I'm a cradle Catholic, thanks to my mother. I started in the "old" Church. Yes, Sister Mary had a ruler and used it effectively. We learned the Baltimore Catechism. We went to Mass, first in Latin, then in English. We took the change in stride and never gave it much thought. Rome had spoken, case closed. Cradle Catholics understand that.
We understood the authority of Rome. We understood the Mass as the Sacrifice of Calvary, whether in Latin or English. We trusted that the essentials were still there. And if nothing was missing, why hearken for Latin?
Something Changed
Did you ever go back to visit your old neighborhood, and noticed it's not the same? It's changed, and you've changed, too. This happened to me with regard to the Church. I left and returned, Deo gratias, and saw that something had changed. Not at first, mind you, but after some looking around. You might be familiar with the drill. One parish has guitar Masses, so you go to a conservative parish. But some funny stuff there impels you to find a more conservative parish. You eventually settle, but never quite feel at home.
While running "the drill" of parish hopping, I met some persons who invited me to a Latin Mass. "Halleluiah," I hollered ... well, not exactly. Funny to say, but I hadn't yet come upon the "new Mass" versus "old Mass" debate. A Latin Mass just meant Mass in Latin, right? Little did I know that I was about to walk back into my childhood, back to the first grade.
If you haven't been to a Tridentine Mass, be sure to prepare before you go. "Prepare?," you might ask. For what? I know the Mass: Gloria, creed, offertory, Eucharistic prayer, communion, and final blessing. I knew that, too, but it wasn't enough. I tried to follow the Mass, but fell behind sometimes. Some of my first-grade training sustained me. For example, I recognized the response Et cum spiritu tuo. That always sounded like somebody's phone number to me. Even if you prepare, it can be hard to follow, as my wife found out at her first Latin Mass.
The Latin Mass I attended was extraordinary. That is to say, beyond the ordinary. It's like nothing you'll find at your local parish. While the old Mass wasn't totally foreign to me, the difference from the new was striking. The loftiness, the prayers, the precision ... I could go on, but others have described the Mass better than I could. There is one thing, however, that let me know I had arrived home. Ad orientem? No. Communion rail? No, smaller. It was that tiny veil on top of the ciborium. I saw how Father flicked his wrist to clear the veil before covering the ciborium. It's not in the rubrics; it's something passed on from priest to priest. I saw that, and twenty-five years were bridged in an instant.
So for me, attending the Latin Mass is nostalgic, right? Maybe to a degree. But more than being nostalgic, I have a first-hand perspective of before and after. And I choose the old, but not because of a warm, fuzzy feeling.
"Unless every man keep whole and inviolate ..."
St. Athanasius, the great Doctor and Patriarch, suffered terribly to preserve the ancient Faith for us. His faith is preserved in a creed of the Church bearing his name. In the Athanasian Creed we hear the warning, "Whosoever desires to be saved, above all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith which, unless every man keep whole and inviolate, without doubt he will perish forever." We don't hear words like that very often. The modern approach is much softer, gentler. But the words must be true because the Church cannot deceive us.
It's the "whole and inviolate" part that comes to mind here. I see a stark contrast between the Latin Mass and the new Mass. How, then, do I reconcile that contrast with "whole and inviolate?" To me, the solution is simple. The Latin Mass has the visible continuity over more than a millennium. It is necessarily "whole and inviolate." There is no need to look any further.
So for me, attending the Latin Mass preserves the Faith and continuity with the past. Could I survive at the new Mass? Probably. But it's not just about me. I was weaned on the old Mass, a solid foundation. What about my children?
"If his son shall ask bread ..."
Our Lord used these words to illustrate the graciousness of His Father. What man would hand his son a stone? Now that I have sons I appreciate Our Lord's lesson. If I raise lukewarm Catholics, the Judge will call on me. I might have to explain why we went to the local parish. Oy vey!
Raising children Catholic today isn't easy. You can't trust modern catechetical material, but that's an issue for another article. So you take charge of teaching it yourself. You teach them to pray, with the family Rosary, for example. And you take them to Church. But where?
The final and decisive reason why I go to the Latin Mass is to hand solid food to my children. There they will receive their inheritance, "whole and inviolate." I have no worry that they'll get the wrong impression of Catholic worship. Mass is serious work, and that is always evident at the Latin Mass. They'll get a foretaste of Heaven that will, please God, lead them safely home.
Jerry Benitz
This article expresses so much of me! My husband and I were just discussing this evening how important it is for us to get it right with raising our children in the faith. Despite the hardships we have of getting to the Latin Mass, despite the fact that our local priest has refused to say the Latin Mass, we have decided to travel, and bring our children.
"Whole and inviolate"...PERFECT. Thanks!
It is obvious this man is writing from his heart. He loves his Church. He loves the Mass. Bravo. Thanks for expressing what so many of us feel. Maureen Cleary
This man is writing from his heart. He loves his Church. He loves the Mass. Thank you for expressing what we all feel, but can't so easily put into words.
It isn't often that I get to read on the www, words of a man writing about our Holy Mother Church without spouting off.
It is refreshing. It is beautiful. It reminds me of all the reasons I wanted, for two decades, to become Catholic, and finally did. It also reinforces all the reasons I want my children to experience, regularly, the beauty of THE Mass that IS our Catholic faith and history. I couldn't 'feed' them on the the last 40 years of Church history in the same way that I can't 'feed' them only the last 4 decades of our nation's history.
May Christ bestow myriad blessings upon you and yours.
Thanks so much for the article. I do appreciate this expession of the beauty of the Old Mass and the importance of it now being wider spread.