Praying in Latin

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una_fides

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New website for praying in Latin full of countless prayers and resources:
sites.google.com/site/prayinglatin/

Explains why to pray in Latin, how to pray in Latin, and has sections with many prayers, meditations, as well as audio. Definitely worth checking out and forwarding to anyone who may have interest!
 
Latin creates a sense of sacred space and time to help focus on the sense of God’s otherness to us. The use of a distinguished language for prayer and worship instills the sense of awe and reverence that reminds us that we are worshipping and imploring the help of the Almighty and are not just chatting with friends.
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Praying in Latin can help facilitate increased focus on the mysteries of the rosary as well as deepen meditation.
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I can say from experience these two are true.
 
It looks like a really good site and soon I’ll start learning some basic prayers in Latin. Thanks 🙂
 
una_fides said:
New website for praying in Latin full of countless prayers and resources:
sites.google.com/site/prayinglatin/

Explains why to pray in Latin, how to pray in Latin, and has sections with many prayers, meditations, as well as audio. Definitely worth checking out and forwarding to anyone who may have interest!
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This, of course, would only apply to the Roman Church because Latin is not the language of the other 22 Churches that make up the Catholic Church.
 
thistle said:
This, of course, would only apply to the Roman Church because Latin is not the language of the other 22 Churches that make up the Catholic Church.
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I’m finding difficulty trying to figure out how this post is relevant unless perhaps you are somehow trying to denegrade the significance of the Latin language and its benefits for the Church. The eastern Catholic Churches you referenced make up a very small minority when compared with the western Church, and I didn’t post this in the eastern forum. No one in this thread said or implied that eastern Catholics must learn how to pray in Latin, and it’s not like even if an eastern Catholic were to go to the site and decide to start praying in Latin that it would in any way be harmful for them. In fact, despite the Latin language not being part of their liturgical patrimony, members of eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome, their Mother Church, could still benefit a great deal from learning to pray in Latin.

If you check out the section “Why Pray in Latin?” you will find that various popes have explained that it is beneficial for *all *Catholics to pray in the Church’s universal language that unites those of all languages and cultures with the Holy See.
sites.google.com/site/prayinglatin/why-pray-in-latin

“Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting every form of culture among peoples. It gives rise to no jealousies. It does not favor any one nation, but presents itself with equal impartiality to all and is equally acceptable to all” (Pope John XXIII, “Veterum Sapientia”, 1962 A.D).

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI urged all Catholics to learn the Church’s most common prayers in Latin and said that learning these prayers in Latin “will help Christian faithful of different languages pray together, especially when they gather for special circumstances.” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503776.htm

“For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure until the end of time… of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non- vernacular.” (Pope Pius XI, Officiorum Omnium, 1922).

“In addition, 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 a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Church’s teaching. 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 John XXIII, “Veterum Sapientia”, 1962 A.D.)

“Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the heart of all the enemies of Rome. The recognize it as the bond of Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. They consider it the most efficient weapon of the papacy.” (Dom Gueranger)

That said, obviously no one here had said anything about the eastern Churches or in any way implied that it is necessary for eastern rite Catholics to learn to pray in Latin, so I found your comment unnecessary at best.
 
The Devil Hates Latin! - Interestingly, there have been numerous reports from exorcists that Latin prayers are more effective in driving away the demonic.
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Sounds like a cultish claim to me. Is there any source to prove this as taught by someone authoritative like a Church Father, Pope, etc.?
The Latin language unifies all under one tongue thereby countering the havoc from the tower of Babel, and in a practical way it continues the gift of Pentecost of people from all nations being able to understand the same message universally.
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In Pentecost, the 120 spoke in tongues of different languages. They did not speak in one language and everyone else understood one language. Each person overhearing the 120 heard what was said in their own language, not a common language.
 
una_fides said:
I’m finding difficulty trying to figure out how this post is relevant unless perhaps you are somehow trying to denegrade the significance of the Latin language and its benefits for the Church. The eastern Catholic Churches you referenced make up a very small minority when compared with the western Church, and I didn’t post this in the eastern forum. No one in this thread said or implied that eastern Catholics must learn how to pray in Latin, and it’s not like even if an eastern Catholic were to go to the site and decide to start praying in Latin that it would in any way be harmful for them. In fact, despite the Latin language not being part of their liturgical patrimony, members of eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome, their Mother Church, could still benefit a great deal from learning to pray in Latin.

If you check out the section “Why Pray in Latin?” you will find that various popes have explained that it is beneficial for *all *Catholics to pray in the Church’s universal language that unites those of all languages and cultures with the Holy See.
sites.google.com/site/prayinglatin/why-pray-in-latin

“Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting every form of culture among peoples. It gives rise to no jealousies. It does not favor any one nation, but presents itself with equal impartiality to all and is equally acceptable to all” (Pope John XXIII, “Veterum Sapientia”, 1962 A.D).

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI urged all Catholics to learn the Church’s most common prayers in Latin and said that learning these prayers in Latin “will help Christian faithful of different languages pray together, especially when they gather for special circumstances.” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503776.htm

“For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure until the end of time… of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non- vernacular.” (Pope Pius XI, Officiorum Omnium, 1922).

“In addition, 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 a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Church’s teaching. 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 John XXIII, “Veterum Sapientia”, 1962 A.D.)

“Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the heart of all the enemies of Rome. The recognize it as the bond of Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. They consider it the most efficient weapon of the papacy.” (Dom Gueranger)

That said, obviously no one here had said anything about the eastern Churches or in any way implied that it is necessary for eastern rite Catholics to learn to pray in Latin, so I found your comment unnecessary at best.
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What has got up your nose? I’m pretty sure the members of the 22 other Churches have never used nor see the need to use Latin.

Praying in Latin is no more efficacious than praying in any other language!
 
una_fides said:
I’m finding difficulty trying to figure out how this post is relevant unless perhaps you are somehow trying to denegrade the significance of the Latin language and its benefits for the Church. The eastern Catholic Churches you referenced make up a very small minority when compared with the western Church, and I didn’t post this in the eastern forum. No one in this thread said or implied that eastern Catholics must learn how to pray in Latin, and it’s not like even if an eastern Catholic were to go to the site and decide to start praying in Latin that it would in any way be harmful for them. In fact, despite the Latin language not being part of their liturgical patrimony, members of eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome, their Mother Church, could still benefit a great deal from learning to pray in Latin.

If you check out the section “Why Pray in Latin?” you will find that various popes have explained that it is beneficial for *all *Catholics to pray in the Church’s universal language that unites those of all languages and cultures with the Holy See.
sites.google.com/site/prayinglatin/why-pray-in-latin

“Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting every form of culture among peoples. It gives rise to no jealousies. It does not favor any one nation, but presents itself with equal impartiality to all and is equally acceptable to all” (Pope John XXIII, “Veterum Sapientia”, 1962 A.D).

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI urged all Catholics to learn the Church’s most common prayers in Latin and said that learning these prayers in Latin “will help Christian faithful of different languages pray together, especially when they gather for special circumstances.” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503776.htm

“For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure until the end of time… of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non- vernacular.” (Pope Pius XI, Officiorum Omnium, 1922).

“In addition, 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 a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Church’s teaching. 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 John XXIII, “Veterum Sapientia”, 1962 A.D.)

“Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the heart of all the enemies of Rome. The recognize it as the bond of Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. They consider it the most efficient weapon of the papacy.” (Dom Gueranger)

That said, obviously no one here had said anything about the eastern Churches or in any way implied that it is necessary for eastern rite Catholics to learn to pray in Latin, so I found your comment unnecessary at best.
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Your post is, at best, intemperate, and at worst, offensive and demeaning. You might perhaps explain just why you feel Eastern Catholics might benefit from departing from nearly 2,000 years of cultural and religious tradition to embrace an alien language. It was just this kind of cultural imperialism that prevented the growth of the Church in China back in the day of the early Jesuit missionaries. Not everyone who feels people should be free to speak to God in their own language, instead of limiting their prayers to rote passages in a language they do not not understand, is in fact an “enemy of Rome.”
 
These kinds of threads drive me nuts.

I’m not against praying in Latin, quite the contrary I chant the LOTH in Latin every day, at least Lauds and Vespers in Latin.

However, the Church evolves and the cultural reality we live in evolves as well. In our own culture, Latin is fast losing steam as more and more people forget it and fewer and fewer schools teach it. I never had formal instruction in Latin. What I learned, I learned from chanting it in a schola, and from its vague similarities to French.

To suggest that everyone pray in Latin though, is ridiculous. Not everyone is educated enough or scholarly enough to learn it. The Church is also growing tremendously in places where Latin has no significance. I agree that imposing Latin in these circumstances amounts to cultural imperialism.

There’s no harm in learning simple prayers in Latin of course but by no means should this be implied to be some kind of “superior” form of prayer… as if God has limitations on His ability to hear our prayers (which He reads from our hearts anyway).

Those quotes from Pius XI, John XXIII and Dom Gueranger don’t specifically mention private prayer. Moreover, they are from an era when, at least in the West, Latin was still widely taught.

For those who can, preserving Latin in the Liturgy is a fine thing and I support it 110%, in fact I work towards it:

Latin OF Mass

But to suggest that private prayers (and all Liturgical prayer) should be exclusively in Latin just doesn’t fit today’s realities, and I certainly hope that the OP doesn’t mean that.
 
thistle said:
What has got up your nose? I’m pretty sure the members of the 22 other Churches have never used nor see the need to use Latin.

Praying in Latin is no more efficacious than praying in any other language!
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No, but it is helpful to have a language set aside for prayer, like Jesus did! 😉
 
thistle said:
What does this have to do with people saying we should pray in Latin.
Its no more efficacious than any other language.
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If you read the article, I think it puts a rather persuasive argument!
 
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