The first Latin Mass I've attended

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JoyToTheWhirled

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This Tuesday our new curate is arriving. He will be saying the monthly Latin mass in the evening. It will be a Mass for the feast of the Assumption.

As it’s a hold day of obligation, I thought I would go and meet the new priest and thought it would be really interesting to go to my first Latin Mass.
I have no idea what to expect, beyond Latin, incense and hopefully, reverence. I tried to ask the deacon if there was anything I should know, but I think he misconstrued me and just made clear that he prefers the vernacular Mass.
Well, I may well do too, but that really wasn’t anything to do with my asking!!

Anyway, I don’t want to mess anything up, so any advice anyone can give me would be hugely appreciated.
 
The first time I went to the TLM, I sat in the back and just followed everybody else. There was a missal, but I found I got lost a lot (some parts were silent or whispered even though it was a solemn High Mass), so after a bit I just put the missal down and soaked it up. It was really, really lovely.

In the back you’ll also get a chance to see how people line up to receive communion, which will likely be at a rail. The priest says “Amen,” and you don’t say anything.

Enjoy it!
 
Excellent, thank you, that’s exactly kind of help I was hoping to find on CAF! I know literally nothing! Very much looking forward to the experience, my favourite of all the Masses said at our church are the early day/ late evening ones because our priests always leave lots of silence.

Would they be likely to use hymns at all? We only have them normally at the 5pm Saturday Mass and the 11am Sunday anyway.
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
Would they be likely to use hymns at all? We only have them normally at the 5pm Saturday Mass and the 11am Sunday anyway.
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Hymns sung by the congregation? Probably not, with the exception of the Salve Regina at the end. This should at least help guide you through the Mass a bit! You can follow along with it on your phone if they don’t have missals there. Look for a little red book. There should be a separate sheet with the propers. Don’t try to focus on every little thing the priest says or does! The choir will give you more of an idea in terms of theme.

http://www.divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/missa/missa.pl
 
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Our TLM parish sings a hymn at the beginning and end of Mass. The homily is in English and the priest may read an English translation of the readings before preaching. The rest is Latin. The readings may not be the same (edit: Assumption is on the same day on both the old and new calendar.)

You should definitely feel free to dress as you normally would, but my experience has been that regular attendees will be more formally dressed and the women are more likely to cover their heads (hat, chapel veil or mantillas, scarf.) This isn’t universal but you might want to bring something if you’d like to make sure you blend in.

Honestly, my experience is that there are frequently new people and the “regulars” are happy to help you out. If this is at your regular parish, you may already know a couple of people!
 
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Umm - on the New Calendar , i.e. Gregorian, the Feast of the Assumption [ Dormition ] is on Wednesday 15th August.

On the Old Calendar, i.e. Julian, the Feast is on Tuesday 28th August
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
This Tuesday our new curate is arriving. He will be saying the monthly Latin mass in the evening. It will be a Mass for the feast of the Assumption.
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This drives me a bit nuts; the Ordinary Form Mass (aka “Novus Ordo”, Mass of Paul VI), can also be said in Latin. In fact it is so. Regularly. I’ve been to several, both public and private (last one was a private Mass where I read the Old Testament Reading, Psalm and Gospel acclamation in Latin). What you are probably talking about is the Extraordinary Form Mass (sometimes referred to as the Traditional Latin Mass), which is always in Latin. The Ordinary Form can be in Latin or the vernacular, but the Editio Typica (typical edition or the source edition) is in Latin.
 
Sorry, I mean the traditional Latin calendar (or whatever its proper name is, I’m sure somebody knows.)

Man, if there is a nit to pick, a CAFer will find it! 😜
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
Anyway, I don’t want to mess anything up, so any advice anyone can give me would be hugely appreciated.
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There are Masses in Latin and Masses in Latin . They are not all the same . I attended my first Mass in Latin in 1946 , and have attended thousands since .

Like Liquorice Allsorts , there are a variety of ways in which they are celebrated .
 
I built my career on using precise terminology. Anybody reading Church documents, whether it is the General Instructions of the Liturgy of the Hours or any other document, realizes that the Church does the same.

Calling the EF Mass, regardless of whether we all know it or not, the “Latin Mass” is wildly inaccurate. The term can apply to the Latin-Rite EF Mass, Latin-Rite OF Mass, Ambrosian-Rite Mass, Mozarabic-Rite Mass, Carthusian-Rite Mass, all licit forms and rites in the Roman Church. Many monasteries celebrate the Mass exclusively in Latin, in the modern rite. I know of at least 4 in our congregation.

This Forum is often consulted by newcomers to the faith, so I think it’s important that they get an accurate picture.
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
Anyway, I don’t want to mess anything up
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Nothing for you to mess up at Latin Mass. Just stay silent in prayer, follow it if you can, the structure is much the same as Mass in the Vernacular.

In the Traditional Latin Mass, professional staff- priests and altar servers do all of the vocalizing.
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
This Tuesday our new curate is arriving. He will be saying the monthly Latin mass in the evening. It will be a Mass for the feast of the Assumption.

As it’s a hold day of obligation, I thought I would go and meet the new priest and thought it would be really interesting to go to my first Latin Mass.
I have no idea what to expect, beyond Latin, incense and hopefully, reverence. I tried to ask the deacon if there was anything I should know, but I think he misconstrued me and just made clear that he prefers the vernacular Mass.
Well, I may well do too, but that really wasn’t anything to do with my asking!!

Anyway, I don’t want to mess anything up, so any advice anyone can give me would be hugely appreciated.
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Hopefully your parish provides the books that have not only the English / Latin translation for the mass but also explain the Latin mass. The Latin mass is what I grew up on. Back then as an altar boy, we had more to do, than the servers today at the Novus Ordo mass. Back then we had altar rails with kneelers that people knelt at to receive the Eucharist. Eucharist was on the tongue. No such thing as putting your hand out. We held a paten under the recipients chin so that no particle might drop off the host onto the floor…

Here’s a good description Servimus unum Deum - Latin Mass Altar Serving and Related Matters in the Toronto Archdiocese: Starter Points II - General Altar Knowledge that Servers Will Need (2/3) including setting up the Altar for Mass
 
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Oookay. For the avoidance of doubt, it’s a monthly EF Mass. It is the first EF Mass I will have attended. I posted quickly earlier and am having trouble with forum quirks at the moment, so used the simple phrase Latin Mass because I was fairly sure my meaning would be clear, and I wasn’t attempting to have an in depth discussion about the difference between EF and OF Mass.

I’m well aware that the OF can be said in Latin, as it often happens at my parish depending on the priest or the calendar.

In this regard, I am a newcomer to the Faith, I was only received into the Church this Easter just gone. Apologies for my lack of precision, I was asking for advice about the practicalities to be aware of so that I didn’t do something irreverent or distracting to others.
 
Education.

And it’s hardly “inundating her with formalities”.
 
I remember my first Latin Mass, my mum brought me when I was 4 years old. Snow flurries outside, in my little coat, the smells- both incense as well as all of the cologne and cigar stench on the other people, the candles, the priest speaking Latin in an Irish accent, the SRO attendees, young men in slick slacks and galoshes lined up and hearing mass from near the confessionals, amazed at the professionalism of the altar services ability to light the candles with the long sticks.
 
To be honest, the first question that popped into my head when I read your first post was “EF or OF?” It potentially makes a difference, so thank you for clarifying.

As others have said, there’s nothing to mess up. Sit, stand or kneel when everyone else does. Otherwise, just let it soak in.

Once a month or so, not often enough to truly get the hang of it, I attend EF Mass. Last year, I drove a half hour to get to an early morning weekday low Mass…and discovered there was no one else there besides the priest. Without someone else in the pews, I was completely lost. To my surprise, the parts normally recited by altar servers were not said, so there was lots and lots of stone dead silence. I felt totally self-conscious. Afterwards, in the courtyard outside the chapel, I was going to apologize for my incompetence but before I could say one word Father flashed me a sympathetic smile and thanked me for coming. He was so happy that I was there because without me he would have been alone, and the presence of one other person—ANY other person—was far more important to him than having every “I” perfectly dotted and every “T” perfectly crossed.

Now, don’t worry. This is not going to happen to you. The Assumption is a Solemnity so (1) you won’t be the only one in the pews, and (2) the Mass will possibly not be a low Mass. I’m telling you this story to show you that no matter what happens, you can’t mess anything up. Be at peace. God bless! 🙂
 
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Yet, if you don’t have this otherworldly experience, it’s okay.

I went to my first traditional Mass fully expecting to have this reaction and this experience. I love liturgy and I had heard so much about how amazing it was and how I would be just blown away by the experience. So I went and I was disappointed.

People kept telling me that I needed to go back again, to experience it 20 or 30 times to fully appreciate it. So, over the course of many years, I have gone 30 or 40 or 50 times. I’ve been to High Masses, I’ve been to Low Masses , I’ve been to the Easter Vigil and Midnight Mass. I’ve been to FSSP and SSPX and a few in between. I’m not lost anymore and I appreciate it more than I used to, but it still doesn’t blow me away in the way that I expected it to.

I remember that experience when I’m talking to people who come to visit us at my Parish. I want to tell them that the Divine Liturgy will be the most beautiful thing they’ve ever experienced or ever will experience this side of Heaven. And when they have experienced it, I want to ask them, "Isn’t that the most beautiful thing that you’ve ever experienced? " but I try to give them their own space, in order to process their experience in their own way and to trust that God will give them what they need to encounter him.

I pray that @JoyToTheWhirled will appreciate the Mass for everything that God offers her and that, most of all, she will encounter Christ in a profound and meaningful way.
 
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