The Mass
It’s important to go to Church regularly and I think within the Catholic Church the Mass you choose to go to is equally important.
How I worship is important to me so I go to church every Sunday and also on Holy Days. I go to a Rosary meeting once a month where we pray the Rosary together. It is at the home of one of the congregation and after we have prayed the Rosary we have a drink and talk. It’s a great way of getting to know other congregants. Though most of them are ‘cradle’ Catholics so know everything I’m still learning, because they’ve grown up with it. I’m continually impressed with their knowledge of the prayers. I’m still struggling with the Apostles Creed. Granted I have never been good at learning things off by heart, but I will get there. I can now pray the Rosary without prompts.
I have chosen to go to the Latin Mass. This is because I feel it is the true Mass, sung and spoken in Latin as it has been for over a thousand years. The fact that it is an ancient service really does appeal to me. Why change something which has held Catholics together for centuries. As a non Catholic I had always assumed that the Mass had changed to being in English to make it easier for people to understand. I thought it was a choice. You chose one or the other but that they were the same service, just one was in Latin and one was in English. Goodness but was I wrong.
I have been to both Novus Order and Latin Mass and for me it has to be the Latin Mass because as a Church of England friend said, why become a Catholic our High Mass is identical to theirs and I had to admit that the Novus Order Mass and the Church of England High Mass are almost identical. The Latin Mass is not the same. It is reverential, it is beautiful and it feels like you are really worshipping God. You also have to work at it because it is in Latin so you have Latin on the left and English on the right of your missal, it takes concentration.
The Novus Order Mass does not feel reverential, they even have that awful hand shaking, When I went back to church after nearly 50 years away from it, I was shocked. It felt like the congregation were being involved in some sort of Baptist or American style evangelical mass and to be honest if I had wanted to worship God in this way I would have gone to the Baptist church. It feels rude to God, like the congregation are almost more important than God. They are communicating not worshipping.
The Latin Mass is so beautiful, I like the way the priest faces the alter. I like the way the Cantor sings and the way the congregation sing some of the service, I particularly like the way the congregation stay silent in parts. It is so beautiful when it is a sung mass and the music and the words often stay in my head for hours sometimes a couple of days afterwards, I will find myself humming the beautiful verses, I might not be able to remember all the latin words but the music is there and it always raises my spirits.
I’m learning a lot of things I never knew before and re learning some things I thought I knew but clearly didn’t. It’s an interesting time. I’m truly looking forward to my confirmation so that I can participate in the mass. To really become a Catholic.
MC