How does one be traditional when there are no traditional parishes?

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texasag7599

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I love my parish and the people in it. It is about as traditional as one can get without actually having a Latin Mass and using the traditional calendar. It’s already the most traditional parish within driving distance so I don’t really have a choice in attending somewhere else.

How do you do you keep the traditional calendar and worship when all the parishes do not? For instance, I would like to go to Mass on Thursday for the true Epiphany but the readings will have nothing to do with it. The Mass for the Epiphany was today and we skipped the Feast of Mary, Mother of God which should actually be the Feast of the Circumcision. Very frustrating.

I know this question is pretty non-specific and open-ended but if you could shares some ideas about how you do it, let me know.
 
There is just one Jesus Christ, and He is present in any valid Mass. He has the magic power not the rite.

If you need the words, read them from a missal, you get exactly from that reading what the words worth. I do that myself daily, according to the traditional Latin missal, and that is useful, elevates the mind.

That dry reading does not brings Jesus real presence, but you can get that in your Church according to the new rite and calendar; the reading brings the words what you apparently miss.
 
texasag7599 said:
I love my parish and the people in it. It is about as traditional as one can get without actually having a Latin Mass and using the traditional calendar. It’s already the most traditional parish within driving distance so I don’t really have a choice in attending somewhere else.

How do you do you keep the traditional calendar and worship when all the parishes do not? For instance, I would like to go to Mass on Thursday for the true Epiphany but the readings will have nothing to do with it. The Mass for the Epiphany was today and we skipped the Feast of Mary, Mother of God which should actually be the Feast of the Circumcision. Very frustrating.

I know this question is pretty non-specific and open-ended but if you could shares some ideas about how you do it, let me know.
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For what it’s worth, in my parish we read the gospel of the Epiphany today and it was great to be able to read it on a Sunday. Many people have problems with making Mass on Thursdays, at least my parish. I don’t see an issue with keeping a traditional calendar, unless you’re talking about pre Vat 2.

Hope this helps.
 
Are there any Byzantine rite parishes near you? They don’t generally move feast days to Sunday like the Roman rite does, iirc.
 
I’d recommend going to the service that they offer there in order to receive the eucharist. However, I’d suggest you get a version of the roman missal and a liturgy of the hours which year is up to you and pray it daily. That may help you feel more connected.
 
As others have suggested, use a Missal for the 1962 Mass and read the readings and prayers from that (please don’t do that during Mass at your parish, though!). I have and like the The Roman Missal (1962) from Baronius Press. It has the Order of Mass and the Propers for all the Masses of the year, as well as lots of great devotional prayers like the litanies and such. It also has Vespers and Compline for Sundays and Feasts. Much of that, including all the liturgical propers, are both in English and Latin.

This seems to be the best source I can find for an Ordo that’s free online: divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/missa/kalendar.pl

For a day like the Epiphany that’s transferred to Sunday, I suggest go ahead and go to Mass at your parish or wherever on Thursday, and participate fully normally in that Mass. Separately, before or after Mass, or in an Adoration chapel, or at home, read the Propers for the Epiphany and meditate on them. You could also bless your house with Holy Water. Today (or tomorrow, since it’s probably too late today), pray the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus. Today is the Feast of the Holy Name in the Extraordinary Form; tomorrow is the Optional Memorial of the Holy Name in the Ordinary Form calendar.

These are just a couple of examples to get started. Get that Missal (if you don’t have one) and go crazy! Just always remember that, much more important than the Form of Mass is that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist in either form. So if you have to choose between going to Mass in the Ordinary Form, or reading the prayers at home from the Extraordinary Form - go to Mass!
 
Traditional worship does not hinge upon the availability of the Mass to the 1962 Missal.

It really is quite simple:
  • You can pray the Liturgy of the Hours - Morning, Evening and Night prayers are the main ones encouraged for the Laity, which I can all but guarantee that you won’t find liberal types praying.
  • You can follow traditional devotions to Mary, such as wearing the brown scapular, five-fold scapular or the scapular medal, praying the little office of Mary or the Rosary daily.
  • Have a holy-water stoop in your house, near the front door.
  • Create a house-shrine to a favourite or patron saint.
  • Hang a Crucifix in each room or above doorways.
  • Write in chalk 20+C+M+B+11 above your front door (traditional to the Epiphany)
Just follow established traditions and practices.
 
texasag7599 said:
I love my parish and the people in it. It is about as traditional as one can get without actually having a Latin Mass and using the traditional calendar. It’s already the most traditional parish within driving distance so I don’t really have a choice in attending somewhere else.

How do you do you keep the traditional calendar and worship when all the parishes do not? For instance, I would like to go to Mass on Thursday for the true Epiphany but the readings will have nothing to do with it. The Mass for the Epiphany was today and we skipped the Feast of Mary, Mother of God which should actually be the Feast of the Circumcision. Very frustrating.

I know this question is pretty non-specific and open-ended but if you could shares some ideas about how you do it, let me know.
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One way would be to get an old Breviary and say it daily. I’ve done this. Being traditional is keeping the true faith and you can do that at either Mass but I also think, at least for me, it’s also the way you think and see things. This probably would be considered tradition with a small “T”. In other words, I’m inspired more by traditional pictures, hymns, writings, etc. I love thinking and picturing myself going to Mass in previous centuries. I know that may seem odd but I think I’m naturally traditional. Even in subjects other than the Faith, I’m traditional. I love history and tend to live in the past. I don’t know if that makes sense but I’ve always been that way. It’s an attitude as well as the Faith itself. It can be a learned thing but it was natural to me. Some on here may disagree but these extra things help feed me and I’ve learned to adapt. So I would say pray the Breviary, listen to Sacred Polyphony and Chant and read the classics. That will help.
 
Epiphany is on the 6th January. There are 12 days of Christmas. Transferring Epiphany is just laziness. It’s an important feast. Would it kill people to have an evening Mass on the 6th?

Looking forward to Good Friday being transferred to a Sunday. Not.
 
Layman said:
Epiphany is on the 6th January. There are 12 days of Christmas. Transferring Epiphany is just laziness. It’s an important feast. Would it kill people to have an evening Mass on the 6th?

Looking forward to Good Friday being transferred to a Sunday. Not.
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Traditionally within this 12 days there were 3 Holy days of obligation and usually 2 Sundays. In the time when 70+% of the population lived in rural, agricultural, ‘in winter little to do’ environment this was good.

Times changed, the majority lives in cities and suburbs. The decision of the Church to transfer the feast of Epiphany serves good reason: feasts should be exceptions not rule, not even within a 12 day period.
 
feasts should be exceptions not rule, not even within a 12 day period.
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'Fraid I don’t understand this at all.

A priest I know, a pious man, told me he had to say Mass of the Epiphany on the 1st of January, Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God; formerly Christ’s Circumcision.

This sort of thing is unnecessary, creates confusion and detracts from the sacrality of the rite. Because we are now more urbanised and have cars we should be able to go to Mass more easily.

AFAIK, there was no impediment to the Masses being said on the proper days, here in the UK.
 
I think a way 'round all the anguish and apologias surrounding the changes post-1940 is to simply find a Church where the TLM is said regularly and support it.
 
Hi texasag,

I’m Fightin’ Class of 1997, myself, and find that I am in the same boat.

What I’ve found to help in “being traditional” is:
  1. pray the Rosary every day (a lovely history linking you with generations of faithful Catholics)
  2. pray the Baronius edition of the Little Office of the BVM. Why this and not the Full 1962 office? The LOBVM is rooted in centuries of tradition, has a traditional flavor, but does not rely on the daily changes in the (EF) liturgical calendar. Therefore, you can pray it in sync with the OF calendar and not feel like you are being schizo with your prayer life. It is Latin/English with gregorian chant, so there is a lifetime of growth there.
  3. Start a schola cantorum to improve the quality of liturgy. I did.. You at least feel like you are being constructive, and you will meet like-minded people.
  4. Keep Traditional literature and books well-stocked in your home. I like Roman Catholic Books, Neumann Press, and TAN Books. While liturgical stuff like Michael Davies is my cup of tea, it can become an obsession. It is good to remember that you can be liturgically perfect and still go to Hell, so remember to not let your traditionalism lead you to hate, resentment, depression, or despair. Read good spiritual books…not just books detailing the changes in the Church since V2.
  5. Most important: frequent the sacraments. It doesn’t matter if the priest is diocesan or FSSP, if the rite is in English or Latin, the grace is there to help you get to Heaven, where the perfect liturgy goes on forever. If you miss that boat, liturgical preferences are meaningless.
 
Recite the traditional form of the divine Office or part of it. That will keep you in the environment of the traditional calendar, and connects you with the traditional priests who pray that office every day.

If you start with the Compline (last prayer to call it a day) that is five minutes, and easy to learn. If you add the Prime as morning prayer that is just a bit longer. Vespers after you done with your work is 15 minutes.
 
TheDoctor said:
I don’t get it, sorry. Could you explain it please?
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It is written on my door too:

20 and 11 (at the beginning and and of the scripts are the year), C M B are the supposed names of the magi who visited the baby Christ: Caspar, Melchior, Baltasar, the crosses (plus sign) means the blessing. This is a blessing for the house. Traditionaly the priest went from house to house to do it, now blessed chalk is distributed to make the script.
 
Thanks laszlo. I don’t ever recall this tradition in my old Italian neighborhood or when our current house was blessed.

It never ceases to amaze me the depth of knowledge here.
 
Wear a mantilla and attend Mass everyday. Fast for 12 hours or at least 3 before you recieve Holy Communion. Take Latin classes
 
I would suggest bringing your 1962 Missal to Sunday Mass and just pray out of the Missal. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now.

You have to play catch-up at the beginning of the Mass since the prayers at the foot of the altar have been omitted in the NO Mass. Follow the postures and prayers of the TLM - kneel during the Credo, pray the Offertory prayers instead of the general intention prayers, no hand shaky thing, COTT while kneeling, recite the Last Gospel and the prayers introduced by Pope Leo XIII after the Mass.

It really takes tuning out all the distractions going on around you but it’s doable.
 
ncstevem said:
I would suggest bringing your 1962 Missal to Sunday Mass and just pray out of the Missal. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now.

You have to play catch-up at the beginning of the Mass since the prayers at the foot of the altar have been omitted in the NO Mass. Follow the postures and prayers of the TLM - kneel during the Credo, pray the Offertory prayers instead of the general intention prayers, no hand shaky thing, COTT while kneeling, recite the Last Gospel and the prayers introduced by Pope Leo XIII after the Mass.

It really takes tuning out all the distractions going on around you but it’s doable.
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I have to say that I disagree with a lot of this. This sounds like you are pretty much suggesting ignoring the actual Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in favor of reading the texts of the other Form of Mass - as if the actual Mass itself is a distraction.

I agree that some of the stuff that sometimes happens during the Ordinary Form of the Mass can be distracting. It’s great to tune those out in favor of devout, traditional prayer. But it’s not okay to tune out actual parts of the Mass. By all means, pray the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar privately - before Mass begins (and, as you note, the Last Gospel, etc., after Mass). Nothing wrong with praying the traditional Offertory prayers if the priest prays the modern Offertory silently. Receive on the tongue, and if reasonable, while kneeling. Show great restraint during the Sign of Peace, keep your hands folded and eyes closed during the Pater Noster. Feel free to pray silently while people sing the offfertory and Communion hymns, especially if they are awful hymns. If there’s time, sometimes I silently pray the traditional Confiteor between the priest’s Communion and my own reception of Communion.

But please don’t ignore the General Intentions or any of the other actual Mass parts. And follow the postures, gestures, and other parts proper to the Ordinary Form - yes, including that pesky Sign of Peace if it is included. Because it’s part of the Mass, and it’s not “Traditional” to defy the rubrics and order of the Mass.
 
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