Mass in Another Language?

[mystified]

The question of attending Mass in a language one does not understand meeting the Sunday requisite sounds as though one should be excused if traveling in a foreign country where one does not speak the local language.
I don’t think this would be an adequate reason for skipping Mass. Regardless of the language, a Catholic should be familiar enough with the Mass to be able to follow along, even quietly responding in his/her own language.
That was the beauty of Latin everywhere-all the time, “Dominus vobiscum,” automatically drew the reponse, “Et cum spiritu tuo.”

 

[tcraig]

I have attended Novus Ordo Masses in English (my language), Spanish, Italian, German and French. The Spanish one was in the U.S., and the Italian, German and French Masses were in those countries. My husband has attended a NO Mass in Korea.

I have also attended Traditional Latin Masses in the U.S., Italy, France and Germany.

Aside from the fact that it’s always a gamble (which I haven’t always won) whether one will get a reverent NO Mass or something that will make your hair curl, the NO Masses I have attended in foreign language have been … well … foreign. Yes, there is a somewhat familiar flow to the proceedings, but if you don’t speak the language you feel a bit cut off from the entire Mass, the songs, the responses, everything. My husband attended a Korean Mass once, and refused to go again. He couldn’t even read the responses.

However, at the TLM I have assisted at in foreign countries, I have simply taken my Latin/English missal and “fallen right in” with the Mass. The Latin responses are the same no matter what country I’m in, and I’m able to follow along with the readings in my missal. One missal is sufficient for any foreign country I could go to. I don’t understand the homily, it’s true, but we’re not protestants and we don’t attend Mass so we can get a sermon.

It’s from attending the TLM in various foreign countries that I am convinced that the TLM needs to be restored as the normative rite, rather than the NO.

 

[Andrewcarey]

English here but some greek because our priest is doing the “kyrie”

 

[palmas85]

This was not a problem in the days of the Traditional Mass because only the sermon and whatever anouncements were made would be in the vernacular. This came in very handy. In my home country there are several main languages and numerous dialects, several hundred actually. While most people have a working knowledge of either English of Tagalog, or both, not everyone does. In the setting of Mass you may very well have people who speak 10-15 different languages or dialects. No matter which language the Priest chooses some will probably not understand every word that is said. In Latin Masses that did not happen.

And before some of the ex-pats who live in the Philippines jump up and scream that due to the poverty of the islands there are no missals, no one would understand anyway and learning Latin is beyond the means and abilities of the people , I offer my mom and grandmother, neither of who went to school beyond the 3rd grade, grew up in the Province and would best be described in todays terms as basically illiterate. However, they both knew the Mass by heart, in Latin and in our dialect, having been instructed in rigorous Catechism classes run by the good sisters. Oh yeah, I forgot, most of the Sisters left their orders in the awakening of the new springtime after Vatican II. Mea Culpa However they did manage to instruct two very poor little girls and millions of others in the faith quite effectively in the dark nights of winter that we lived in prior to the ushering in the truths that had been hidden from us for so long.

I say that the Traditional Mass serves very well and serves better than the Mass in the vernacular usually does.