I can certainly see how the Tridentine Latin Mass will hold the improvs and ad-libs down. Then again, most of the pew dwellers won’t even notice the ‘off-roading’ if it is given in Latin – tho, I just might.

Remember, I love you, too

Reminding that we are all on the same side – His,

Pristinus Sapienter

(wljewell @newcesite.com or … yahoo.com)

Goral

am I misunderstamding something–Is the Tridentine Mass the same as the Mass of John XXIII?

As a lay Baptist Minister I would go on Sunday afternoon to the Novus mass after worshiping and serving in my Baptist Church. Once I became Catholic I went in a different town to a Novus mass where it seemed very protestant. I was glad for it at the time. 12 years later. I have gone from enjoying that to enjoying a more latin filled Novus like Ewtns mass, to enjoying the tridentine mass. Right now I could go to a mass like Ewtn has or a tridentine mass and very much enjoy both. Although if I could, I would rather go to a tridentine mass. I guess it has alot to do with where people are in there faith. 

I drive about 6 Kms here in Lyon, France to assist at a Latin Mass, I've been doing so for about 6 months or so. I have to say I'm quite at ease also when the Mass is celebrated in French and is "coordinated" if that's the right word, by the Emmanuel community. Sorry to say, I just can't abide a Mass where the Priest addlibs and improvises; Yes, without the slightest doubt, the Mass has in many ways lost it's Sacred and awe inspiring character down through the years, it's rather sad to witness this change. Here in France some of the hymnes are particularly dismal and uninspired. I'm not ashamed to say that I miss the "Sweet Heart of Jesus" and "Hail Queen of Heaven" of my childhood in Dublin. Well done Benedict XVI. I agree with Pilvi from Finland, a new Liturgical spring for the Church. Greetings to all at Catholic Exchange.   

What Pope Benedict has done with the motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, is he has made the Tridentine Mass (so different from the Novus Ordo Mass we know, whether in Latin or the vernacular) available to be said without special permission from the bishop.

If you were to walk into a Novus Ordo Mass being said in Latin, you would pretty much know where you were in the Mass…what prayers were being said when…you just wouldn't know the words.

If you were to walk into a Tridentine Mass (which is always said in Latin), you may not know exactly what was going on in each "part" because the "format" is a little different (if you will). 

Just as if you were to walk into a Byzantine Rite Mass (Catholic, but a different Rite), you wouldn't know exactly what was going on in each "part" because their "format" is a little different, too.

So simply referring to "the Latin Mass" is a bit confusing.  Because it doesn't specify WHICH Mass…the Tridentine?  or the Novus Ordo said in Latin.

While your Episcopalean background gave you a certain comfort level with liturgical worship, I was raised in various non-liturgical and "non-denominational" traditions. Consequently, I had precisely the opposite reaction that you did to the "new" liturgy. I was relieved because the Mass was nothing like the one others (primarily anti-Catholics who now attended the faith communities in which I grew up) had warned me against.

The Latin form would have been too great a leap for me to handle at the outset. God brought me into the Church through the door He knew I could manage. (I write more about this on my Streams of Mercy" blog, if you'd like to read about it: http://streamsofmercy.blogspot.com.) 

Now that I've been "in the fold" for a while and have had a chance to become more familiar with Church teachings, I hope to attend a Latin Mass in the near future. I also can appreciate why others love it so. However, because the liturgical form of 1970 remains the "ordinary" form, a faithful Catholic could conceivably go his or her whole life without ever setting foot in a Latin Mass.

The Holy Father took great pains to make us understand that there are not two rites, simply two forms of the same rite. Those who attend the Tridentine liturgies are not necessarily "better" or more fullly formed Catholics. God leads each of us along different paths, depending on what we need.

God bless you! Heidi Saxton

Heidi Hess Saxton Editor, "Canticle" Magazine Blogroll