What Mass do you Attend? (Poll, not discussion)

  • Thread starter Thread starter YoungApologist3
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Perhaps because there are many who would like to suppress it ?

I attend both the Tridentine Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass, of necessity. I greatly prefer the former, and I find myself more fully engaged in it.

There is a perception among some who don’t understand the Tridentine Mass that it is rigid and boring, and that the people are reduced to being mere spectators. However, nothing could be further from the truth. One is supposed to obtain a Missal and pray the Liturgy, not just passively observe it, in the Tridentine Mass. The level of engagement required is extraordinary and I find that the time flies by; in fact theologically, time is transcended.
 
Last edited:
I’d like to attend the EF, but the nearest Latin parish is over 40 minutes away and I just can’t afford the gas money. I still love my current parish though. They celebrate the OF very reverently and traditionally.
 
It certainly can be done with reverence, and with far more reverence, particularly on the part of the people, than it sometimes is.
As far as distance, our sole diocesan TLM is 55 miles away so I can’t assist there every week. It’s a sacrifice.
 
Last edited:
I think you’ll also find many of us don’t have a super strong preference.

Personally, I find the EF mass itself beautiful, but I also haven’t experienced the supposed irreverencies of the OF mass. The EF proponents are scary though.
 
Below 35 and attend both OF and EF. I don’t prefer one over the other. I like both of them for different reasons. I will say our parish priest (OF parish) says an extremely reverent OF mass. I’ve been to FSSP parishes that the mass was less reverent.
 
I attend the 9 am Sunday morning Mass. In a pinch I attend the Vigil at 4 pm on Saturday.
 
anon10271182 said:
Perhaps because there are many who would like to suppress it ?

One is supposed to obtain a Missal and pray the Liturgy, not just passively observe it, in the Tridentine Mass.
Click to expand...
What was an illiterate German peasant supposed to do? A Mass should not only be accessible to literate individuals wealthy enough to own a book. I’ve never understood that that is how you are supposed to appreciate the traditional Mass. In fact, I’ve been told the opposite, that I should put aside the missal and just immerse myself in the Mass. It is definitely not my preference, but I have come to appreciate the traditional Mass.
 
If you can do it that way and follow all the prayers and actions–the Liturgy–that’s awesome. I’m not quite there yet, so I have to follow along with the Missal. Maybe if I could go daily, I’d have it memorized eventually. In the meantime, I’ll try to go through the Mass in the Missal at home, when I can.
 
Under 35. I have no real preference; I like both for different reasons and at the end of the day, Mass is Mass. I regularly attend the OF because my parish only has OF Masses. I have attended Latin OF and EF Masses quite a few times before though.
I would like to attend a Divine Liturgy if there was one nearby and maybe if a friend came with me. I would feel lost and a bit too shy to go all by myself!
 
I am below the age of 35 and attend both OF and EF Masses pretty regularly.
 
I think as far as irreverence goes, constant noise inside the church, people talking loudly through Mass, no silence before Mass to contemplate and pray, they all add up. Almost like they have never been taught to be quiet in the house of our Lord. It’s a time to be silent and prepare ourselves for the Holy Mass and to pray and receive the Holy Eucharist. Social time is meant to happen outside, before or after Mass.

I used to go to Latin Mass when I was younger, about 40 years ago. When my family moved, it wasn’t offered at our church. We learned the OF and new songs and such.
16 years ago, I moved to a new town with a huge congregation, that’s where things really became different. It’s now called a Catholic Community, not Catholic Church. That bothered me a bit. The music had become very contemporary and quite Protestant like. Seeing a few people playing guitars, a collapsible organ and singing, smack dab in front of the altar during a Lenten seminar ( not Holy Mass), just feels wrong. I could not go in to listen to the talk. I felt totally out of place. It should have been done in the social hall instead. To me the performers just took away the divinity of the altar.
For years now I have wanted to go back to a Tridentine Mass. I found one which is 25 minutes away. However, it’s so small with poor ventilation, that I choke on the incesnse.
Yesterday I went to a church 40 minutes away. Absolutely beautiful and it felt like I was so close to God. So much reverence and focus on the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. I love reading in English what the Canon is saying in Latin. The words are most reverent too. I just feel at peace and at home there. I will have to sacrifice the drive, but it is so worth it to me.
God bless. 🙂
 
I think we have to be careful to differentiate between what is in fact reverent or irreverent, and what is to our taste.

For me personally, for example, it is much harder to feel reverence at a Mass where most people don’t sing. Hymns in a language I understand that I can sing out to are very important to me and it’s much harder to feel involved in the Mass without them! The EF Mass feels rather more like passively listening to a lecture rather than reverently participating in worship. My heart wants to know when I get to sing.

The Mass where people arrive, sit, and depart in silence is also strange. When do you speak to others? The old parishes around here, there is no vestibule or anything - often even not any bathrooms, the old builders didn’t add unnecessary rooms like that. People hurry in from their cars to get in from the heat or the cold, sit in silence in the church, and then hurry back out because the weather is too awful to stand and talk half the year. You can hardly speak to your fellow parishoners unless you do so in church. The silence makes it so difficult to focus, you can hear every cough and shuffle.

I don’t mean that as a criticism of the EF. Merely a recognition that what I find intuitivelyreverent is not always what is so for someone else. Others can be reverent differently.
 
Last edited:
I attend both the OF and the EF. I attend the OF most days out of the year and attend the EF for major holy days, such as Christmas and Easter.

I have no problem with the Ordinary form in and of itself, and where I go its celebrated very reverently, like it should be, and indeed as Vatican 2 intended. That said I still love the beauty and solemnity of the extraordinary form and I prefer this form on major holy days for those reasons. Both forms can and should coexist and influence each other. I would one day like to see a common calendar though, and perhaps an option to celebrate the EF in the vernacular.
 
I am below the age of 35, and as of right now with the way that the EF and OF stand, I prefer the OF.

If the rubrics were changed for the EF to allow it to be said in the vernacular and more of the prayers to be said audibly, I would prefer that usage.

If the OF was enriched with certain elements from the EF - ad Orientem posture, the prayers and psalm at the foot of the altar, the EF Confiteor, the EF Collects, the EF Offertory, Secrets and post-Communions, then I would prefer that over anything else.

But as the OF and EF currently stand, I prefer the OF over the EF and I am a man under the age of 35 (29 almost 30 to be exact).

Lastly, I regularly attend both the Roman OF Mass and the Byzantine Divine Liturgy. I find the Byzantine DL to be closer to the Roman OF than EF in many ways.
 
Last edited:
HolySpirit said:
Why are people so fixated on the Latin mass that they need to discuss it every day? Day after day. Week after week.
Click to expand...
Probably because the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Faith, and the Mass is the context in which the Eucharist is set.

People who take their faith seriously are likely to have strong opinionson this stuff.
 
If you prefer the Latin mass, why do you care if others go to an English mass? It should be a five minute conversation that you have once in your life. It isn’t something worth discussing seven days a week 365 per year.

Live and let live.
 
HolySpirit said:
If you prefer the Latin mass, why do you care if others go to an English mass? It
Click to expand...
The difference between the OF/EF isn’t just Latin or English Mass - that’s a common misconception that the OF simply translated into English the EF.

I’ll give you two examples: the EF vs. OF Confiteor and Offertory.

EF Confiteor:

“I confess to almighty God, to the blessed Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints, and to you, brothers, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Saints, and you, brothers, to pray to the Lord our God for me.”

OF Confiteor:

“I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, And, striking their breast, they say: through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; Then they continue therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

EF Offertory:

"Accept, O holy Father, almighty and eternal God, this unspotted host, which I, Thy unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my living and true God, for my innumerable sins, offenses, and negligences, and for all here present: as also for all faithful Christians, both living and dead, that it may avail both me and them for salvation unto life everlasting. Amen. "

“We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, beseeching Thy clemency, that it may ascend before Thy divine Majesty, as a sweet savor, for our salvation, and for that of the whole world. Amen.”

“Come, O almighty and eternal God, the Sanctifier, and bless ☩ this Sacrifice, prepared for the glory of Thy holy Name.”

OF Offertory:

“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.
Blessed be God forever.”

“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands it will become our spiritual drink.
Blessed be God forever.”

These are only two of the better known examples. Other significant changes are in the Introits, the Collects, the Secrets/Prayer over the Offerings, and the post-Communion prayers.

And thats only major differences in the prayer texts.

There are also significant rubrical changes - almost all signs of the Cross eliminated, celebration ad Orientem, etc.

Then there are major changes in the structure of the liturgical calendar and lectionary.

Finally Latin vs Vernacular.

So as you can see, this isn’t just a difference between Latin or English Mass. This is a difference between two very different forms of the Roman Mass.
 
Last edited:
Currently attending Coptic Orthodox Mass. Occasionally return to Catholic mass… and when i do it’s a Latin Mass parish within the mainstream Catholic Church. I am 29.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top