Any notion that it is nostalgia sending people to the Extraordinary Form is not paying attention to the relative youth who hunger for its reverence and tradition. Photo by Gina Lopez.
People often accused me taking people backward to Pre-Vatican II days. They often say that the parishioners cannot understand the Latin. That kind of understanding is an idol. Even if it is entirely in the vernacular and we are lulled into a belief that we can understand it, we have put ourselves to sleep. If you can understand it, it is not God. I am sure that a stranger who has never been at a Mass in Latin may feel a little lost, but a parishioner who attends and participates in Mass over a long period time is able to grasp the liturgy deeply. It is more like love than understanding.
I am of the opinion that a Catholic who is a Disciple of Jesus, and has a relationship with Him learns how to participate in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, they will be able to participate more completely in the Ordinary Form.
A parishioner once told me that people seem more engaged at the Solemn Mass than at other Masses at the parish. Yes, by that time we had been at it for nine years, but this congregation of multiple languages and cultures was able to sing the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Sanctus, and the Pater Noster by heart, just like Paul VI asked for. They could even sing the Credo and were beginning to sing it by heart. Vatican II imagined a judicious use of the Vernacular but the Latin Rite was supposed to remain in Latin. If the Propers and the Ordinary are in Latin (and Greek), but the Readings and orations are in the Vernacular then that is what the reformers imagined. A Catholic who does not know some of the Latin Parts of the Mass as outlined in Pope Paul’s letter in 1974 is truly an impoverished Catholic.
It is the priests and the professionals who would tell me that people hate this. If only the people would stop telling me that they love it.
I am of the opinion that a Catholic who is a Disciple of Jesus, and has a relationship with Him learns how to participate in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, they will be able to participate more completely in the Ordinary Form.
A parishioner once told me that people seem more engaged at the Solemn Mass than at other Masses at the parish. Yes, by that time we had been at it for nine years, but this congregation of multiple languages and cultures was able to sing the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Sanctus, and the Pater Noster by heart, just like Paul VI asked for. They could even sing the Credo and were beginning to sing it by heart. Vatican II imagined a judicious use of the Vernacular but the Latin Rite was supposed to remain in Latin. If the Propers and the Ordinary are in Latin (and Greek), but the Readings and orations are in the Vernacular then that is what the reformers imagined. A Catholic who does not know some of the Latin Parts of the Mass as outlined in Pope Paul’s letter in 1974 is truly an impoverished Catholic.
It is the priests and the professionals who would tell me that people hate this. If only the people would stop telling me that they love it.
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