Latin in the Mass: Part 2

(My 1962 Missal opened to the "Gloria".)

Language preserves tradition. In the Latin Mass, I learned how to worship God with the adoration and respect the Church has always shown Him. Latin helps remind us to keep what is sacred as sacred. It doesn’t damage or diminish holiness and tradition by changing in meaning or structure. For example, in the Masses said in the vernacular, we used to say, “And also with you,” when the priest said, “Peace be with you.” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had that changed to the traditional and literal translation. So now we say, “And with your spirit.” In the Latin Mass community, I never had to wake up one day and find out I had been saying the wrong stuff in Mass my whole life. In Latin, it was always “And with your spirit” (Et cum spiritu tuo), and it always will be.

Just as in the non-Latin Masses, at the Latin Mass, missals are always available. The Latin missal has the Latin right beside the literal English translation of what is going on in the Mass. It can be a little tricky to follow along at first, but the more you expose yourself, the easier it will become. It took one of my friends just three visits to the Latin Mass to get the hang of it. Just a few months later, he was able to say many of the responses from memory. Sometimes I don’t even use a missal because I’ve been able to memorize the responses and the different parts of the Mass as well. Murmuring responses like, “Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis,” has become like second nature to me and to everyone else who has been introduced to the Latin Mass over the last few years.

I feel as though going to the Mass in Latin has helped me nurture a mature relationship with God and the saints. I feel as though I’ve developed a deep understanding of God’s Plan and my role as a lay Catholic in our troubled modern world. It has made the Sacrifice of the Mass come alive for me and reminds me that my life is something that belongs to God. When you go to your first Latin Mass allow yourself to be transported. Allow yourself to learn more about your God and your faith through mystery and tradition. Allow yourself to be taken up, to participate in the sacred, to experience unity and continuity, to worship God in the most respectful way we know how. “Commune with your God.” (1962 Missal) It won’t be long before you reach an understanding you never thought was possible.

Latin in the Mass: Part 1

(My Latin Mass community, December 2014)

Since the 3rd century A.D. and up until the year 1965, the Mass was said in Latin. For the first 300 years in the history of the Church, much of the Mass was said in Greek, but for the almost 1600 years following, the Mass was in Latin. And yet, during this time, the Church grew explosively. Interestingly, today, many people balk at the idea of hearing the Mass in Latin. When I invite people to the Latin Mass, they usually say, “It’s in a language I don’t understand!” Although I am a young Catholic who does not speak Latin as a first language, and who understands very little of it, I tend to view the Traditional Latin Mass in a different light.

Many Masses are said all over the world in many different languages. Not everyone in all those Masses understands the languages being used, but, they still feel blessed, they still know the actions at Mass--what is happening at Mass. For example, on Guam, Chamorro is spoken even though not all people on Guam understand it. In fact, most people on Guam speak English. If someone from Korea or Vietnam or other parts of Micronesia goes to a Mass that is said in English, is it less of a Mass for them? Even native English speakers--do they understand everything that goes on in an English Mass? This is why the celebrant explains the Mass and Church teachings in their sermons, which is what our Traditional Latin Mass priests do for us.

As a matter of fact, when all the Masses were in Latin, it created a unifying experience. Latin is the language of the universal Church, the Catholic Church. In Guam, right now, people who are concerned about cultural identity are scrambling to teach young Guamanians to speak Chamorro. Why is language so important to this effort to re-establish cultural identity? Well, one of the reasons is that language often nurtures unity. “One island. One people.” I think I saw that on a billboard in Yona somewhere. Unity helps a people and its culture to not only survive, but to thrive. It keeps reality from turning into memory and then into myth. If unity is so terribly important to a small island in the South Pacific, it seems that it should be just as important to the one, universal Church.

I’m an experienced “Latin Masser” now, but that was not always the case. I remember saying the Mass in English as a child. Even today, since Latin Masses are extremely limited, I often go to Masses that are said in English. I’ve come to realize, however, that when you experience the Latin Mass, you experience something peculiar. I’ve heard people express this peculiarity in different ways. “I thought I was in pre-War Agana,” someone once told me after his first Latin Mass just a few months ago. Another friend said she felt like she’d been transported back to ancient times. Those were interesting comments because the popes and the saints themselves have talked about how the tradition of the Mass keeps us in touch with our Catholic roots: it keeps us in touch with saints of the distant past, with the Early Church, with the Last Supper itself because of the manner in which it is said, because of the formula we now call “traditional”. The Latin Mass I attend is the Mass of the young Karol Wojtyla, of St. Padre Pio, of St. Thomas Moore, of St. Francis, of St. Anthony... There isn’t a single saint in the book who did not experience the Latin Mass. The Latin in the Mass is timeless and unchanging while vernacular languages are always changing with time. Latin links us with our Catholic heritage while the vernacular severs us from it. Somehow, I can’t imagine myself shouting, as  Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati did, “Yes! He is the King of Kings!” after experiencing a Mass that was said in colloquial Italian instead of archaic Latin--Which brings me to another point...

...Stay tuned for part 2!