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To: rwfromkansas; te lucis

What is even more prophetic are the words of Dom Prosper Gueranger, founder of the Benedictine Congregation of France and first abbot of Solesmes after the French revolution, who wrote in 1840 his Liturgical Institutions in order to restore among the clergy the knowledge and the love for the Roman Liturgy. In his work the anti-liturgical heresy he wrote the following concerning the Latin language and the liturgy and the enemies of the Church:

"Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the hearts of all the enemies of Rome. They recognize it as the bond among Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. . . . The spirit of rebellion which drives them to confide the universal prayer to the idiom of each people, of each province, of each century, has for the rest produced its fruits, and the reformed themselves constantly perceive that the Catholic people, in spite of their Latin prayers, relish better and accomplish with more zeal the duties of the cult than most do the Protestant people. At every hour of the day, divine worship takes place in Catholic churches. The faithful Catholic, who assists, leaves his mother tongue at the door. Apart form the sermons, he hears nothing but mysterious words which, even so, are not heard in the most solemn moment of the Canon of the Mass. Nevertheless, this mystery charms him in such a way that he is not jealous of the lot of the Protestant, even though the ear of the latter doesn't hear a single sound without perceiving its meaning .… . . . We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one's work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks on the marketplace. . . ."

SOURCE

73 posted on 06/20/2005 7:55:07 AM PDT by murphE (These are days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed but his own. --G.K. Chesterton)
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To: murphE

The sacred language?

Where did God appoint Latin some special language?

Since this is a fallen world, and all our languages are a RESULT of that fallenness, Latin is no better than Arabic.

Yes, it is beautiful, but still nothing sacred. It is anything but. You can cuss in Latin just as much as you can in English I am sure.


77 posted on 06/20/2005 8:00:36 AM PDT by rwfromkansas (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=rwfromkansas)
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To: murphE
Latin hold a special place in the Church, as it was the language that held together Christendom. I think a Mass in Latin is a beautiful thing, however, IMHO, I can't see Benedict bringing back Latin as the single language of the Mass.

Today as a practical matter, how many Priests know Latin? Do we ditch all those who prefer to celebrate Mass in vernacular? As a matter of Dogma, the Eastern rites were often celebrated in vernacular, and are no less valid.

Like I have said in this and other forums over and over again, out battle should be at the CCD door. Our Church is in need of real effort in Cathechesis. Pretending that all we need is a Tridentine Mass is amazingly short sighted. I still have people telling me fantastic reasons why they can't receive the Eucharist or go to Mass at all.

A simple short course in Catholicism would be the most effective of all the reforms.

In Europe, through the ages, symbolism taught our ancestors. They understood the teachings of the Church from the start, by the things they saw. The Statues, Glass, and Pageants of the church are gone. The teachings to back up those visual aids are missing now in our Churches. When you have a May Crowning, people don't understand it, because they were taught poorly in the first place.

Adults don't reschool themselves willingly. The Evangelicals have Sunday Class for the whole Congregation. We often have Bible Studies where nothing is taught, to those who already are Catechized in some manner. No, unless you motivate them correctly, nobody is going to fix the gaping wound in the soul that they have, and that they can't see.

Until the Church buys into the problems with the Adults from the 1960s where nothing was taught, or waits for them to die out, no reform will help.
86 posted on 06/20/2005 8:26:01 AM PDT by Dominick ("Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." - JP II)
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