St. Helen church to offer traditional Latin Mass

New service will begin at 8 a.m. on March 8
By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW, KY — St. Helen Catholic Church will begin offering a traditional Latin Mass in March.

The service will be on Saturdays at 8 a.m. beginning March 8.

The availability of the Mass is not only something the church’s congregation has requested, but Pope Benedict XVI has asked parishes worldwide that the Latin Rite be made available to the Catholic faithful, according to Father Shannon Collins, associate pastor of the church.

The Pope made the request on July 7, 2007.

The Traditional Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass was used in the Catholic Church for almost 1,600 years, until the introduction of the Mass of Pope Paul VI following the Second Vatican Council, according to Latin Mass.org.

“In 1969 or 1970, when the new Mass was introduced, a lot of people thought the old Mass was buried, and it never was,” Collins said.

While the two services share some similarities, there are two major differences.

One difference is the language in which the service is delivered.

“Latin was the dominant language for the entire hist-ory of the church,” Collins said, but was used less and less over the years. “Latin can still be used, always has been, (and) always will be.”

The other difference is the direction in which the priest delivers the service.

“The priest in the new Mass is largely facing the congregation as he prays, whereas in the old Mass, he is facing with the people toward God,” Collins said. “It kind of reaches out to Christians to show that we appreciate the ancient things which our fathers left to us.”

While the service is new to St. Helen’s, it has been made available at Our Lady of the Caves Catholic Church in Horse Cave for the past six to seven months.

For more information about the service, call the church’s rectory at (270) 651-5263.