Well for me understanding of the traditions of the Catholic church has influenced my spirituality and I’ve seen other posts on here where people have said that they have a different spiritual experience when attending Latin Mass than when attending the NO, so it would seem that the structure of the Latin Mass would have a certain spiritual impact, but I would think that one would have to have some understanding of the language to get the most of this spiritual experience. Also, I occasionally pray in French, so I would not find it all that strange to pray in Latin at some point. Prayer is about telling God what is in your heart, and every language has its limits, so it can’t hurt to know a few more words you can use to express yourself to God. So there’s why I thought posting this question here would make sense. At least it makes sense to me, but everyone has a different approach to spirituality, so what I would consider beneficial for my personal spirituality someone else might think useless for theirs.
More often than not, what people experience in the Latin Mass is a level of reverence that they don’t experience in your average Catholic Parish. This has nothing to do with the format of the TLM being more reverent than the Novus Ordo, but rather, the attitude of the people attending the TLM. Most of them take their faith seriously and travel out of their way to attend a TLM. I know a man who travels 50 miles out of his way, to attend a TLM rather than attend Mass in his home parish. Is Jesus not present in the Eucharist at his home parish?
Try to attend a Novus Ordo at a monastery or on a week-end retreat, and you’ll see a level of reverence you won’t see in your average parish. People who attend Masses there,
take their faith seriously, and will travel to these Masses.
If you can’t do that, attend a weekday Mass in your parish, and again, you’ll see a level of reverence that you won’t see at Sunday Masses. Again, its the people attending that makes the difference.
Again, the reason isn’t the format, it’s the level of spirituality of the people in attendance and their reverence for the Mass, regardless of the format.
Catholic parishes serve people at all different levels, including those who just attend Sunday Mass out of obligation and want to get out of the church and back home as soon as they can. Also, there are little kids who often add to the distraction.
When I attend Mass, I’m in awe, regardless of where it is celebrated, but having a group of people who are reverent, does add to the experience.
FYI, I’ve been to both formats and was raised with the TLM before Vatican II. I never want to go back to the TLM format.
The reverence I’ve experienced at Mass when I attend the Trappist or Benedictine Monastery near where I live, is never the same experience as back in my home parish and it never will be at that level because of the reason explained above.
Jim
Also, at this point in my life (I’m still pretty young) I feel that learning more about the Church is aiding in developing a relationship with Christ.
…and yes I do get something different out of the EF Mass…it is hard to explain.