How much Latin was used in the Mass before Vatican 2?
The whole mass was in Latin, except the homily/sermon. And of course the “Lord have Mercy / Christ have Mercy” was in Greek.
Were the Readings and Gospel in Latin?
There was only 1 Reading and the 1 Gospel reading, were both in Latin. Then, typically, the priest would read them in the vernacular during his homily/sermon. However, that wasn’t a requirement, but many priests did do it. Additionally, many people in the 20th century had missals so they could following the readings in the vernacular. I’m not sure when the missals started becoming affordable after the printing press, but many Catholic families would own at least one copy because the Missal also had prayers for home, etc.
But you also have to remember that the reciting of the scriptures in Mass is done so for 3 reasons:
- The first and foremost reason, is as prayers to God and to give God praise for His Word
- The 2nd reason to to proclaim it to the pagans, so that the Word of God can touch the pagans not present at the Mass through supernatural means. When the Word of God is proclaimed at Mass, the Holy Spirit is at work at that exact moment, which is why it is better to chant the readings than to simply speak them… because sung/chanted prayer is more powerful that spoken prayer
- The last reason, is for the people in the pews. However, we Catholics are supposed to be reading the scriptures anyway, it should not be the first time we hear them. As a good priest once said, the Mass is not a Bible study. We should be coming to Mass having already read the scriptures and be ready to receive the Holy Spirit when the reading are being proclaimed.
there were no “responsorial psalms” in the old Mass. There was a gradual (scripture selection which was usually a psalm) that was chanted by the schola (during the High and Solemn High Masses), but the “responsorial psalms” was created for the Mass of Paul VI. At a low mass, it would be read in Latin by the priest.
Did the congregation respond in Latin, or their vernacular, or did they not respond aloud?
Depends. The General Instructions for the Mass required only the Altar Servers to respond, not all the people. However, in many parishes, the people would respond with the Altar Servers in Latin. But the lines the people would respond to were typically the easier ones (like “And with your spirit”) and repeated at every mass. There were also booklets / prayer cards that had the Vernacular and Latin next to one another (just like many parishes have missal booklets in pews today)
I assume hymns were sung in the vernacular. Or were there no hymns sung by the congregation?
Hymns were only sung before mass started and after mass ended, not during the mass. And yes, they were often in the vernacular. But sometimes there might be a famous Latin one like Ave Maria.
