Disappointing, but at least it’s a start. Baby steps, baby steps!
Truth be told, when I go to an EF Mass, a) I’m a little lost, even though I had four years of classical Latin (notice I said “had,” as if I said I HAD the measles, it was brutal study!) and b) the people don’t make much in terms of response anyways, the cantor and schola do that, and I doubt they’d appreciate my nasal Bronx droning along! So I sit there, kneel there, or stand there, as the case might be, and follow along in my Baronius missal. I’ve noticed that one of the two priests who celebrates the EF Mass in my diocese races through as if he’s going for the land speed record in Latin.
So what I’d really like to see here in my diocese, preferably at either my unofficial weekday parish, or my official Sunday parish, is an OF partially in Latin, the way you see it done on EWTN. I like to participate in prayer, and I’ve come to the place in my own spirituality where I’m not the least abashed to say it.
Since a few of the priests at my unofficial weekday parish occasionally get together with us weekday evening Mass regulars for sushi after Mass (this happens about every couple of months,) and since all of them are slightly older than me, meaning they had to do Latin in seminary, I once broached the subject, being very specific that I was talking about the Ordinary Form and not the Tridentine Mass.
From their reaction, you would have thought I had suggested pasturing cattle on the lawn in front of the rectory!
One of them commented that Latin was his bane in seminary, nearly flunking him out. The rest were dismissive that this was an archaic practice, and their mission was to bring Christ to the contemporary marketplace.
So I went to work on my pastor, who has an incredible voice when he does the small parts in the OF which call for chant. My home parish is a beautiful limestone and marble Gothic construction. Ideal, from an aesthetic standpoint. He informed me that I was the only one who had mentioned an interest, that we were in a rural area, and that most people would not be interested, yadda, yadda.
So my only option if I want Latin is the EF with Father Land Speed Record.
Don’t worry, though. I’m tough, persistent, and articulate, as my spiritual director informs me. As a matter of fact, he told me once that my face pops into mind when he considers the Church Militant. And I’ve been accused of nagging by my husband on more than one occasion!
Give me a couple of years, and I suspect that the OF in Latin will happen somewhere near where I can attend it!
Yeah, I know. I’m a brat!