Latin is Greek

[rwoehmke]

I was an Alter Boy starting in third grade about 1944. We memorized the Latin responses and I used them all the way through High School and even some at College. I never had a course in Latin and must honestly admit that I had no idea what I was saying. Today it seems to me that to pray this way must have been akin to praying in tongues. People in the pews had the advantage of the Latin/English parallel translation in their Missals. How many of you old Knights of the Alter had this same experience?

 

[JimG]

I had the Latin responses memorized, but I also knew what they meant, because when not serving, I used a Latin-English missal at Mass. Many if not most people did. I thought I had forgotten all those “prayers at the foot of the altar,” but in middle age they all started coming back to me. Now if I’m having a bad day I just mutter to myself, “judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta…”

 

[Ray_Marshall]

rwoehmke:

I was an Alter Boy starting in third grade about 1944. We memorized the Latin responses and I used them all the way through High School and even some at College. I never had a course in Latin and must honestly admit that I had no idea what I was saying. Today it seems to me that to pray this way must have been akin to praying in tongues. People in the pews had the advantage of the Latin/English parallel translation in their Missals. How many of you old Knights of the Alter had this same experience?

Well, I was about ten years behind you. I owned my "St. Joseph’s Missal (??) and had access to the translations, but I still didn’t understand what I was saying. Except maybe for the opening “Ad Deum Qui Laetificat”, Kyrie, the Confiteor, and of course, the many “Et Cum Spiritu Tuo’s” and “Amen’s.”

But I still can say the “Suscipiat”, even though I don’t know what it means, even in English.

I went to a Tridentine Mass last Winter. I’d forgotten how “silent” the Mass was because many of the Altar Boy responses are said only for the benefit of the celebrant. The congregation can’t hear them.

From that point of view, the new Novus Ordo Mass is much better.

 

[Podo2004]

Ray Marshall:

Well, I was about ten years behind you. I owned my "St. Joseph’s Missal (??) and had access to the translations, but I still didn’t understand what I was saying. Except maybe for the opening “Ad Deum Qui Laetificat”, Kyrie, the Confiteor, and of course, the many “Et Cum Spiritu Tuo’s” and “Amen’s.”

But I still can say the “Suscipiat”, even though I don’t know what it means, even in English.

I went to a Tridentine Mass last Winter. I’d forgotten how “silent” the Mass was because many of the Altar Boy responses are said only for the benefit of the celebrant. The congregation can’t hear them.

From that point of view, the new Novus Ordo Mass is much better.