Sunday

The First of June: the first day of the month of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; in the traditional Roman Rite, the feast of St Angela Merici, foundress of the Ursuline Nuns; in the sanctoral cycle of the Pauline Rite the feast of St Justin Martyr; and according to my still relatively new Baronius Press Missal, the feast of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces in the English and Welsh dioceses of Hexham, Newcastle, Cardiff, and Menevia.

But the Mass today was for the third Sunday after Pentecost, and as it's the first Sunday of the month, it was celebrated at my new favourite indult-Mass venue, the Chapel of Claretian residence at the old Dominguez Rancho. The grounds, the buildings, the chapel -- all of it is a feast of beauty. I've rummaged around the web for a while looking for some good pictures but found nothing that comes very close. Most of the pictures are of the heavily restored rancho. Little or nothing of the seminary/retirement facilty itself. Here, though, are a few old black and white pictures that give a taste.

These are from the Cal State University Dominguez Hills archives that show something of the chapel. The main altar has been reduced in size since these shots were taken and there is a new altar further forward but it is still quite serviceable for ad orientem celebrations. And the altar rail is now gone. But side altars to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary have been added that the pictures don't show. The feel of the chapel is still devotional. And, dare I say, traditional.

The Sanctuary

Mass in the chapel in 1927 (an ordination perhaps?)

The view from the altar