“The Tridentine Mass will return because youth is always in rebellion.”
Laurence Lesser
No, Mr. Lesser was not famous. He was a family friend of my parents, who we always called Uncle Larry. I became close to him later in his life and would visit him in a nursing home upstate, NY. We would correspond, and in one of his letters (early 90’s, only several years after Pope John Paul II liberalized the old Mass and I started attending it), he wrote the above quote, which I have never forgotten. I found him a rare encouragement in the Faith and particularly in my interest in the Tridentine Mass. The very last time I visited him, he said he had lost his Rosary beads in the nursing home. I had a pair of white plastic ones in my car and ran out to get them. It was a very short visit, as we were pressed for time. I remember placing them in his hand and then saying “Goodbye.” What a beautiful memory and I feel so blessed to have been able to do that for him in his final days.
As we see young people flocking to the “Mass of the Ages,” looking for something with true meaning, it would seem Uncle Larry was a prophet. They are indeed rebelling against a culture of narcissism and nihilism. They want happy, faithful marriages. They want children. Quite frankly, they want a normal life. I personally know many of these young people. I’ve seen them grow and blossom as they practice a truly devout Catholic life. I’ve seen them lovingly holding their children in their arms. I am always captivated by the babies at Mass, knowing it is to them, that I have a responsibility-that is why I do this work. I have only to look at these holy innocents and it is enough of a motivation.
As modernists see their “utopic” vision vanishing before their very eyes, they are unleashing their final attack. They can’t quite handle the cognitive dissonance that the great “Age of Aquarius” they were mind-controlled into slavishly working toward…is dead and dying. They just can’t face up to the fact that their whole lives were a mistake…and that they fell for a lie. Modernism bore no fruit-it had no roots. The plant itself is withering. Who knew that those who despised tradition would one day cling with draconian rigidity to their own traditions? The future belongs to those of the counter-rebellion.
“Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.”
Matthew 7:20
That doesn’t mean we are in for a cakewalk. But it does mean there is hope and certainty, in fact…that what was purchased with the Blood of Christ will prevail, because it must.
Please keep dear Larry and his family in prayer-much thanks. Please know we do take prayer requests and will post them if you like.
