The Extraordinary Form

I like the Latin Mass. Oddly, the only experience I have of it is a private Mass. What I like about it is the better prayers, greater contemplation, and greater sense of transcendence. The only reason I don’t attend one regularly is my parish doesn’t offer one and, when I converted, I decided I didn’t want to still be like a Protestant driving past twenty churches on the way to the one I attend.

The Novus Ordo Mass can be well done, but my experience is it is often not. For instance, most Masses I experience they don’t say the Roman Canon (Eucharist Prayer I). This is the oldest Eucharistic prayer whereas the others are modern inventions. The Roman Canon makes clear the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Most Masses I experience don’t use the all the prayers of the Church but substitute them with Protestant hymns. I mean there are antiphons, sequences, and old Catholic hymns. But it as if they didn’t exist in my experience.

I really like Latin. I think there is a lot to be said for having a liturgical language. This way anywhere you go you experience the same Mass. We see the problems of vernacular with the abomination known as a bilingual Mass. Those exists to make sure not half the people or a quarter but that everyone is dissatisfied. Apparently not knowing the language of the Mass is just fine if the language being used is Spanish. Privately I prayer as many prayers as I know in Latin.

 

The baby boomer priests are retiring or dying. The new crop of priests will return us to authentic Catholicism. The watered down faith is not one that products martyrs or changes culture.

Incense is only used at my parish on Maundy Thursday. I believe it is required for that Mass.

A metaphorical slap in the face during confession is good from time to time. I’ve received a few of those.

 

I am in our church choir, and I feel like our director is trying to navigate between her personal preferences, those of the choir members and those of the parish as a whole. She has been introducing some more traditional hymns since she began leading us, but has also pulled in some contemporary songs. Some of those I kind of like, but there are some that just make me want to throw up. Still, I feel like the music made by newer Catholic artists today (e.g. Matt Maher) is generally a lot better than the songs that were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s by David Haas, Marty Haugen and company.

I HATE the bilingual (sometimes trilingual) Mass! To be honest, as bad as we are at capturing the intended meaning of various parts of the Mass with today's music sung in English, it seems to me that it is often even worse at the Spanish Masses.

Yes, I think most of us did these days. I feel like the tied is turning, but a certain pontiff seems to embody the baby-boomer priest mentality.

Ironically, the one time I was almost denied absolution, it was by a liberal priest who didn't think it was healthy to go to confession more than once every couple of months. He made this point before hearing any of my actual confession and forbade me from confessing anything habitual in nature. I wasn't entirely sure how valid the confession ultimately was, since I didn't withhold any sins but was forbidden from confessing one of grave matter.

 

Anything is better than those two.

Yeah, I’d rather go to a Spanish Mass than a bilingual Mass.

Regarding English, I wonder if our Pater Noster is in danger like the Italian? That is another plug for Latin, not having to worry about the translations.

 

I brought it up the next time I went to confession, which was at an abbey, not the parish where this had happened. The priest I spoke to about this was alarmed and wanted to make sure this hadn't happened at his abbey.

 

One of the issues for me is the question of who should be changing things. It shouldn't be the parish's liturgical director or even the priest saying the Mass. Neither has that authority. When everyone is just changing whatever they feel like changing just to see what happens, the meaning of various actions in the Mass often gets lost. For example, prior to the update to the translation of the liturgy here in the United States a few years ago, choirs would often extend the Agnus Dei by throwing in other phrases, such as "Fire of Love, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us." Instead of emphasizing Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who died for our sins, the whole thing seemed to turn into a compliment fest for Jesus. Nothing wrong with praising Jesus, but that wasn't the point of that moment in the liturgy. Fortunately, that error seems to have been corrected everywhere I have been to Mass in recent years, but my pastor (who didn't grow up Catholic and, IMO, lacks a sense of the importance of tradition and the rubrics) is constantly tweaking other things. I find it really irritating that he thinks he knows better than everyone else how the Mass ought to be said.

 

The language barrier takes quite some effort to overcome but even by reading translations of the prayers I am constantly amazed by the sober beauty of the text. It is simply, Catholic. There is no modern sugarcoating in the prayers to make you feel nice and comfortable as you are. The prayers are constantly calling us to repentance and asking for God's grace in doing so.

Everything is centered on conversion to Christ, especially the orientation of celebrating Mass facing the altar or Eastwards or 'ad orientem'. This has a great psychological effect in making us take the whole liturgy seriously. It's no longer about us; it is about God. Although we are not focused on ourselves during the liturgy, we cannot ignore examining our conscience and our current state. There are several moments of great silence in the Extraordinary Form which help us to pray seriously. I think the Novus Ordo has been so badly celebrated, that the Mass has become about the people, and not about God. We vocalize many prayers in our own native language but we have forgotten the internal prayer and dialogue with God.

The preparation and reception of Holy Communion is also another thing I like about the Extraordinary Form. It's done kneeling at the altar rail, and given to the faithful on the tongue. We not only have to worship God in the heart, but also show it through our bodies. I'm not convinced when many people say that "It's the heart that counts, the exterior doesn't matter." To me, it's simply not practicing what we preach. What is the point of teaching reverence but not putting it into action? The rubrics of the Extraordinary Form are very consistent and insistent on reverence, and offers us discipline which is sorely lacking nowadays.

 

The older prayers are so much better. The words are precise and full of meaning. They were worked out over centuries rather than being drawn up in a few years by bureaucrats. One simple example is the blessing of holy water. The older blessing included exorcisms and made you think the priest was serious about turning ordinary water into a sacramental or a means of grace.

Even the Anglicans know this. Their wedding vows include, ‘With my body I thee worship’.

 

I think the Latin mass worked when we had Catholic cultures, and Catholic ethnic communities but I fear if it were still in Latin it would seem like an exclusive club and converts or those not raised in the faith would never find us. Mind you I think it’s beautiful but I think Vatican2 was the correct way to go.

 

This is exactly what happens if you stumble upon a Spanish Mass in the US. Unless you are Hispanic you feel a bit out of place since the language and music is not your own.

The Mass in the early days was reserved for Christians. As I recall those who weren’t Christians were excluded from the entirety of the Liturgy. The exception was catechumens we’re allowed to stay for the Liturgy of the Word, but dismissed before the Eucharist. The modern RCIA process does this.

So the Mass wasn’t seen as an evangelical opportunity. You were evangelized and then came to Mass. Personally a lot of modern Catholic Liturgy turns me off of the Catholic Church. I endure it because I believe she is the True Church. But I find she attempts a poor imitation of high Methodism.