Latin Mass at my Church in TX!

[south2nd]

CM2

Because if we are supposed to be the Universal Church, the “thing” that unites all of us, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, must be celebrated the same way, whether in Texas, Maryland, or Timbuctoo. It should be understandable to anyone from anywhere. Some of the Ordinary Form Masses have been, shall we say, innovative and divisive.

Charlemagne, I think you’re looking for a more scholarly explanation. I took a World Religion class in college, and we learned that chanting is an integral part of all ancient religions. I’m not sure if you’ve actually been to a Latin High Mass and have heard Gregorian chants in Latin, but I’m sure you can find them on the web.

Anyway, early people believed chanting opened one spiritually. There have been numerous studies in the last few years that found chanting has the same benefits as meditation–it lowers blood pressure, relieves stress and helps depression. I had a friend in college who was studying Music Therapy. She told me every vowel sound has a distinct effect on the brain. Latin, with its round vowels, is one of the languages with the biggest effect on the sympathetic nervous system.

It evokes emotion more than most languages. This also explains why Italian opera makes you much more emotional than when you hear the same song in English.

Hope this helps

 

[Seamus_L]

That we don’t understand the Latin in the Mass is a rather old and weak Protestant argument, that sadly some Catholics now use. The missal has Latin on one side and English on the other, plus Catholic students used to take several years of Latin in school, it’s also studied today in varying degrees by many of those who attend Latin Masses.