Great way to explain the Latin Mass

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I love love love the Latin mass. Understanding the words is over-rated (not that I haven’t made a fairly in-depth study of Latin).

But then, I am fairly idiosyncratic in all of my attitudes towards the faith.
 
I admit I studied Latin, but come on guys, how hard is it to understand? Is there anyone out there who doesn’t understand “Credo in unum deum…”? “Paster noster…”? “Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus…”?
Isn’t not exactly Chinese or Navaho. Certainly the responses of the congregation are easy enough to learn and understand.

As for the priest’s part, either read a translation in your missal (you wouldn’t go to a Latin Mass without a missal, would you???) or simply read the Latin–it is much more elegant and beautiful than the English translation.
 
Not everyone has the time or the patience or the ability to learn Hebrew or Greek.

This is the 21rst century. These aren’t common languages anymore.
 
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Peeps said:
We don’t expect our children to behave identically, and God doesn’t expect all of us to thrive the same way as everyone else.
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I have to say amen to this. We relate to God differently in prayer, for example. One person finds deep meaning and grace in the rosary while another thinks it’s the most tedious prayer ever invented. And they are both right! So why not approach the Mass the same way. Whether it’s silence, or Latin, or the language used in the Anglican Ordinariate, or the vernacular, it’s all good.
 
Salibi said:
Not everyone has the time or the patience or the ability to learn Hebrew or Greek.
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Then how will they capture the nuances and true meanings of these languages? Sabaoth, for example.
 
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Yes, I’m not sure why everyone here thinks that Latin is some incomprehensible language that no one will ever understand if it isn’t translated directly to them through a loud-speaker blasting in the chapel.
 
I see your point, but how is it feasible for people to learn a language only to use it once per week? Back then Greek was lingua franca, everyone understood it. Not the case with Westerners today.

I singled out Western Christians since in my experience we Easterners ( Maronite, specifically) have no problem understanding the parts of our liturgies which are in Aramaic since they are kinda similar to our modern- day languages. Also not the case with the West today.
 
Salibi said:
Not everyone has the time or the patience or the ability to learn Hebrew or Greek.
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Me learn Hebrew and Greek . 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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I should have added “or the context” 🤣.

Nowadays, what does a non-Greek need to know Greek for? To tell Roman soldiers to buzz off?
 
It would be awesome to understand a Greek Divine Liturgy. I can only pick out “Amin”, “Theotokos”, and “Alleluia”.
 
I don’t know if it’s an age thing or a brain thing, but I just can’t get the hang of any of the Latin prayers and Mass parts.

Our parish has been doing Latin responses (Holy Holy Holy, Lamb of God, etc.) since last autumn–and I STILL haven’t been able to learn those phrases!!!

😬

It’s so frustrating! I don’t even try to do it by memory anymore because I don’t want someone standing in front of me to hear me do it wrong and think that I’m doing it right because I’m one of the church organists! I open the hymnal and read the words, but I can’t say and sing them at the same time. I can read them, but not sing. Or I can sing the melody, but not the words. But singing the mass parts–ai yi yi!

It can’t be just old age. Since high school, I’ve sung in choirs that have done some of the really good oratorios that are in Latin, and I’ve found that if I close the book, I cannot remember the Latin phrases that I practiced for months.

My husband (who loves linguistics and actually minored in it in college) tells me, “Just think of what the words mean.!”

Well, they don’t mean anything to me–they sound like nonsense syllables. Klingon.

E.g., Ora pro nobis.

Ora mean “eyes” to me. I’m still not sure whether it means “pray” or “us.” Maybe ora means “oral,” which would kind of be like sort of “pray?” That’s really pushing it, IMO.

"And “pro” means “professional,” or “in favor of.” I can also kind of see that it means “for” such as in, “I’m for Pres. Trump!” So that’s kind of like English.

But nobis?!! It means “No business?” Again, is it “pray” or “us.?” I think??? it means “us” but I have no idea how “us” and nobis" are related.

I just don’t get it! My husband explained it all to me last autumn, but by the time we did it at the next Mass, I forgot every bit of it because it just doesn’t seem like it makes sense!

And to make things even more puzzling–I studied Latin in high school for a year (hated it then and quit after that year!).

So…I think it’s just my brain not connecting when it comes to learning Latin (or for that matter, any language.) I’m just not a “foreign language” person.

And I don’t understand “computers” either. Today I had to attend a workshop at my hospital, and the presenter talked in “initials” all the way through (RUO, LIS, MALDI) etc.–I eventually just gave up and sat staring into space hoping it would be over soon.

Oh, well. The grapevine at my parish is that most of the parishioners dislike the Latin, so perhaps we’ll be singing it in English again soon. And I can always say it in English in my heart.

I am definitely a “heart language” gal! BTW, back when I was Protestant and the missionaries would teach us how to sing a hymn in the language of the people that they were serving–I never “got” that, either.
 
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Peeps said:
And I don’t understand “computers” either.
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No one understands the circuitry (except electronic majors maybe) but these days if you can put entries into a spreadsheet or type a letter, you’re a pro.
 
Dovekin said:
Perhaps the reverence you remember was like the attraction of shiny objects. Sweep that away and you sometimes wipe out the real reverence for God that we should learn from it.
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The reverence is very real and not merely some shiny aesthetic form of worship. I think the NO can be reverent and there are many within the laity who prefer the NO over the TLM and that’s fine, but unfortunately there have been some liturgical abuses that have resulted from priests making unauthorized changes or introducing their own preferences to how they celebrate the Mass and as a result the NO has suffered greatly because of these abuses.

I attend a High Mass at my parish which is part of the NO and it is absolutely beautiful and the closest thing I’ve seen to a TLM in it’s reverence. I’ve also been to a parish where the priest makes constant changes to the Mass and does things that I know for a fact aren’t allowed and yet he’s been allowed to continue because the parish is known for this type of worship and the laity prefer it. Imagine that, the laity preferring error over authentic Catholic Teachings and all the while many of the members of that Church take the attitude of “well Mass is a Mass, it’s all the same.”
 
Erikaspirit16 said:
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t understand “Credo in unum deum…”? “Paster noster…”? “Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus…”?
Isn’t not exactly Chinese or Navaho. Certainly the responses of the congregation are easy enough to learn and understand.
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Me!

If I had to dope it out, I would say, “Credo in unum deum” means’ “Creed in our God.”

I have had problems with Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus for weeks now. A few weeks ago, I was getting ready to play the “Profession of Faith” (organ) when I saw “Sanctus” in my list of music during Mass. Thankfully I realized at the literal last minute that the three words “sanctus” are equivalent to the three words “holy.” But the ONLY reason I connected the two is because of the “three” words. “Sanctus” and Holy" do not seem the same to me.

Pater Noster–I think it’s “Lord’s Prayer??” Not sure.

Sorry. No, the responses of the congregation are NOT easy for me to learn and understand.

And I’m guessing that there are many more just like me in congregations all over the world.

I can sing “The Boar’s Head Carol” in Latin! I remember that from my madrigal days. I have no idea what the words mean. I can sing it, though.
 
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Do you think that we are all created alike? With the same abilities, the same intelligence, the same gifts and talents?

Or maybe I’m the only doofus who doesn’t “get” Latin (or any other foreign language).

Please be charitable. This kind of comment makes me feel really bad about myself.
 
ProVobis, please don’t mention “spreadsheets” to me.

For the last ten years, I have chaired a music competition in our city, and I use a spreadsheet to keep track of the competitors and the judges.

And once a year, I have to have my husband explain–actually WRITE DOWN “how to use a spreadsheet” again. And he has to actually “create” the spreadsheet for me. And at least a dozen times every evening, he has to help me get out of a jam that I got myself into because I pressed the wrong key. Sigh.

The competition was in February. If you asked me today (April 10) to create a spreadsheet, I would have no clue whatsoever. I wouldn’t even know where to look in my computer.

It’s a sore point between me and my husband. He can’t understand why a person who can play a Bach Prelude and Fugue on the pipe organ, and who can tell the difference between Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus cannot remember how to create and use a spreadsheet!

Heck, I don’t even know what wi-fi is!
 
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