Sermon given by Fr. Martin Edwards at Missa Contata on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross at St. Mary’s, Ryde, to mark the 10th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”

“We should give thanks today on this 10th anniversary for the results of Pope Benedict’s “Summorum Pontificum”. It freed us from the constraints and restrictions that were imposed on the celebration of the E.F. Mass and it placed an obligation upon bishops to provide this form of the Roman Rite where it was requested. It also emphasised that this Mass was never abrogated.

A few weeks ago we had the Gospel on the Ten Lepers. We are reminded of the one leper who returned to give thanks to God. This Gospel invites us to think about “thank you” that we offer to others vin our lives. We have so much to thank Almighty God for …. Our health, our families, our parish here in Ryde, our priests …. The list is endless.

There are periods of silence in the Mass when we are invited to make a thanksgiving. The Preface at Mass is all about thanksgiving. Likewise, the Gloria is a hymn of thanksgiving.

If we take the one leper (out of the ten) as an example, then it could follow that only 10% of us give thanks to God; or we ourselves only give thanks for 10% of what He has given us.

Our daily Mass should remind us to thank God for dying on the Cross for us, ….. for our salvation. Let us also, especially on this day, thank God for the graces that have flowed from “Summorum Pontificum”. Let us thank Him for the ministry of Fr. Glaysher here in Ryde for the past nine years. (Now at St. Joseph’s in Aldershot).

Let us thank him for this parish … our parish, …. the first in England to have three forms of the Mass (Ordinary, Extraordinary and Ordinariate) celebrated and the first to be dedicated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Let us also thank Him for the steady flow of priests who have come forward to learn the E.F. Mass and for the ministry of the Society of St. Peter (based here in Reading in our Diocese) and for the Institute of Christ the King, whose priests provide spiritual nourishment for the laity.

Let us remember how far the E.F. Mass has come in being accepted and now promoted in the Church. In my early days as a priest, I was forbidden to say the Mass and I had to go to an Anglican High Church, where I was permitted to offer the Mass privately in a side chapel. How things have changed!

Let us remember also our own thanksgiving to God immediately after Mass. Many head straight for the church door. Let us spend a few moments in prayer thanking God for coming inside us in Holy Communion first”.