienced at the abbey was known as a “Traditional Latin” Mass, and it was in fact very different from the Novus Ordo (The New Mass). The latter had come into being only during the 1960s as a result of the Second Vatican Council, and it represented a total re-orientation from what the faithful had previously known. The language of the prayers, for example, was no longer Latin but in the vernacular (while homilies had always been given in the latter). Many beautiful church interiors were stripped bare of decoration, and, most notably, the placement of the altar and the priest was dramatically changed. For many cradle Catholics, such as my husband, the New Mass was an upheaval.
When we moved to France, we sought and eventually found a Traditional Latin Mass at Saint-Michel-des-Andaines, a small country church with a growing community in which we sing the Gregorian chants. In this series of photographs, I have endeavored to convey the deep beauty of the Mass as it has been celebrated virtually unchanged for more than 1,500 years. Our days are shaped by the rhythmic cycle of the liturgical year, which brings a sense of deep inner peace in this crazy world.
2.The church
The church of Saint-Michel-des-Andaines, built in 1885 in a typical southern Normandy style. Originally the steeple was topped with a statue of St. Michael, the Archangel, but after being hit by lightning, it was replaced by a traditional cross and cockerel.
3.Beginning of mass
The altar of the Traditional Mass is rich in symbolism. It is placed facing the eastern wall looking toward the second coming of Christ. In the center is the tabernacle in which the Blessed Sacrament is kept. There are six candles with a crucifix in the middle, reminiscent of the seven candles of the Great Menorah in the original Jewish Temple. There are many links between the Traditional Mass and the instructions God gave to Moses about how the tabernacle should be handled. The priest bows at the beginning of Mass before ascending the steps and says in Latin: Introibo ad altáre Dei (I will go into the altar of God).
4.Mosaic detail
Detail of the mosaic centerpiece, St. Michael Defeating the Devil. The panels on each side are bordered by scallop shells that show this church to be on the famous pilgrimage route to Mont Saint Michel on the Normandy coast. The mosaics were designed and made by Facchina and Mazzioli, 19th-century Italian artisans who set up a workshop in Paris where they developed a unique, economical, and rapid method of design; this technique was also used in the Opéra in Paris.
5.Cardinal Burke blesses incence
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke came to say a Traditional High Pontifical Mass in 2018. Here the Cardinal is blessing the incense during the offertory, when God is implored to accept the sacrifice that is about to take place on the altar.
6.A glass of wine after mass
My husband and son, plus our priest, enjoy a convivial moment with the Cardinal after Mass, with drinks and nibbles.
7.Baptism
The baptism of my husband’s goddaughter performed by our other priest. We are blessed with two priests, which is very unusual for such a small church in a rural village.
8.Vestment
Vestments: Here our priest is wearing the chasuble for Eastertide, which depicts the Lamb of God sitting on the Book with Seven Seals to be opened at the end of the world. The olive branch of course denotes Pax (Peace). The priest has many different chasubles of differing colors and designs depending on the season or particular feast day, some dating back as far as the French Revolution! He also is wearing a biretta, a square hat with three peaks and sometimes a pom-pom. This hat is believed to have originated in the Middle Ages.
9.Corpus Christi procession
The second Sunday after Pentecost is the Feast of Corpus Christi. Traditionally after Mass, the consecrated host is placed in a monstrance that has a glass window with emanating gold rays. (It is believed that this host is the body and blood of Jesus Christ.) Covered by a canopy to protect it, the monstrance is processed around the village by the priest as the parishioners sing psalms. Here the priest wears a different vestment called a cope, rather like a big cloak.
10.Inaugral mass for a young priest
Inaugural Mass for a young priest: One of the families has two sons in seminary in Florence, Italy, and the eldest was ordained a priest. Here he is in the center flanked by his younger brother and our priest. This was his first public Mass. It was very moving.
11.Remembrance Day
On Remembrance Day, November 11 of each year, a symbolic coffin is draped by the “tricolor” of the French flag for a Requiem Mass for the souls of all the fallen in World Wars I and II. The backdrop of the altar is a tapestry of silver tears on a black velvet ground.
12.Profession du foi
La Profession du Foi (Profession of Faith) is a ceremony exclusive to France in which adolescents personally renew their baptismal vows prior to later being confirmed by the bishop. We were invited to this ceremony with the Latin Mass, which took place in the chapel of this ancient school run by Dominican nuns, where this girl who attends our church took part.
13.End of summer picnic
Toward the end of June, we have drinks and snacks after Mass under a marquee (called a “Barnum” in French) each Sunday until the end of summer when we all have a grand picnic under the trees, with the cows mooing in the adjacent field. One gets drawn into the cyclical nature of the year through the different feasts and celebrations of the church.
