Scenes from Requiem Week in San Diego (Pt. 1)

Sunday Training and Exercises

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On the occasion of two Solemn High Requiems, the chanting of the Office of the Dead, and the recent admission of two new Brothers from San Diego, Brother Ashley Paver, a great help to the Oratorian community in Cincinnati, flew out to visit us and fulfill his office as Ceremoniere for the San Diego Brothers. In preparation for a triduum of liturgical events, the Brothers and Chorus Breviarii met on Sunday afternoon for server training. 

This was followed by Laetare Sunday Vespers recto tono with the priests of St. Anne, as well as the Exercises of Sunday Afternoon according to the Manual, the latter of which included an exhortation to persevere in our decades-long efforts to establish the Oratory in San Diego. The details for the rest of the week were also sorted out.

The Monday Night Requiem

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Since Brother Steven Holc directs the choir at the Pala TLM, the chaplain to Pala, Fr. Peter Adrian Miller, O.Praem, was celebrant for Monday night's Solemn High Requiem Mass for Maria Holc. Fr. John Lyons, F.S.S.P. was the deacon for the Mass, and Fr. Earl Eggleston served as subdeacon. Aside from the Brothers and Chorus Breviarii San Diego, those in the loft that night included members of Chorus Breviarii Murrieta, the choir at Holy Martyrs Anglican Ordinariate Parish, and Fr. Eggleston's acolyte schola. The motet during Communion was Jacquet of Mantua's O Jesu Christe. Since the burial was not to take place that day, the Benedictus with antiphon Ego sum was sung between the absolution of the catafalque and the In paradisum. It was the first liturgical service at which newly-admitted Brother Adrian Ople wore his Oratorian collar.

Fr. Eggleston chants the Epistle.

Fr. Lyons chants the Gospel.

Fr. Peter Adrian preaches on the
charity of a mother.

Brother Tom Gray fulfills his usual role
of ringing the bell at the consecration.

The servers and clerics
process to the catafalque.

A Televised Time Capsule for Tradition

The Brothers of the Little Oratory in San Diego have been meeting again on Friday nights during this holy season of Lent to pray the Exercises and enjoy supper with one another. Our first meeting was the Friday after Ash Wednesday at Fratellino's house, and I believe that there were around ten Chorus Breviarii members in attendance that night. The following week, about seven of us met at the house of Marlon Munguia, our newest San Diego Brother. Supper that night included vegetable soup and two loaves of homemade sourdough bread.

Crucifix, candles, and pax-bredes prepared for Exercises.

Our next host was Brother David Latorre, though Brother Rich Dawes served as our cook for the night, preparing cream of mushroom soup for us in David's kitchen. Rich also provided other foods such as pumpernickel and assorted panes dulces. It would have been fitting to have Exercises in David's private chapel, but squeezing seven men into a room the size of a walk-in pantry would have been a difficult feat, so we opted for the more spacious living room. Following Exercises that night, the younger guests visited the barn and fed David's horse, while the older Chorus Breviarii members reminisced about previous years getting lost while trying to access David's property in the San Diego backcountry. We also looked at various mementos organized in David's shelves; some parish anniversary books provided some interesting information, such as that the relics in the main altar at St. Anne are those of the obscure martyrs Ss. Gratus and Beatus, or that the vestments in vogue in the 1990s were indeed quite hideous.

David's mantle includes a illuminated sticker depicting
the stained glass window above the high altar of St. Anne.

The most interesting memento from David's archives was a recording of a Spanish-language news segment on the Traditional Latin Mass that aired on Univision around November 2006. The late Carl Horst, sacristan of San Diego's original TLM congregation at Holy Cross Cemetery, likely distributed the DVD copies of this recording to various members of the Holy Cross TLM as a keepsake, since the majority of the Univision segment consisted of footage from the usual Sunday TLM at Holy Cross alongside interviews with various members of the congregation. Many of the faces in the news segment are familiar since they still attend Mass at St. Anne. David himself was interviewed for the segment, with Brothers Tom Gray and Ron Clemente standing behind him.

Fr. Victor Szczurek, O.Praem. and Archbishop Cordileone were also interviewed in English and Spanish respectively. Following the days of Holy Cross, Fr. Victor served as a regular chaplain to the Traditional Latin Mass communities in North County before they were exiled to Pala, and his chaplaincy was from there succeeded by the chaplaincy of Fr. Peter Adrian Miller, O.Praem. Fr. Victor was also often the celebrant or hebdomadary for many of our events, including Missa Cantatas at St. John the Evangelist in Encinitas and All Hallows Vespers at the Serra Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano. During his interview, Archbishop Cordileone (who was at that time still an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of San Diego and the Titular Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi) made references to the liturgical conservatism of then-Pope Benedict XVI. The opinions on reverence, beauty, and tradition expressed by His Excellency today seem to have remained unchanged since this interview from nearly two decades ago, when Summorum Pontificum had yet to be published. We pray that we may be able to celebrate Mass or Vespers with His Excellency again in the future, and we hope that whoever is appointed to our diocese to succeed McElroy is gracious enough to permit His Excellency to celebrate the Traditional Rite whenever he comes through town.

A Requiem on the Palos Verdes Peninsula

This past Lent, the Brothers and a couple of Chorus Breviarii members sang the chants of the Requiem Mass for the father of Frater Jon T. Velasco. The Mass (New Rite due to the difficult situation post-TC) was offered at St. John Fisher Catholic Church, located in a prominent spot on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. This was possibly the first Chorus Breviarii / Brothers event outside the Dioceses of San Diego and San Bernardino in half a decade or more. Our drives north began quite early, about 6 a.m., since we needed to avoid the worst of the morning rush hour both in San Diego and Los Angeles. Once we got off the traffic-choked highways onto the city streets, our drives took us past some classic California storefront designs. While driving along these streets, Frater Tom Gray recalled previous events we had at St. John Fisher, as well as at Ss. Peter & Paul in Wilmington. Fratellino's drive took him up the PCH, where he enjoyed breakfast at the Hot'n Tot Coffee Shop with Chorus Breviarii Murrieta organizer Ken Onoda.

The ascent from the flat Los Angeles basin up to the top of Palos Verdes is a wonderfully scenic drive. A rugged and prominent piece of land towering over the flat floodplain to the northeast, the Peninsula is ecologically and geologically similar to the California Channel Islands, and it likely used to be an island itself. There are some fantastic views of both the ocean and the Greater Los Angeles area atop this almost-island, with some great lookouts available along the northern edge of the parish property. Being Los Angeles, however, these views of the city are a bit whited-out with smog. Fratellino and I took pictures by some trees lining a nearby road.

The current church building for St. John Fisher is very modern and round, with a walled-off Blessed Sacrament chapel, a petite non-rectangular sanctuary with a small altar, and a sound-absorbing ceiling. A statue of the parish patron is located toward the back of the right-side pews.

Fr. Peter Adrian Miller, O.Praem., chaplain to the Pala TLM community, offered the Mass ad orientem and in black vestments. The Epistle and Gospel were identical to the traditional readings for the Traditional Mass of burial, with the addition of the Maccabean lesson from the Traditional Anniversary Mass due to the N.O.'s requirement of an Old Testament First Reading.

We sang Anima Christi as a votive chant following the distribution of Holy Communion to the faithful, and following the In paradisum, we sang Cardinal Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light" as a final hymn.

Following Mass, we joined Frater Jon T. and his family for lunch, where we enjoyed good food, good company, and beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.

Through our pious supplications, may God grant rest to the soul of Meynardo J. Velasco. +R.I.P.

Remember, O most sweet Jesus,

that no one who has had recourse

to Thy Sacred Heart,

implored its help, or sought its mercy

was ever abandoned.

O Heart of Jesus! be Thou my joy,

my peace, my repose

in this world and the next.

Our views at lunchtime.

The 7-Eleven at the end of Hawthorne Boulevard
(LA County Road N7) plays crime-deterrence music
(classical music) from its loudspeakers.

Courtesy: Fratellino

Courtesy: ronscout / Vaticanguard