A regular Sunday. My roommate and I woke up at 6am to attend the 7am mass. I hope that I can wake up early every Sunday and attend this mass as it is more peaceful and the church is less crowded. But halfway through the mass, my mind seems to fly away from the church and the mass and it settled on my unfinished news stories for Com22. I kept on revising a day schedule in my head while “listening” to the homily. After church, grab some breakfast, start writing my news stories, then go to the briefing for the David Pomeranz concert at 1pm. I can never give all my attention to what the priest was saying. Unlike Wednesday college nights, my whole attention is on the message of God and my mind stays put. What is it with the regular Catholic mass that it just can’t catch my attention for a whole one hour?
I think it’s because I’ve been attending these masses since I was a baby. No. I didn’t attend. My mother dragged me to go to church. But when I opened my inbox and read the article in New York Times about Pope Benedict XVI allowing the traditional or Tridentine Mass and listened to the audio slideshow, it was mysterious, enchanting. And for me, it seemed more sacred than the Mass I attend every Sunday in English or the vernacular. There really is something about the traditional mass that makes it more solemn and quiet.
According to Kelly Rein, 16, “It’s quiet. People are paying attention. In the English Mass, it’s noisy. There are babies crying. But here people are completely focused on God.”
More than 40 years ago , the groundbreaking Second Vatican Council introduced Mass in the vernacular, sending the Latin Mass into disuse and alienating some Catholics.
But last summer, Pope Benedict XVI eased restrictions on the rite, and new celebrations of the Latin Mass are flowering. To the surprise of many, the rite has attracted priests and parishioners too young to have experienced the Latin Mass when it was the norm.
The Tridentine Mass was codified at the Council of Trent in 1570, after which it is named. In it, the priest faces the altar, not the congregation. He prays in Latin, much of it in a whisper, although readings from Scripture and the sermon are in the vernacular. A missal in Latin and English allows parishioners to follow along.
“There’s a curiosity, and it is consistent with people looking for the transcendent and holy, which they maybe didn’t see in the Mass they attended growing up,” said the Rev. Keith F. Pecklers, professor of liturgy at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
Reading all this makes me want to go to Rome or somewhere where a Tridentine mass is performed. I want to feel the mystery and experience it personally. Maybe…….
Source: The New York Times, November 10, 2007
