How far would you travel to attend the Ordinary Form of the Mass?

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EcceAgnusDei

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There are many people who travel many miles and hours to attend an EF (Traditional Latin Mass). I travel 1 hour each way and I know of a family that attends my chapel that travels 2+ hours each way. The question came up in another thread that if the situation were reversed, if the EF were celebrated everywhere (obviously the name would change) and the OF (Novus Ordo) rare, how many people would travel long distances to attend the OF?

Please do not read this as an OF vs. EF thread (and please do not turn it into one). Actually, I see this as a pro-OF thread as it will allow people to state the reasons why they would attend an OF if time and travel were difficulties.

Let’s assume that there is a Traditional Latin Mass 10 minutes from your house. How far would you travel to attend the Ordinary Form of Mass and why?
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Interesting question. Since I strongly believe in territorial parishes, I wouldn’t travel because of the form of the Mass.

I am blessed to have a very reverant Mass in my home parish, so I assume that the same priests would continue to celebrate a reverant Mass no matter what the form.
 
There is a parish near me that does both, though I’ve never been to the EF there. I find it a little intimidating. Our bishop isn’t too fussed about staying within parish boundaries, so I attend an OF about 7 miles away. They have had years of people playing fast and loose with the liturgy, but our pastor is slowly bringing us back into compliance with the norms. I do enjoy the OF, if for no other reason than because I appreciate being able to experience it in English. The EF is lovely too, but not as an everyday thing for me.
 
I guess the question presupposes that one prefers the OF, so it is probably not a question that would apply to me.
 
So you mean if the Latin Mass was the ordinary form of the Mass?

I would go to the Latin Mass in that case as my home Parish.
 
Our parish offers both the EF and OF Masses. The OF Masses have lots of Latin, use no EMHC’s, Communion is offered at the rail.

Because of that, we have people that do drive an hour+ to come to our Masses.

In addition, it was erected as a personal parish, so membership is available to any in the diocese (not geographic)
 
I’ve never been to an EF mass, but if that’s what was available locally I would attend happily. However my kids and husband are protestant so that would be another hurdle for them. I’m sure we’d all get the hang of it though.
Brendan said:
Our parish offers both the EF and OF Masses. The OF Masses have lots of Latin, use no EMHC’s, Communion is offered at the rail.
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That’s it. I’m moving to Detroit. 😉
 
I chose 1 hour, but that’s not my perfect answer. My perfect answer would be that I would normally travel about an hour to the Ordinary Form of the Mass, but would on occasion attend the Extraordinary Form. My answer would have been much different 2 years ago (shortly after my conversion), but I once came across this:

Pope Paul VI General Audience, November 26, 1969

Paragraph 11. Understanding of prayer is worth more than the silken garments in which it is royally dressed. Participation by the people is worth more—particularly participation by modern people, so fond of plain language which is easily understood and converted into everyday speech.

Paragraph 12. If the divine Latin language kept us apart from the children, from youth, from the world of labor and of affairs, if it were a dark screen, not a clear window, would it be right for us fishers of souls to maintain it as the exclusive language of prayer and religious intercourse? What did St. Paul have to say about that? Read chapter 14 of the first letter to the Corinthians: “In Church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (I Corinthians 14:19).

I then realized that it was most important that I first teach my future children (G-d willing) to pray, before I teach them the language of our Holy Church. So I would travel an hour for the sake of my (theoretical) children and my wife, and would attend the Extraordinary Form of the Mass also for their sake but less often.
 
I would travel as far as it took for the sake of my wife and her God-daughter, who don’t speak Latin and would be uncomfortable attending without understanding everything. Personally, I’d prefer an EF Mass, which is a rarity around here.
 
Poll options are a trouble here. I would travel, but not 30 minutes worth, not weekly anyway.

Why? If for me, it would be so that I could pray mass or so that I would not have to feel bullied concerning my head. If for my family, it would be so that their mass attendance would be better supported.
 
Pug said:
Poll options are a trouble here. I would travel, but not 30 minutes worth, not weekly anyway.

Why? If for me, it would be so that I could pray mass or so that I would not have to feel bullied concerning my head. If for my family, it would be so that their mass attendance would be better supported.
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This is a bit of a tough question. Within my country, I would travel any distance, since all the churches are so densely-packed together and so easily accessible by public transport, there’s not really a limit I can think of.

In other countries, it depends very much on how safe it is before I feel confident to venture from my accommodation.
 
This is a bit of a tough question. Within my country, I would travel any distance, since all the churches are so densely-packed together and so easily accessible by public transport, there’s not really a limit I can think of.

In other countries, it depends very much on how safe it is before I feel confident to venture from my accommodation.
 
What a great idea for a thread! Thank you for starting this.

I voted for 1 hour, but my answer is much more complex than that! There are some things about the OF that I prefer absolutely and so would not make a difference as to what distance I would travel, but there are also many other factors that would determine how far I would be willing to travel.

The main reason I prefer the OF is because I am better able to participate in this form of the Mass and it helps me to focus more on the Mass itself and not be distracted. And just so it’s clear, this is not simply about using the vernacular, although I am very fond of having the Mass in my native tongue. I find it very important for me to attend a Mass I can understand, but since I attended the OF in Latin for four years this is not really a problem for me. The main reason I prefer the OF is the ability to hear and respond to the prayers. Of all the EF Masses I have attended I got the most out of those done at a school where all the students (myself included) would say the responses out loud. This is not the only reason I prefer the OF, but it is the main reason.

Some of the factors that woul decide whether, or how far, I would drive to go to an OF are:
  • the communities at both parishes. Whether they are welcoming, friendly, and charitable or not.
  • the music. I don’t think I could travel far for anything too modern or “happy-clappy” as its sometimes called, but on the other end of the spectrum if it’s so solemn that the music feels stretched out i also would not feel as inclined to attend as this is very distracting for me. I would rather attend a reverent Mass without music than one with either of these kinds of music at Mass. Also, while I realize a professional choir can do a better job of it by themselves, I would much prefer a parish where everyone was encouraged to join in, and where a large number do.
  • the quality of the homily. Good solid teaching in a manner that truly encourages spiritual growth and continually challenges us to live up to the example of Chriat is extremely important!
  • the availability of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy. If there was a good Byzantine parish at a comparable distance to the OF there’s a good chance I would end up there as well. 🙂
So, depending on all of these factors I think I would be willing to drive between 0 min and 1 hr 45 min. to get to an OF Mass.
 
Also,

Each year for the past few years, I have gone to Tanzania to do some volunteer engineering and computer work.

Our parish (see above) has a ‘sister’ parish in rural western Tanzania. We did a capital campaign for them over the last 3 years to raise money to build them a church, school, rectory, convent and medical dispensary, along with a new well for the village.

I helped with the construction as well as set up computers in the several of the schools in the diocese.

It was not uncommon for people to walk 6-10 miles on Sunday to get to Mass. With their children and often bringing chairs to sit on if the Mass site did not have a church with pews.

We have it very easy.
 
I guess this poll/question doesn’t apply to me because I prefer the TLM. 🙂 But, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t travel.
 
I would drive at least an hour or two for the Mass in OF, if need be. Should time or weather be an issue, then I would attend a nearby Divine Liturgy.
 
I would continue to travel to the abbey I am affiliated with, because it’s a very beautiful and reverential OF, and it is steeped in Benedictine tradition (35 minutes away to be precise).

If I were living elsewhere, I would probably travel to the nearest reverential EF… because I have no illusions, if the EF were everywhere, there would be non-reverential EFs. Human nature. I would travel 30 min to the OF if it was the only reverential Mass, regardless of form, within a 30 min radius.
 
bmadamsberry said:
I chose 1 hour, but that’s not my perfect answer. My perfect answer would be that I would normally travel about an hour to the Ordinary Form of the Mass, but would on occasion attend the Extraordinary Form. My answer would have been much different 2 years ago (shortly after my conversion), but I once came across this:

Pope Paul VI General Audience, November 26, 1969

Paragraph 11. Understanding of prayer is worth more than the silken garments in which it is royally dressed. Participation by the people is worth more—particularly participation by modern people, so fond of plain language which is easily understood and converted into everyday speech.

Paragraph 12. If the divine Latin language kept us apart from the children, from youth, from the world of labor and of affairs, if it were a dark screen, not a clear window, would it be right for us fishers of souls to maintain it as the exclusive language of prayer and religious intercourse? What did St. Paul have to say about that? Read chapter 14 of the
first letter to the Corinthians: “In Church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (I Corinthians 14:19).

I then realized that it was most important that I first teach my future children (G-d willing) to pray, before I teach them the language of our Holy Church. So I would travel an hour for the sake of my (theoretical) children and my wife, and would attend the Extraordinary Form of the Mass also for their sake but less often.
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Thank you for posting this. I have a friend who drives me nuts with his insistence that the use of the vernacular is in and of itself less reverent than Latin. :rolleyes:
 
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