Why do you love the TLM?

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eelpis

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I’m interested in why you love the TLM and what made you come to it in the first place. What made you keep going?
 
My parents sent me to a week-long summer camp at a Norbertine Abbey when I was 8. Aside from being the time of my life because of all the athletics and games, we had TLM every morning before breakfast and Catechism at night. I went back to that summer camp every year until I was 13.

Now that I can drive I try to go to the same abbey every morning.

More than anything I love the TLM because I know that I’m surrounded by people who love the faith as much as I do. You don’t get that at a vernacular Mass. Most kids in my high school youth ministry were nice enough, but wholly unaware of what the Church teaches, and most seemed more intent on flirting than worshipping.

There’s none of that at a TLM. It’s peaceful, prayerful, and the people are with no exception faithful.
 
I like the quietness of it. I can pray and not feel as though I have to be constantly “on” all the time.
 
I go for all the reasons one would.One thing that surprised me is the community I now have. I am not a touchy-feely person and have never sought after that sort of thing, but it is so refreshing to be around families that hold your same values. Every family in our TLM community is trying to foster holy vocations for their children and cultivate virtues. Getting and leading to Heaven is priority. People show their belief in the True Presence by their silence and posture. Not saying those things are exclusive to the TLM community!
Therefore, I enjoy not feeling like that holy roller, irrelevent to the times or a fanatic. I don’t have to be on the constant defense. Because I share that common foundation with other moms, I can open up and talk to them about other things without being afraid the conversation is about to scandalize me. So, that is something unexpected I very much feel blessed with in addition to all the other things so very wonderful about the TLM.
 
For many many reasons do I love the TLM:
  1. It is reverent, beautiful and fitting for worship of God. It excels past the Ordinary form in its reverence and beauty. It seems more fitting for the worship of God. The prayers are more fitting.
  2. It is true to the entirety of our faith. The Holy Mass is represented as a true sacrifice of thanksgiving for God and for the salvation of our souls from eternal damnation. The prayers are explicit whereas in the Ordinary form I find a lot of ambiguity so much so that the prayers could mean many things to many people.
  3. Silence. Contemplation. I find I can co-operate more fully in the TLM because of the silence and because I can really pray and contemplate. My soul is co-operating with all that is going on. I can truly lift up my heart to my Lord.
  4. The priests and people on the whole are more true to the faith. The sermons are more true to the Tradition. Priests speak of hell and of the necessity of our being obedient to Christ; they speak of the dangers of our times and the necessity to not love the world.
Just some thoughts.

Pax Christi tecum.
 
One reason I love the TLM is because I have finally been able to attend a Mass that doesn’t feel like its all about me.

I agree with the poster above regarding other factors as well that I prefer.
 
Extempore said:
One reason I love the TLM is because I have finally been able to attend a Mass that doesn’t feel like its all about me.

I agree with the poster above regarding other factors as well that I prefer.
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I agree with Extempore. Actually I find I don’t focus on me or the priest or the altar servers. Yes I watch the priest and the servers but I find my mind and heart and will is more focus on God, what He has done and is doing now in Holy Mass. In the Novus Ordo I would think more of the priest who is staring at me and the people talking around me. I had to really exert effort to focus my heart on God. In the TLM it seems like the liturgy itself draws me to God - not to me or anyone else. Honestly, it amazes me.

Pax Christi tecum.
 
I can mention a bunch of things, but one things that draws me to the EF is the silence in the Mass and the reverence the priests and lay people show to the Holy Sacrifice.
 
OnlyAmbrose said:
My parents sent me to a week-long summer camp at a Norbertine Abbey when I was 8. Aside from being the time of my life because of all the athletics and games, we had TLM every morning before breakfast and Catechism at night. I went back to that summer camp every year until I was 13.

Now that I can drive I try to go to the same abbey every morning.

More than anything I love the TLM because I know that I’m surrounded by people who love the faith as much as I do. You don’t get that at a vernacular Mass. Most kids in my high school youth ministry were nice enough, but wholly unaware of what the Church teaches, and most seemed more intent on flirting than worshipping.

There’s none of that at a TLM. It’s peaceful, prayerful, and the people are with no exception faithful.
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Was that St. Michael’s Abbey? Do they still offer daily TLM’s?
 
eelpis said:
I’m interested in why you love the TLM and what made you come to it in the first place. What made you keep going?
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It’s the way we, and the priest, take time to humble ourselves before the Mass even begins. Everything before the Introit.

Such a deliberate and effective way of knowing our place before God. “First things first”😉
 
I love the continuity with the worship of the earlier generations who handed the faith on to us.

I love the consistent, manifest concern the priests celebrating traditional Masses show in their homilies for the salvation of souls.

I love being able to receive our Lord kneeling.

I love the beauty and devoutness of the prayers.
 
I love the TLM because it is saturated with sacrifice. Nothing moves my soul more so than to be reminded of our Lord’s sacrifice, and in return to be reminded that we too are called to offer sacrifice.

With so much selfishness, consumption and excess in our culture it can become all to easy to forget that our greatest actions are those of sacrifice. Whether it is sacrificing “good times” with friends, our own pride or blood and sweat, I feel that by offering up these things that I can transform these obstacles to Christ into stepping stones to Christ - What was once an obstacle to Christ, is now a path towards Him. In other words, it is through sacrifice that I find redemption. Sacrifice can turn a burden into a blessing just as it turned the cross into salvation. I find this to be absolutely paramount to growing towards Christ. There is nothing more awesome than the Crucifix, and the TLM makes that all too clear.
 
Freshman88 said:
I love the TLM because it is saturated with sacrifice. Nothing moves my soul more so than to be reminded of our Lord’s sacrifice, and in return to be reminded that we too are called to offer sacrifice.

With so much selfishness, consumption and excess in our culture it can become all to easy to forget that our greatest actions are those of sacrifice. Whether it is sacrificing “good times” with friends, our own pride or blood and sweat, I feel that by offering up these things that I can transform these obstacles to Christ into stepping stones to Christ - What was once an obstacle to Christ, is now a path towards Him. In other words, it is through sacrifice that I find redemption. Sacrifice can turn a burden into a blessing just as it turned the cross into salvation. I find this to be absolutely paramount to growing towards Christ. There is nothing more awesome than the Crucifix, and the TLM makes that all too clear.
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Wow, beautiful. You expressed it so well. May God bless you in your vocation and if I should not become a priest let me know where your parish is located once you’re ordaind 👍

Pax Christi tecum.
 
One of the major points for me, too, was at the Novus Ordo I felt alone - as if I was one of the few there that actually believed the entirety of the Catholic Faith. Tenets of the Faith such as hell, purgatory, the intercession of the Saints, the fact that Christ came not for social revolution or to heal all of our psychological pains but rather to save us from sin that we could not save ourselves from, etc. The prayers of the Novus Ordo I found to be so ambiguous and unclear; the homilies of the priest made me wonder if we believed the same faith (such as hearing over and over about loving God and our neighbor but in a sense of really serving man more than God and not encompassing all the other realities of our faith such as calling all mean to conversion in Christ).

In the traditional Mass I found prayers that were explicit. One prayer I always think of is the one that petitions God that we would be numbered among his elect and saved from eternal damnation - those are two words I never heard in a Novus Ordo but I knew very well, the idea of the elect and of being saved from eternal damnation. It makes a difference if one says just “hell” (which is rarely heard in a NO) but eternal damnation is a powerful phrase. The explicit confessing of sins in the two Confiteors. The clear, explicit emphasis on the sacrifice of Calvary. The continually begging God for mercy because of our unworthiness. The continual trust in God’s mercy even though we’re sinners. These truths of the Faith are all lost in the Novus Ordo or at least downplayed.

Isn’t it interesting that the Confiteor in the New Mass says, “I confess to Almighty God and to you my brother and sisters…” as opposed to “I confess to Almighty God, to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, to Michael the Archangel…” The emphasis is upon heaven and eternal realities. The priest is included in the traditional rite because he is the judge, the witness and the one who gives absolution.

So the prayers themselves were a huge part of it for me and they continue to be so.

Pax Christi tecum.
 
More than anything I love the TLM because I know that I’m surrounded by people who love the faith as much as I do.You don’t get that at a vernacular Mass.

**Yes, you do.

in the Melkite parish I attend, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated in English (with a couple of lines in Arabic), and the people clearly love Jesus, the faith, the liturgy, and each other–in that order!

It’s the healthiest spiritual enviornment I’ve been in.

I’ve had a similar experience at the pilgrimage to the Holy Resurrection Monastery (Romanian Catholic) in Newberry Springs. And there the Divine Liturgy and Office are celebrated in English. Bishop John Michael (Botean), whom I’ve been privileged to meet, is a true elder (staretz). **
 
bpbasilphx said:
More than anything I love the TLM because I know that I’m surrounded by people who love the faith as much as I do.You don’t get that at a vernacular Mass.

**Yes, you do.

in the Melkite parish I attend, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated in English (with a couple of lines in Arabic), and the people clearly love Jesus, the faith, the liturgy, and each other–in that order!

It’s the healthiest spiritual enviornment I’ve been in.

I’ve had a similar experience at the pilgrimage to the Holy Resurrection Monastery (Romanian Catholic) in Newberry Springs. And there the Divine Liturgy and Office are celebrated in English. Bishop John Michael (Botean), whom I’ve been privileged to meet, is a true elder (staretz). **
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Do the Orthodox call their Liturgies "Mass " ?
 
JuanCarlos said:
Was that St. Michael’s Abbey? Do they still offer daily TLM’s?
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I actually haven’t been to a Sunday Mass at the abbey for awhile now, so I can’t be certain. I go to the Mission San Juan Basilica for Sunday TLM now when I get the opportunity.

But what St. Michael’s does offer that most of the surrounding parishes don’t is solid, abuse-free, latin Mass in the OF on weekdays. Communion kneeling and on the tongue, homilies relevant to the Gospels, etc etc. 👍 So I go there Monday through Friday.

I’ll see if I can find out if there’s a Tridentine Mass on Sundays.
 
bpbasilphx said:
More than anything I love the TLM because I know that I’m surrounded by people who love the faith as much as I do.You don’t get that at a vernacular Mass.

**Yes, you do.

in the Melkite parish I attend, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated in English (with a couple of lines in Arabic), and the people clearly love Jesus, the faith, the liturgy, and each other–in that order!

It’s the healthiest spiritual enviornment I’ve been in.

I’ve had a similar experience at the pilgrimage to the Holy Resurrection Monastery (Romanian Catholic) in Newberry Springs. And there the Divine Liturgy and Office are celebrated in English. Bishop John Michael (Botean), whom I’ve been privileged to meet, is a true elder (staretz). **
Click to expand...
As I replied to your PM:

Dear bpbasliphx,

It probably wasn’t prudent of me to word my post like that, because, true as I think it is, it’s not really understood without the context of my location.

I know you’re probably not interested in the long story of my faith life, but to keep it very brief I live in an area where the Catholics are lukewarm at best and not really Catholics at worst. The place to go to find the truly orthodox Catholics around here is the TLM.

Sorry that I posted something that could be so easily misunderstood.

-Ambrose
 
Do the Orthodox call their Liturgies "Mass " ?

Western Orthodox do.
 
I’m in the process of finding a Latin Mass here in my fair city. I’ve never attended one.👍
 
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