Dominican Rite Candlemas Photopost

On February 2, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, commonly called Candlemas, a Dominican Rite Solemn Mass, the blessing and procession of candles, was celebrated at St. Albert the Great Priory in Oakland CA, the house of studies of the Western Dominican Province. Our new prior provincial, the Most Reverend Christopher Fadok, O.P., assisted and received the friars’ candle-offering. Some of the sixty or so faithful who attended came from as far away as Fresno and Fullerton!

The celebrant was Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., professor of history at the Dominican School of Theology and Philosophy in Berkeley CA; deacon was Fr. Christopher Wetzel, O.P., parochial vicar of St. Dominic’s Church SF; subdeacon was Bro. Joseph Selinger, O.P.; first acolyte, Bro. Nathaniel Maria Mayne, O.P.; second acolyte, Bro. Matthew Heynen, O.P.; thurifer and holy water carrier, Bro. John Peter Anderson; crucifer and pax-bearer, Bro. Paul Maria Müllner, O.P.  The music from the Dominican Gradual was lead by the cantors, Bro. Patrick Rooney, O.P. and Bro. Elias Guadalupe Ford, O.P.

Highlights of the Mass follow.

I thank Bro. Joshua Gatus, O.P., for these photographs.