How to participate in the TLM

[Layman]

I read the reason the congregation remains quiet, even during responses, was because there was often more than one Mass in progress in a church i.e. at the side altars.

 

[h1478971]

Can you sing?
If your TLM has a schola which sings the gregorian chant then that is a great way to serve the church. I believe that knowledge of gregorian chant will be in hot demand as congregations the world over swing away from “cultural” music toward ageless universal music of high quality which will unite Catholics the world over.

I have also noticed that many of our schola’s are overworked and rarely get a break. So this would be a great way to serve.

I can’t sing. You guys have been a great help. thanks.

 

[floresco]

I thought of something else. You can unite yourself to the Mass in your Morning Offering prayer. For example, the one in my Missal starts:O Jesus, through the Immmaculate Heart of Mary, I offer thee all my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day, for all the intendions of Thy Sacred heart, in union with the holy Sacrifice of the Mass througout the world . . .
When we pray like this we unite ourselves to the Mass every day, even when we are not attending it. We become more conscious of the Mass all the time.

 

[IntegraCatholic]

I read the reason the congregation remains quiet, even during responses, was because there was often more than one Mass in progress in a church i.e. at the side altars.

This doesn’t hold whenever the bell is used. When several private Masses are said in close proximity, there is no bell used. When a public Mass is said at the high altar, even when there are private Masses said at side altars at the same time, the bell is still used and everything is said aloud as usual. The dialogue participation concocted in the 20th century was simply an innovation.

 

[mick321]

This doesn’t hold whenever the bell is used. When several private Masses are said in close proximity, there is no bell used. When a public Mass is said at the high altar, even when there are private Masses said at side altars at the same time, the bell is still used and everything is said aloud as usual. The dialogue participation concocted in the 20th century was simply an innovation.

Right.

The Development of Low Mass and its Influence on Lay Participation
Notwithstanding that the overwhelming majority of Masses celebrated today in the Latin Church are according to the Low Mass form, the sung Solemn Mass form is more ritualistically complete and comprises the liturgical standard for the rite of Mass. Until roughly the seventh century, all Masses were sung in the liturgical rites of both the East and the West. In an era when there was an abundance of clerics to fulfill the various liturgical offices and before Gregorian chant was nearly abandoned, Solemn Masses were seen frequently (if not daily) in Europe, especially in cathedrals, major churches and monasteries where the conventional Masses were usually of the solemn form.

By the ninth century, a peculiar spoken adaptation of the sung Solemn Mass had gradually developed in the Latin Rite: the Low Mass. This abbreviated and recited version of the sung form is unique to the Latin Rite and its equal does not exist in the Eastern Rites where the Divine Liturgies continue to be sung. The particular liturgical discipline of the Latin Church, where concelebration was practiced only on special occasions and later ceased altogether, was just one contributing factor to the development of Low Mass, especially in religious communities where only a single priest could offer the daily sung conventional Mass.

When first introduced, the Low Mass was intended for use by a priest without the public’s attendance; hence its official term Missa Privatis. These privately said Masses did not include the ministers or schola as at Solemn Mass. So the celebrant absorbed the readings and propers normally distributed amongst the deacon, subdeacon and schola at Solemn Mass, while the acolyte absorbed the preparatory prayers the sacred ministers dialoged with the celebrant and the Kyriale responses that the schola and laity would make in unison; thus originated the idea that the server represents the faithful. Meanwhile, the sung form continued to be used for the public conventional or parochial Masses.

However, an unfortunate side effect of the common use of Low Mass combined with the decline of Catholic culture led to the diminishing of the solemn form’s ideal, hence the vocal participation of the laity gradually became a foreign concept in the Western Church.

Once we understand that Solemn Mass was for centuries the usual form for public Masses and remains the normative form, several important interlocking points come into relief. First, singing during Mass should be the norm, not the exception. Second, it is the sung Mass that demonstrates most perfectly the Roman norm for reverent silence, not the Low form. Third, at sung Masses the proper division of the liturgical offices amongst the various ministers is clearly denoted. Here some further explanation is needed to expel some predominate misconceptions that many have concerning the position of the acolyte, or altar server.

The liturgical office of acolyte is the highest of the minor orders whose main duty is to minister the cruets, carry the candles in procession and assist the sacred ministers. Though at the spoken Low Mass the acolyte responds to the celebrant, per the rubrics for Solemn Mass neither the acolytes nor the sacred ministers make any of the responses sung by the schola. This office belongs to the schola which leads the congregation in singing the Kyriale, whose dialoged parts are directed to the combined choir and congregation (e.g., “Dominus vobiscum,” the Preface, “Ite, missa est”) which are all conjugated in the plural form and not the singular. This same practice also exists in the Eastern Rites. So only with the later development of Low Mass did the acolyte, out of necessity, assume the responses made by the schola.

romanitaspress.com/articl…le-remnant.pdf