I went back home at the end of June from a few months of being where the Latin Rite was the norm—low Masses during the week, high Mass for Sundays and feast days. I came back to a normal bilingual Novus Ordo Mass. I understood much more clearly why people object to the bilingual approach, but also was struck at the chaos in that liturgy. It had escaped me before because it was familiar, but now—well, the jumps and starts were startling. It was exacerbated by the way in which instruments were being used, drums and synth were more clear than the human voices and an extra “punch” was frequently delivered by the synth at the end of any short line of prayer or song. (The priest was speaking all of his parts in English, while the choir was leading all responses in Spanish).
The Eucharist was given to people not just by the priest but also by a laywoman.
There were good things to say about the homily, the priest encouraged us to go after our “lost sheep”--those who were baptised but are no longer practicing the faith. Still, I could not go back. For Sunday Mass, I started going further to attend the Latin Rite.
On the First Friday of July, I went to the local parish in order to go to Mass only to discover that there was no Mass. Some women were reading the readings for the day and leading some prayers. When one of them announced the Our Father “to prepare for the Holy Eucharist” I left. How was this different from Methodists or Anglicans? A priest consecrated the host ahead of time, but still, I could not bear it. I looked online for “First Friday Latin Mass” and found an evening Mass at an SSPX chapel. So I went. People were praying the Rosary when I arrived and presently Mass began. It was a low Mass, followed by prayers of reparation led by the priest. One of the people their handed me a booklet that had the prayers they were using. The Mass itself brought tears to my eye. I didn’t quite cry, I don’t think, but close. It is easier to pray there.
Weekday mass at the NO comes a little closer to the simplicity of the low Mass, but the prayers are not as rich and you still have the jarring conversation thing happening. In the Latin Rite, I do not feel under any pressure to know and follow each genuflection and prayer, but rather an open and free invitation to participate in the great Prayer of the Mass, to enter mysteriously into the very life of Christ, to gaze into His holy Face and be enraptured in His most Sacred Heart. Doubtless, where the Creed is sung, I will sing along. If it is a high Mass, I will likely be singing along wherever more than one voice is singing the ordinaries. I will often be murmuring the propers in their places, or simply as I come to them while using the missal as a prayer guide—and what prayers!
Since I mentioned the First Friday, here is an example from that day: “O God, You mercifully deign to bestow on us in the Heart of Your Son, wounded by our sins, an infinite treasure of love; grant, we beseech You, that, rendering It the devout homage of our affection, we may also make a worthy reparation for our sins. Through the same, etc.”
Another example of the rich yet ordinary prayers of the Mass of the Ages is the reminder at every high Mass of our baptism as we are sprinkled with Holy Water and we sing the Asperges Me.
Then there is posture—when the priest is also facing Christ in the tabernacle, when we are all facing East together it directs us toward God. When priest and congregation are facing each other—well it is easier to get caught on the horizontal and miss the transcendent.
So far, this has only been my impressions, but the thing is, I know that God cares about how He is worshiped. He tells the Samaritan woman that God is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth (as well as telling her that the Samaritans did not know what they worshiped in contrast to the Jews). Throughout the Old Testament God is concerned with right worship. Cain was not happy because God preferred Abel’s sacrifice to his. Abel’s worship was accepted, Cain’s not so much. When Moses was sent to free the Israelites, it was so that they could worship God in the way that He was calling them to do. Along the way people died because they brought the wrong kind of incense or because they challenged the priesthood ordained by God. Is the God we worship, not the same today, yesterday, and forever?
