I attended my first latin mass sunday

[peterson28]

I attended my TLM on Sunday at a SSPX chapelin my city. I have always wondered what the mass was like in latin. I went to the mass a half hour early and began to pray the rosary. I was pleasantly suprised when, about fifteen minutes before mass, a gentelman began to lead the assembled congregation in praying the rosary. I loved the service. I had trouble following along initially but got the hang of it quickly. The priest spoke about the first saturday devotion and that reminded the congregation of the great graces of that devotion. After mass there was a Benediction and then people gathered for coffee.

I enjoyed going to the TLM and am going next week at the FSSP church in our diocese. It is about an hour away.
With all that being said I don’t understand why the mass was changed ?

 

[Eric_Olsen]

I enjoyed going to the TLM and am going next week at the FSSP church in our diocese. It is about an hour away.
With all that being said I don’t understand why the mass was changed ?

That was my initial reaction too back in July 2003 when I discovered the TLM by accident at St. Francis of Assissi in Norristown Pa. I sat and wondered, why the heck did they mess with the mass? And being only 33 at the time and too young to remember the old mass, made me think of how much I was robbed of because some people thought VII demanded the mass be drastically changed.

 

[chenry]

I sat and wondered, why the heck did they mess with the mass?

Being part of the 2009 Tiber Swim team this year, I for one, am grateful that they changed the Latin mass to the vernacular. Without the vernacular, I think that it would have been less likely for me to come into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Not taking away anything from the Latin Mass, I look forward to attending one as well, but at one point and time, the Latin was the vernacular. It was, the language of the people. Now, since most people, including myself, don’t know Latin at all, it is no longer the vernacular language. In other words, I don’t think that the Mass was changed. It was intended to meet the people in a language that they understood. Latin was that universal language at one point.

Just my $0.02.

God bless…

 

[brotherhrolf]

Latin ceased being the language of the people (vernacular) when the western Roman empire fell in 450 AD. It was never the language of the eastern Roman empire - that was Greek.

Latin unified the Latin rite church throughout the Dark Ages all the way up to 1967. My ancestors spoke old English, various types of Gaelic, French, and various types of German. Any of my ancestors upon hearing Pater Noster would be able to respond and know that they were reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

We have a large number of French visitors to my cathedral parish each summer. They come on the Mississippi steamboat cruises. Yep, they get to go to Mass - in English and get as much out of it as I would attending Mass in French. I recognize the parts of the Mass but that would be about it. Forty plus years ago, those same French visitors would have been able to actively participate at Mass. Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.

I have not attended a TLM since 1976. I’ve watched them on EWTN. I don’t need a Missal. I was an altar boy before Vatican II. I don’t need the altar boy’s altar card. I do indeed know what I am saying as I did 40 years ago.

It is not the Latin of the TLM, it is the reverence. Chenry, sadly, the Mass was changed. I attended Mass infrequently during the late 1970s precisely because of the lack of reverence. Two things happened in 1983. One, I was invited to join the cathedral choir. Two, we were no longer required to belong to our local geographic parish. I voted with my feet and joined the cathedral parish. I drive 25 miles one way and have done so for the last almost 26 years.

As the first two posters noted, there is a huge difference in terms of reverence. We are in the presence of God not our community. That is a huge sea change of idea.

 

[Cluny]

Believe it or not, the Roman Mass promulgated by St. Pius V after the Council of Trent was tinkered with–or changed–more or less continually through the centuries.

Nor was it always celebrated everywhere in Latin.

At one time it was celebrated in Chinese.

And for centuries it was celebrated in dioceses along the Adriatic in Church Slavonic–the so called Glagolithic rite.

 

[lphelps]

I attended my TLM on Sunday at a SSPX chapelin my city. I have always wondered what the mass was like in latin. I went to the mass a half hour early and began to pray the rosary. I was pleasantly suprised when, about fifteen minutes before mass, a gentelman began to lead the assembled congregation in praying the rosary. I loved the service. I had trouble following along initially but got the hang of it quickly. The priest spoke about the first saturday devotion and that reminded the congregation of the great graces of that devotion. After mass there was a Benediction and then people gathered for coffee.

I enjoyed going to the TLM and am going next week at the FSSP church in our diocese. It is about an hour away.
With all that being said I don’t understand why the mass was changed ?

I just recently switched from my local parish that I loved (constant requests for money) and had been a member for 10 years, to a Tridentine parish in the city. The liturgy is exquisite. Very reverent and the focus is definitely on the Eucharist and a prayerful attitude. The hymns are from the 1959 St Basil’s hymnal. I really feel transformed when I attend Mass there. The drive is about 25 minutes.

 

[Cluny]

I just recently switched from my local parish that I loved (constant requests for money) and had been a member for 10 years, to a Tridentine parish in the city. The liturgy is exquisite. Very reverent and the focus is definitely on the Eucharist and a prayerful attitude. The hymns are from the 1959 St Basil’s hymnal. I really feel transformed when I attend Mass there. The drive is about 25 minutes.

And, of course, they never ask for money, now do they?

As one old priest used to say, salvation is free, but the Church costs money.