Your first TLM

[valoriuslobo]

Please share your memories/impressions of your first time attending TLM. If you grew to with it, what was it like attending your first after the institution of the NO?

I think we are blessed that the Holy Father freed up the EF.

 

[Mark1970]

My first EF Mass was 11/12 years ago in a small church dedicated to one of the English Martyrs. The Church was built in the early 1800’s and had been reordered back to its original pre Vatican II state. The celebrant of the Mass was the pastor of the church, a priest in his 70’s, and he’d introduced a monthly Mass in his parish due to there being an SSPX chapel a few miles away. I think he wanted to give people the option of going to an EF Mass celebrated by a priest in good standing. I can’t remember all the details of the Mass, except that going to this church seemed almost like stepping into another world or stepping back in time - the church was built in a countrified area and that, combined with the appearance of the church, made the entire experience almost surreal.

My biggest memory of strting to attend the EF was not of attending the EF itself, but of going to an EF Mass on the Sunday and then an OF Mass the following day. The change from going to an EF Mass and then to an OF Mass was like a jolt due to the difference between the two.

 

[eagle_eye222001]

I first went to the Latin Mass about 3 years ago and I remember being in much awe.

It was weird not understanding the language…however I remember thinking of how beautiful it sounded. I was surprised at how reverent the church felt.

In all, a very positive spiritual experience. Which is why I’ve gone when presented the opportunity.

Going to a Latin Mass opened my eyes as to the reverence that should be striven for in a Mass.

 

[phoooiee]

I went once as a lapsed Catholic just because I thought it might be neat…I think it did a lot to eventually bring me back to the Church.

 

[Gertabelle]

My first reaction was feeling completely at a loss for what to do. Stand, kneel, stand, sit, kneel, sit, stand, kneel… The order was completely different from the OF, and that completely threw me off – I didn’t have a missal to follow, and there were no booklets remaining when I walked in (I saw a pile of them after the mass as people returned them).

I also remember wondering if I’d accidentally walked into an SSPX chapel (even though I’d been to the OF of the mass at the church the evening before) – two weeks before Ash Wednesday, the priest was already wearing purple, and the readings were different from the ones the night before. I’m glad I stayed until the homily when father announced that the wearing of purple before Lent officially began was an old tradition. And then I found out that the EF has a different reading cycle. OK, so it was a Rome-approved mass.

And I remember experiencing how beautiful and reverent the mass was, and thinking to myself, “Why did they change all this when the language was changed to the vernacular?” At 43, I don’t remember the Latin mass, and I don’t know the history of the change to the OF. But attending the EF (and I’ve only been once) gave me something to think about – why was the whole form of the mass changed? Why not just translate the language and be done with it?

Honestly, I suddenly understood something my late father once told me in the 1980s – that he stopped going to mass when they changed it. I don’t defend his decision (and he did make a good confession and return to the sacraments before his death), but I understand his frustration now.

The small number of people at the EF mass surprised me as well. But it was nice to feel at home receiving Holy Communion on my knees

As I am paid to play the piano at an OF mass, I probably won’t get back to the EF for awhile. But it is truly lovely, reverent, and I wish we could have the EF in English as our “new translation.”

Gertie

 

[TrueLight]

My first TLM was this year. Either the Sunday before Ash Wednesday or the Sunday after…

In fact it was my very first mass.

I had just found CAF and I heard all this talk about the TLM. I found some TLM masses on Youtube and watched some of them. I thought they were beautiful.

So the Sunday before or after Ash Wednesday, I went to a parish that has an 11 AM TLM

I felt strange and self-conscious. I felt I had the words “Big Time Protestant” engraved in scarlet on my shirt.

Nevertheless, the mass was beautiful, reverent and mysterious.

I am so happy the first mass I went to was a TLM. It was so different from what I was used to, I wanted to be a part of that. The beauty of it got me really interested in the Catholic Church.

An OF would have seemed dull to me.

 

[ProVobis]

At 43, I don’t remember the Latin mass, and I don’t know the history of the change to the OF. But attending the EF (and I’ve only been once) gave me something to think about – why was the whole form of the mass changed?

Actually if you’ve ever attended the Latin OF you’d probably find much similarity between the two forms. The flow – Confiteor, Kyrie, Gloria, Collect, Readings with Psalms, Gospel, sermon, Credo, Offertory, Washing of Hands, Preface, Canon or EP1, Pater Noster, Agnus Dei, Priest’s Communion, People’s Communion, Post communion prayer, Blessing – has been pretty much preserved. Many probably wouldn’t know the difference between the Latin OF and the EF, especially if both are celebrated ad orientem and audible to some degree.