Praying in Latin -- NEW SITE!

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Peeps, I hear you. That has to be difficult for anyone with a disability. I would say this, have you ever tried reading prayers in Latin? If you can read prayers in English, you should be able to likewise pray them in Latin. For the Rosary, only 3 main prayers are typically memorized initially (Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Gloria). While I have not yet met anyone without the ability to memorize, I am sure there are others out there, and God bless you for your additional efforts. No doubt there are many additional graces for holy things we have to work harder at. We know the devil abhors Latin, so by reading the prayers, there is extra merit there, and God will no doubt reward. May God bless you.
 
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rosejmj said:
I don’t quite understand the purpose of praying in Latin .
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Hi RoseJMJ, I know exactly where you are coming from. A good friend of mine felt the same way, but what he found was that the more he studied Latin, its history, and its nature as a sacred and consecrated language, and also attending the TLM more, he eventually became a priest in the FSSP and only prays the holy Mass in sacred Latin. Can I ask you, were you able to read this page? https://www.prayinglatin.com/why-pray-in-latin
Interested in your thoughts on the opening point as well as the closing ones regarding the devil’s hatred and its being more meritorious as a sacred language which also requires additional effort and devotion to God to learn and pray. This is a neat video that is on the bottom of the site from Sensus Fidelium where the exorcist priest explains that Latin is more meritorious:
 
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Thank you for the information. I still don’t understand it though. Latin is a human man made religion. It is also only used in the Roman Church. I don’t see why Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic would not be as good and holy as Latin. Anyway God cares more about the love you put into your prayer and your intentions than the language or words you use. Especially if you are just saying words and you do t even really mean them. Don’t get me wrong… I love Latin prayers, Gregorian chant, and when Latin is used in the Mass, novus ordo or TLM. I understand how it can be more universal, but it only applies to the Western Church and Christianity began in the East
 
rosejmj said:
Thank you for the information. I still don’t understand it though. Latin is a human man made religion.
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Latin is not a religion, but it is the language used by the one holy Catholic Church, the one and only true religion, and has been for 2000 years. I found that studying the papal teachings on Latin in particular was truly eye-opening for me.
“The Latin language ‘ can be called truly catholic .’ It has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic See, the mother and teacher of all Churches, and must be esteemed ‘ a treasure … of incomparable worth. ‘ … It is also a most effective bond, binding the Church of today with that of the past and of the future in wonderful continuity .” - Pope St John XXIII Apostolic Constitution, Veterum Sapientia.
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Notice that the language itself has become holy by being “consecrated,” the word we use for describing the bread after it has been transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. We know that the Roman Church to be as described above “the mother and teacher of all Churches,” and thus even for those Apostolic Traditions that do not have Latin in their patrimony, their reverence for the Principle See of St Peter leads them to be willing to even participate and chant in sacred Latin prayers, as has happened on many occasions, as it is that bond of unity that unites the entire Catholic faith under una voce.
 
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rosejmj said:
God cares more about the love you put into your prayer and your intentions than the language or words you use. Especially if you are just saying words and you do t even really mean them.
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Interesting point. I agree wholeheartedly with you concerning the importance of our prayers moving us to charity, and here we apply the Catholic “both and” that we can and should pray our prayers in any language, including Latin with great love and devotion. In fact, it is our devotion to holy mother Church and her tradition that brings us to embrace her sacred language. The effort we take to learn it in order to pray to God in a sacred language dedicated solely to holy things no doubt pleases him greatly. Wouldn’t you agree?

As far as meaning the prayers we pray, we can certainly pray the Latin words with great meaning, but even deeper and a much higher level of prayer extends far beyond words and rises into the level of meditation and on to contemplation. Latin has a unique ability to instill that sense of the sacred into our prayers thus enabling a profound sense of the mysteries on which we meditate. Your love of Latin prayers and chant no doubt bears this connection, as we communicate so much more with gestures and tones than we do with words. As we know, vocal prayer is only the beginning, and that depth of meditation is what facilitates us to enter deeply into the recesses of the Sacred Heart. Thus, Latin becomes a powerful vehicle to enhance one’s prayer life because of its unique ability to cut to the heart and transfuse our prayers with a language purified and sanctified by so many holy Saints that came before us.
 
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'Reasons" are a bit fanciful and uncompelling.

I pray in Latin from time to time when vernacular gets dull. So for me Latin is an option because I started t study it in high school. I would never expect anyone to embark on the project thought they would surely benefit from it. It takes time and commitment and most of us have other priorities and responsibilities.
 
That is a rather good list of reasons, though two of the strike me as superstitious. That part needs to be avoided. Nonetheless, this is a good resource you linked. Thanks
 
rosejmj said:
Thank you for the information. I still don’t understand it though. Latin is a human man made religion.
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Latin is part of what made the Roman rite Catholic Church “Catholic ” or universal.
 
I LOVE this website by the way. It’s added to my favorites. Thanks for the hard work that went into it!
 
I find the idea that the Devil hates Latin in a unique way, as in, driving at demons, and the idea that Latin is somehow mystical, superstitious, though it makes a good plot line in movies. Jesus did not use Latin that we know of, and I am pretty sure that God, and the Devil, understand the heart better than syntax and grammar of any language.
 
prayerrider said:
I pray in Latin every day. The Angelus and St. Michael prayer, either the Rosary or parts of the Daily Office, etc. When I’m at the NO Mass I always pray the Last Gospel and Leonine prayers after Mass.
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I too pray the Last Gospel and the Leonine prayers as well while I’m at the NO mass. Only two of the parishes that I’ve visited still pray the St. Michael after mass.

The High Mass NO service that I attend has the prayers in Latin including the Gloria and the songs are Gregorian Chant. I’m trying to learn more Latin and have been following along with my rosary in Latin as well. Even my son has started crossing himself using the Latin.
 
pnewton said:
I find the idea that the Devil hates Latin in a unique way, as in, driving at demons, and the idea that Latin is somehow mystical, superstitious
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Well I am glad to hear you agree with the rest of the content. I wonder though if “superstitious” is the word perhaps to describe what you may be thinking. For something to be superstitious, we would have to know that it is something that does not take place in reality at all. Mystical also means that something supernatural is taking place, something beyond what we can experience with our senses. We believe by faith all that the Catholic Church teaches such as that sacraments are outward signs that give us supernatural grace and that sacramentals actually do make objects blessed and holy and that by faith those objects then through the prayer of the Church can then drive away the devil and evil, such as through holy water, etc. Since we believe those by faith, it make sense then also to believe all that the Church teaches concerning Latin. Most people do not know but in the most authoritative form of a papal decree, an Apostolic Constitution–the same document that infallibly defined the Immaculate Conception, Pope St John XXIII defined Latin as having supernatural significance with the following:

“ The Latin language…has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic see, the mother and teacher of all Churches .” – Pope St John XXIII, Veterum Sapientia, 1962.

The word consecrated means to be made sacred, to be made holy. We use this same exact word to describe the reality that takes place when the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ. That does not make Latin a sacrament by any means, but it does teach us that the Church has clearly taught the language is actually holy. We also know the devil hates all that is holy. We also have countless testimonies by the most experienced exorcists that explain that from their observations–their real life experience with demons–that the demons have a horror and hatred of this language. Thus, to believe that Latin is something sacred and is detested by the devil is actually based on both the teaching of the Church as well as experience from exorcists that have performed literally millions of exorcisms. Fr Amorth himself alone performed over 700,000 himself. Because this fact is evidence and observation based and also is grounded in the teachings from the same Church that likewise teaches about sacramental realities, by definition and in all fairness we cannot call it “superstitious.” Certainly one is free to reject the teaching of the Church and the observations of these experts, but to say it is superstitious would be to say that these sources themselves do not have a grasp of reality and that somehow we know better than they. I don’t think you believe that at all, so that’s why I think the word would be misplaced here.
 
prayinglatin said:
Fr Amorth himself alone performed over 700,000 himself.
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Fr. Amorth, God rest his soul, was a priest for 62 years. In order to have performed 700,000 exorcisms, he would have needed to do approximately thirty exorcisms each and every day during his priesthood. I understand that exorcisms are emotionally, spiritually, and often physically exhausting. I dare say the 700,000 number is not just improbable, but impossible.

Even the estimate that I’ve read, which puts the number at 160,000, is improbable. It would require just over 7 exorcisms each and every day during those 62 years. That leaves little time for Mass, spiritual preparation and prayer, and writing books.
 
And of course the Roman Church still uses the sacred language of Greek as well… the language of the New Testament, and of the venerable Byzantine Church. The Kyrie, as you know, always remained in Greek, and at solemn papal Masses, the Gospel is chanted in Greek, not Latin.
 
twf said:
The Kyrie, as you know, always remained in Greek, and at solemn papal Masses, the Gospel is chanted in Greek, not Latin.
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Don’t forget the Good Friday liturgy as well! (the Improperes).
 
@prayinglatin

Just a note from the website. From the page, ‘Why pray in Latin’ there is a bullet point that says, “Ecumenical Councils have proscribed prayer in Latin.” As far as I know ‘proscribed’ means to have been forbidden. I am sure that’s not what you mean to say.
 
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