My wife and I attended our first Tridentine Mass this morning. The liturgy was beautiful, unlike anything we are used to, but beautiful nonetheless. I really wish I had paid more attention to my Latin classes in college! Maybe then I would have been able to follow along a little easier. As it was, I frequently got lost not realizing that most of the mass is said silently by the priest. I wouldn't mind attending again, but my wife has decided that she is not ready for it at this point in time. I intend to read more about the Tridentine Mass and become more familiar with the liturgy. That way, when I do attend it again, I won't be as lost as I was this time.
2 comments:
One of the reasons I fell in love with liturgy was reading my father's old St. Joseph's Missal from when he was an altar boy in the 50's. The center part of the Missal had a side-by-side Latin/English text of the Ordinary of the Mass. I think you can still find those side-by-sides in book form, and certainly on the internet. I think I taught myself a lot of Latin from reading that text so much! I bet after a few times of attending it would become very familiar to you. Was this an "indult parish," that is, do they do the Tridentine Mass all the time? That's neat that you could find that.
I was always perplexed by the reading of the "Last Gospel," John 1:1-14 that is read at the conclusion of every Tridentine Mass. I realized as I got older that this was the mystery of the Incarnation put into words. Just last year, I heard an Orthodox priest say that in their tradition, historically, catechumens were not even allowed to read that passage until they were baptized, as it was seen as too holy to be read by the unbaptized!
Frank,
Yes it was an indult parish. Their is a good size Latin Community here in Pittsburgh.
Jason,
Yes, it was St. Boniface that we attended. We were at the 11am service. You might have noticed us if you were there...we were the ones who were very unfamiliar with what was going on!
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