Alright here I go!! Please keep in mind I am only stating my very simple minded opinions. I am 45 years old and happened to be on vacation in another state this past weekend and found a beautiful catholic church to go to Mass at. To our surprise and to my delight it was a parish that offered the TLM. I have never attended a latin Mass, and I was very eager to see what all the hub bub was about especially on this forum. Our heads were not covered and immediately I felt out of place. Not only was the priest speaking latin but he was french and had a very think french accent. I immediately looked for communion rails, found those and then thought I’ll just pay attention to what the others are doing and I’ll just follow along. There was no following along, the missal was very hard to follow, I felt out of place and VERY IRREVERANT, and yet still I kept an open mind. We received Holy Communion on our knees, on the tongue, without saying amen. That was particularily bothersome to me(the no amen thing not the kneeling thing). I gotta say I left that church Thanking our Lord for the V2 council and the changes that were made. I am certain that I would have understood more had the priest been mic’d but we were half way back (didn’t want to sit in anybodys regular spot) and basically couldn’t hear anything. Someone made the comment a few pages back in this thread about TLM’s worshipping instead of celebrating, that the latin Mass is about God not about us… I had the distinct feeling of…dismissal …for the lack of a better word, at that mass. And one last thing I come from a very traditional catholic family, and very orthodox parish. I wouldn’t go again, and in my opinion I would like to state that I think that a latin Mass would be more likely to drive people away from the church than a N.O. mass. Just my opinion of course
I think the big thing for someone coming to a Traditional Mass after being, well… coddled for lack of a better word in the Pauline Rite is that the degree you participate is really up to you. Whether or not you pray the Mass along with the the Priest is your decision. You can kneel there, stare at the altar and wait for something to happen or look around at who has head coverings as some apparently do:tsktsk: or check out the beauty of the Church
OR, you can grab your Missal and pray right along with the Priest. Thats right, you can pray the entire thing right along with him. You really can’t get lost as the words are right in front of you and they are in the vernacular as well as Latin. It doesn’t matter is you get ahead of the Priest or behind him as you can always slow down or speed up. You see its all up to you.
What I do is pray until the Canon then I watch the Priest. I know by his movements when the consecration is about to occur but I still feel that wonderful sense of anticipation waiting until the bells have rung an I know that the transformation has taken place and Christ is physically present amongst us once again . Then I resume the prayers until Holy Communion, receive when I’m eligible, thats right, sometimes I’m unable to receive
and then I kneel again and pray.
Simple and anyone can do it. It just takes a little discipline and motivation…It helps to remember the following;
**The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. It is the Sacrifice dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day on the Altar. If you wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart and mouth all that happens at the Altar. Further, you must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens on the Altar. When acting in this way you have prayed Holy Mass."
“Don’t pray at Holy Mass, but pray the Holy Mass.”
His Holiness, Pope Saint Pius X
**
Just about says it all doesn’t it??
