Great way to explain the Latin Mass

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I was speaking to a friend about the Latin Mass, and how best to explain it to those who say “if you can’t understand the words, why bother.”

He had a great answer. Tell them that the purpose of the Mass is to experience the presence of God, not to understand the words.

I find this a really powerful thought. In all of our interactions with people, we should hope they experience God, rather than be impressed or convinced by our witness or preaching or whatever.
 
Or recognize that God WANTS to relate to us, not push us away. If we speak English or French or Chinese, why would God be willing to meet us in the flesh through his son, but not in our mother tongue?
 
Curtie said:
I was speaking to a friend about the Latin Mass, and how best to explain it to those who say “if you can’t understand the words, why bother.”

Tell them that the purpose of the Mass is to experience the presence of God, not to understand the words.
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And one of the ways of experiencing the presence of God is to understand His Word and understand the words of the prayers being prayed to Him , neither of which I would be able to do if the Mass were in Latin , except for odd bits.
 
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I think God works differently in each person. Some people experience Him best in the silence. Other experience Him best in one of the ancient languages (Latin, Greek, Aramaic). Others (me!) experience Him best in my own heart language.

When you think about it, if we were all meant to know and serve God in the same way, there wouldn’t be a variety of religious communities. Some of the communities are cloistered, and the sisters spend their days in prayer, meditation, quiet or silence, and away from the public. Other communities are very outgoing and the sisters or brothers are in the community working with people. They all serve at Mass daily, but even the Masses vary in language and music.

The communities are all established by God through various people, and so He definitely knows what He’s doing.

And aren’t we the same way with our children? Some children love activity and noise and socializing, while others love playing quietly by themselves. (I have one of each, although they seem to have switched preferences now that they are in their 30s!). 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.
 
Latin used to be vernacular, that was the point of Latin- later on it became kind of thing of tradition and unity in West. I don’t think anything beside our own point of view makes Latin special- but that point of view was there with me even when I was kid, and non-believer at that. Latin simply sounds ancient and special and helps us get to more reverent mood (at least for me, I guess). I am not frequent EF visitor, but I do understand notion behind Latin Mass. Very similar Mass in same language was celebrated daily by some of our great Saint Priests, such as Ignatius of Loyola or Padre Pio. This is what appeals most to me from EF.

Of course, that’s purely personal. Even the fact exorcists claim Satan fears Latin more is in my opinion due to their approach to Latin than language itself, but I’m not expert in any case.
 
Curtie said:
I was speaking to a friend about the Latin Mass, and how best to explain it to those who say “if you can’t understand the words, why bother.”

He had a great answer. Tell them that the purpose of the Mass is to experience the presence of God, not to understand the words.

I find this a really powerful thought. In all of our interactions with people, we should hope they experience God, rather than be impressed or convinced by our witness or preaching or whatever.
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I think it is also important to understand the words. The Latin began to replace Greek as the common language of the Roman world in the third and fourth centuries A.D. so soon became the language of the liturgy.
 
Except in a couple small parts that are easy to learn, the priest isn’t talking to you, so you don’t need to understand it. The traditional liturgy speaks volumes more than the new with all its complex ritual and symbolism anyway–the use of Latin itself communicates something.

Just as we set aside certain special vessels made of special materials for sacred purposes, so was Latin set aside for sacred purposes. Most people would rightly be upset if a priest used a red plastic solo cup instead of a gold chalice for Mass because in our culture and tradition the gold chalice became associated with the sacredness of Mass and showed that what was being done with it was special. They would be rightly upset if the priest wore shorts and t-shirt instead of a chasuble, etc.–the special vestments set aside for a special purpose signify something special. And taking away the thing set aside as special and sacred, and replacing it with something more ordinary and mundane that does not signify this naturally makes the purpose seem less special and more mundane.

Likewise, Latin came to signify sacredness and a kind of timelessness. It symbolized that something special, sacred, worthy of reverence, and out of the ordinary was being done. Abruptly taking it away and replacing it with something more mundane that had no such significance at all will naturally reduce the sense of sacredness and reverence.

Has reverence at Mass and belief in what Mass really is increased or decreased since Latin was swept away? The answer is sadly obvious.

In fact, even if you go to a new Mass in Latin, you’ll see it treated with much more reverence than usual.
 
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The actual idea of the Latin Mass was so that any Catholic anywhere could go to a Mass and have it be the same Mass said in a universal language that everyone could understand. I realize that as the world changed, people stopped learning Latin, but I don’t see why people couldn’t make the effort to understand at least the basic phrases. I can understand having the Scripture readings in the vernacular, but I had a lot of relatives who didn’t take Latin and weren’t really interested in learning it who still knew what Dominus Vobiscum and such meant and were able to make the responses.

I’m glad the Latin Mass is still an option for those of us who don’t run away screaming when we hear a different language, but actually make an effort to try to learn it.

I also heard a priest say a couple weeks back that when he went to Lourdes, everybody from every country who was in a procession praying the Rosary in their native language could all say the Hail Mary and Our Father and Glory Be in Latin when the whole group said those in unison. Except for the US group, and he thought people in the US should learn at least those basic prayers so they could keep up with the rest of the world.
 
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According to my mother, who remembered the pre-Vatican II days better than I do, the priest usually spoke quickly and in a low voice so the missal was of little use in keeping up with the proceedings. Most people just gave up and said their rosaries or read Catholic literature. The priest did his thing, the people did theirs.
 
billsannie said:
According to my mother, who remembered the pre-Vatican II days better than I do, the priest usually spoke quickly and in a low voice so the missal was of little use in keeping up with the proceedings. Most people just gave up and said their rosaries or read Catholic literature. The priest did his thing, the people did theirs.
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That’s nearly very true @billsannie .

Don’t forget the altar servers who gave responses to the priest , but , as your mother would have rightly observed , the priest and servers away from the congregation got on with what they were doing while the congregation were doing their own thing .

The fans of the Latin Mass who claim that the Mass decades ago was so reverent and awe inspiring need to take off their rose tinted spectacles .
 
Rob2 said:
The fans of the Latin Mass who claim that the Mass decades ago was so reverent and awe inspiring need to take off their rose tinted spectacles .
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Those who are fans of the Latin Mass aren’t fans simply because of the use of Latin. You may not see the reverence of it, but I assure you that many do. And it’s not through “rose tinted” glasses that they are looking.
 
Curtie said:
I find this a really powerful thought. In all of our interactions with people, we should hope they experience God, rather than be impressed or convinced by our witness or preaching or whatever.
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Hmm, makes one wonder why anyone should speak at all. Would God prefer total silence in the Mass? Or any language so long as its not the vernacular, so long as its not intelligible by the celebrants IOW?

That would also be a good reason for not bringing and following a missal.
 
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