A week ago yesterday I wrote in Dominican Ordination in Washington DC about attending via live-streaming the Ordination of a former student of mine, Fr Reginald Hoefer OP, in Washington DC.
This afternoon I was able by the same means to watch online his offering of his First Mass. This was in his home parish in New Orleans, Old St Patrick’s. From its website I learned that the church was the first founded for the American as opposed to the Creole community in the city. That was in 1833, and the present very handsome building was begun in 1840. It has one of those very large and stately altars that so many urban US Catholic Churches have, and whilst their European ancestry is clear they have a style and exhuberance all their own. In recent decades the church has been restored and its traditional decoration preserved, and lit to greater effect.
This then was the setting for Fr Reginald’s First Mass, which he celebrated with confidence and aplomb. The liturgy was in the Extrordinary Form and well attended.
At the conclusion, after leading the Solemn Te Deum, Fr Reginald briefly explained the significance and then presented his mother with his Manutergium and his father with his first stole - there is more about these two Ordination traditions, one old, the other a more recent development at Lost Liturgies File: The Manutergium - Community in Mission
A happy and holy occasion.
Ad multos annos
1 comment:
Thank you so much for this post. Fr. Reginald Hoefer is our Parochial Vicar at the Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena in New York City. Although he has been serving at our Parish only since July, 2022, he has already been an instrument of Our Lord's many Graces. Fr. Reginald is a most excellent preacher, a gifted teacher, and a humble and devoted servant of God who celebrates every Holy Mass with the utmost reverence. I am so grateful that the Good Lord has called Fr. Reginald as a Priest of Jesus Christ and that he has answered His call.
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