This is how I imagine the OF

[Rich_C]

There are few things in life as moving to me as the times I have been lucky enough to have joined a small community of monks as they gather around an altar in a simple Church.

But sometimes Masses like in the video simply take my breath away.

-Tim-

I know it’s not quite the same experience, but I can sort of relate.

I used to be able to assist at silent low Masses just after dawn in a big old church with just enough lighting to see. The silent and dimness gave an it an incrediblly moving atmosphere. It was like being at Calvary at 3 o’clock.

 

[floresco]

edit: According to the Oratorians website, all the Latin masses are Usus Antiquior, or the 1962 Missal; the others are “sung English” which I assume is the OF (Missal of Paul VI?). So I don’t know if the masses are the same as what I heard three or more years ago, which I believe was the mass of Paul VI in sung Latin. I think?

I attend Mass with the Oratorians at least once a month. They recently changed around their schedule. They currently have a Solemn High Mass (EF) every Sunday at Holy Family, except during the summer when the EF is a Low Mass. They also have a Low Mass every Sunday at St. Vincent de Paul.

You are remembering correctly that there used to be a sung OF Mass in Latin. I suspect that after they started doing the EF in response to Summorum Pontificum most of the people who liked Latin gravitated to it and so they stopped doing the Latin OF.

I agree with you completely about the Oratorians. They are devout Catholic men, characterized by orthodoxy, skill as spiritual directors/confessors, and attention to good liturgy. (They also have amazing choirs at both the parishes they run.) While I have a strong preference for the EF, I am always happy to attend the OF at one of their parishes. I always think of it as the ideal for how the OF should be done.

 

[ProVobis]

You are remembering correctly that there used to be a sung OF Mass in Latin. I suspect that after they started doing the EF in response to Summorum Pontificum most of the people who liked Latin gravitated to it and so they stopped doing the Latin OF.

The focus on the new English translation might have had something to do with the demise of the Latin OF. The new altar missals no longer carried the Latin alongside, unfortunately.

St. John Cantius still does the Latin OF and it’s usually well attended.

 

[bcuster]

At first I felt something was missing. Then I realized that it was the simplicity of the chant that I was noticing. Even as comfortable as I think I am with silence, this was jarring to me. Living in a world in surround-sound all the time, I need to become more accustomed to this way of praying the Mass.