Rare images: Old Mass at Opus Dei Long After the Liturgical Reform

The article photo shows the founder of Opus Dei, Monsignor Josemará Escrivá, celebrating the Old Mass in Chile on 7 July 1974 - almost ten years after the introduction of the Novus Ordo. Note the canon tables.

Until the day of his death, on 26 June 1975, he celebrated in the morning with the Old Missal.

In 1973, he said in Rome regarding the celebration towards God: "It is very beautiful that the priest turns his back to the faithful, because with our poor human face, we cannot represent the divine face of Jesus Christ.”

The second photo shows Escrivá's successor later Bishop Alvaro del Portillo during the Holy Thursday liturgy at Rome's Villa Tevere, who kneels to receive Communion on the tongue.

After the introduction of the Novus Ordo, the Opus Dei centres preserved the altars facing God, communion on the tongue, communion rail, and communion paten until the 1990s.