High Mass

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I vaguely remember what a High Mass was pre-Vatican II. Has it changed? can somebody fill me in on the particulars since it has been a long time since I attended one. We are having one at our local parish and was wondering if somebody could refresh me? Thank you in advance.:confused:
 
It will be totally sung. There will be some quiet parts, but the principal parts of the Mass–the Ordinary and the Proper, as well as the readings–will be sung.

In the United States “High Mass” usually means a sung Mass with one priest and several altar boys. In other countries, “High Mass” often refers to what, in the US, we call a Solemn Mass.

“Solemn Mass” in the United States is the same thing as a High Mass, but in addition to the priest there is a deacon and a subdeacon present. The subdeacon sings the Epistle. The deacon sings the Gospel. These latter two also have some additional duties. Furthermore, this type of Mass is sometimes called a “Solemn High Mass,” which complicates things a bit.

There are also the Pontifical Masses, in which a bishop is the celebrant.

I’m about 85% sure your parish will have the first of these three, a sung Mass with a priest. If there is an online brochure or something and you post a link, we might be able to confirm this.

As far as what has changed between the 1960s and now regarding this form of Mass, hardly anything. Some slight details and kinks have been changed, but the overwhelming majority (upwards of 99.9%) of the Mass will be just as you remember it.

This is a High Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=c32brXXx5k8 (The organ is a bit awful in my opinion, but the singing, the participatory singing, is very good.)

This is a Solemn Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=TVnvwESokoo
 
YoungTradCath said:
It will be totally sung. There will be some quiet parts, but the principal parts of the Mass–the Ordinary and the Proper, as well as the readings–will be sung.

In the United States “High Mass” usually means a sung Mass with one priest and several altar boys. In other countries, “High Mass” often refers to what, in the US, we call a Solemn Mass.

“Solemn Mass” in the United States is the same thing as a High Mass, but in addition to the priest there is a deacon and a subdeacon present. The subdeacon sings the Epistle. The deacon sings the Gospel. These latter two also have some additional duties. Furthermore, this type of Mass is sometimes called a “Solemn High Mass,” which complicates things a bit.

There are also the Pontifical Masses, in which a bishop is the celebrant.

I’m about 85% sure your parish will have the first of these three, a sung Mass with a priest. If there is an online brochure or something and you post a link, we might be able to confirm this.

As far as what has changed between the 1960s and now regarding this form of Mass, hardly anything. Some slight details and kinks have been changed, but the overwhelming majority (upwards of 99.9%) of the Mass will be just as you remember it.

This is a High Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=c32brXXx5k8 (The organ is a bit awful in my opinion, but the singing, the participatory singing, is very good.)

This is a Solemn Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=TVnvwESokoo
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Thanks for the information. It was a great help.👍 I am wondering if you can fill in some additional questions. Will the congregation be giving the responses? Will the priest face the congregation or have his back to us?

You’ve been very helpful so far.I hope you can fill in these couple of blanks.

God Bless.
 
TARRAT said:
Thanks for the information. It was a great help.👍 I am wondering if you can fill in some additional questions. Will the congregation be giving the responses? Will the priest face the congregation or have his back to us?

You’ve been very helpful so far.I hope you can fill in these couple of blanks.

God Bless.
Click to expand...
The responses are sung, so yes, the “expectation” is that people sing them.

The priest will “have his back” to you, most likely.
 
It has been my experience that the congregation usually sings the responses with the altar boys. I have been told, however, that “in the old days” only the priest and servers ever really said anything.
 
I have been to one church offering the TLM where I do not remember the laity making responses. At most it would have been a minimal amount.
 
The level of exterior participation of the congregation is not part of the rubrics in the Traditional Mass, so it is a matter of local custom. Everyone is of course expected to participate interiorly, and some priests strongly encourage singing the ordinary (kyrie, gloria, etc) at a High Mass.

Usually at a Low Mass the servers do all the responses (and many priests prefer it that way); at a High Mass there is more often some level of congregational participation in the responses. Just follow everyone else.
 
YoungTradCath said:
It will be totally sung. There will be some quiet parts, but the principal parts of the Mass–the Ordinary and the Proper, as well as the readings–will be sung.

In the United States “High Mass” usually means a sung Mass with one priest and several altar boys. In other countries, “High Mass” often refers to what, in the US, we call a Solemn Mass.

“Solemn Mass” in the United States is the same thing as a High Mass, but in addition to the priest there is a deacon and a subdeacon present. The subdeacon sings the Epistle. The deacon sings the Gospel. These latter two also have some additional duties. Furthermore, this type of Mass is sometimes called a “Solemn High Mass,” which complicates things a bit.

There are also the Pontifical Masses, in which a bishop is the celebrant.

I’m about 85% sure your parish will have the first of these three, a sung Mass with a priest. If there is an online brochure or something and you post a link, we might be able to confirm this.

As far as what has changed between the 1960s and now regarding this form of Mass, hardly anything. Some slight details and kinks have been changed, but the overwhelming majority (upwards of 99.9%) of the Mass will be just as you remember it.

This is a High Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=c32brXXx5k8 (The organ is a bit awful in my opinion, but the singing, the participatory singing, is very good.)

This is a Solemn Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=TVnvwESokoo
Click to expand...
I enjoyed the organ. It is a typical French Romantic organ, with lots of reeds, strings and tremolo. It may jar Americans a bit, we are more accustomed to Baroque style organs not to mention electronic ‘organs’ and God forbid guitars.
 
Thanks to all for the replies. We just had a Low Mass at our parish on Saturday morning. It was slightly disappointing in that the Priest and servers spoke very softly and although I was sitting two rows back I could hardly hear what was being said(I do have some loss of hearing). I remember as a child and as an altar boy that the mass was not shouted but we were told to speak loudly and clearly. I missed not hearing all those wonderful latin prayers from my youth.

God Bless All.
 
If you brush up on your Latin and ceremony, you could probably serve one of his Masses yourself. It’s not just boys that are admitted to serving.
 
The trouble is that I’m not sure who actually had the LM. It was not our parish priest. When I asked who celebrated it he said he didn’t know. He knew it was going to happen he just didn’t know who celebrated it. We don’t have regular LMs.
:confused:
 
If you get a chance to attend a High Mass, you are very lucky. High Masses aren’t common. I wish they were. 😦

I usually don’t like to say “do what everyone else is doing.” The reason being is that some people make responses at a Low Mass, even though they are not supposed to.

In some parishes, the congregation does the responses. In others, the choir does it. What was the last time you attend a High Mass? Was it before or after the 1962 Missal? If after, then it won’t be any different. If before, it will be a little different.

However, you will be so enchanted with the beauty of the High Mass, you might not notice the differences. 👍
 
bben15 said:
If you get a chance to attend a High Mass, you are very lucky. High Masses aren’t common. I wish they were. 😦

I usually don’t like to say “do what everyone else is doing.” The reason being is that some people make responses at a Low Mass, even though they are not supposed to.

In some parishes, the congregation does the responses. In others, the choir does it. What was the last time you attend a High Mass? Was it before or after the 1962 Missal? If after, then it won’t be any different. If before, it will be a little different.

However, you will be so enchanted with the beauty of the High Mass, you might not notice the differences. 👍
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We are having a High Mass at our parish that I will not be able to attend.

The last time I was at High Mass I don’t specifically recall. But I was an altar boy in the late 50s and early 60s.
 
m134e5 said:
It has been my experience that the congregation usually sings the responses with the altar boys. I have been told, however, that “in the old days” only the priest and servers ever really said anything.
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Back in those “old days” I was an “altar boy” and served weekday and Sunday Masses at a diocesan parish in the US midwest for years. During the week there were usually three Masses a morning, all of which were known as “High Masses”. At these High Masses we altar boys would respond in a low voice to the priest at Prayers at the Foot of the Altar and the Sucipiat and the “organist” would handle the sung responses to the priest. The congregation, usually numbering 6-8 individuals unless the grade school students were present, uttered nary a peep.

On Sundays, only one Mass was a High Mass and the only difference was that a choir would sing the responses instead of just the organist. The rest of the Sunday Masses were knowns as “Low Masses” and we altar boys spoke all the responses. Again the congregants, all 200-600, uttered nary a peep whether it was a High Mass or a Low Mass.

At Christmas and Easter and the very rare special funeral there would be a Solemn High Mass with priests in the roles of Celebrant, Deacon, and Subdeacon unless a seminarian who had been ordained a deacon or subdeacon happened to be home on vacation. The spoken and sung responses were done as described above for a High Mass.

I checked with my wife, who started as a substitute organist at her parish while still in junior high, and she recalls that Masses were exactly as describe above except that there were often as many as five weekday Masses.

.
 
As for me, I appreciate the Latin Mass, but really enjoy knowing and actually participating in the sacrafice of the mass.👍
 
YoungTradCath said:
It will be totally sung. There will be some quiet parts, but the principal parts of the Mass–the Ordinary and the Proper, as well as the readings–will be sung.

In the United States “High Mass” usually means a sung Mass with one priest and several altar boys. In other countries, “High Mass” often refers to what, in the US, we call a Solemn Mass.

“Solemn Mass” in the United States is the same thing as a High Mass, but in addition to the priest there is a deacon and a subdeacon present. The subdeacon sings the Epistle. The deacon sings the Gospel. These latter two also have some additional duties. Furthermore, this type of Mass is sometimes called a “Solemn High Mass,” which complicates things a bit.

There are also the Pontifical Masses, in which a bishop is the celebrant.

I’m about 85% sure your parish will have the first of these three, a sung Mass with a priest. If there is an online brochure or something and you post a link, we might be able to confirm this.

As far as what has changed between the 1960s and now regarding this form of Mass, hardly anything. Some slight details and kinks have been changed, but the overwhelming majority (upwards of 99.9%) of the Mass will be just as you remember it.

This is a High Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=c32brXXx5k8 (The organ is a bit awful in my opinion, but the singing, the participatory singing, is very good.)

This is a Solemn Mass: youtube.com/watch?v=TVnvwESokoo
Click to expand...
There is a clear difference between a High Mass and Solemn High Mass outside the USA - I don’t know where you got the idea that outside the USA a High Mass and Solemn mass are the same thing!

The definition everywhere I have been in Europe is that a High Mass would only involve one celebrant and at a Solemn one he would be assisted by Deacon and Subdeacon.

I would add that at both the Proper is chanted by the choir who would also sing the Gloria. It is usual at a High Mass for the choir to sing a polyphonic setting of the rest of the Ordinary though it can be sung congregationally.

It looks somewhat odd to me in the clip that you posted from the US that the mass is celebrated eastward facing at a free-standing altar. They should have used the High Altar (unless it too has met the fate of so many Catholic high altars!)
 
liturgyluver said:
There is a clear difference between a High Mass and Solemn High Mass outside the USA - I don’t know where you got the idea that outside the USA a High Mass and Solemn mass are the same thing!

The definition everywhere I have been in Europe is that a High Mass would only involve one celebrant and at a Solemn one he would be assisted by Deacon and Subdeacon.

I would add that at both the Proper is chanted by the choir who would also sing the Gloria. It is usual at a High Mass for the choir to sing a polyphonic setting of the rest of the Ordinary though it can be sung congregationally.
Click to expand...
I have read posts by several non-American posters (English actually) who said that in their country, High Mass is not a real term or something, or that it is the same as Solemn Mass, as far as terminology. idk
 
YoungTradCath said:
I have read posts by several non-American posters (English actually) who said that in their country, High Mass is not a real term or something, or that it is the same as Solemn Mass, as far as terminology. idk
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High Mass is a rare term indeed because the main mass at cathedrals and at large churches is normally a Solemn Mass with the Deacon and SubDeacon.
 
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