I asked one of my Vocal Clients, a 90 year old Soprano who sings in Beautiful Latin, why the Old Latin Mass was so important to her, when it is in an old language that nobody speaks anymore.
She smiled at me and said, “Because, as a Catholic, I USED to be able to go to ANY Catholic Church on the Planet, and it would be in the SAME Language as it was at home!
Made sense. I had ALWAYS understood why people didn’t want CHANGES in the Liturgy that watered down the Message.
But I hadn’t understood why the Change to the Vernacular had been such an issue.
This kind lady made it very clear to me.
When I was a kid, my family gypsied all over the Caribbean. We usually went during Christmas and Easter vacations, when we kids were out of school, so we often found ourselves in odd places when Christmas or Easter rolled around. If we weren't on a British island (we were Episcopalian at the time) there was of course no Anglican church, so my dad would call on the local Catholic priest. I don't remember a time when we were not allowed to receive (of course, we were so 'high' our noses bled! Plus, my dad could sell walk-in freezers to Eskimos.)
But the wonderful thing was, whether we were on a French island, a Dutch island, in Mexico, or in Haiti, the Mass was always exactly the same! (usually couldn't understand a word of the homily though!)
:-) I still recall the experience as a 5 year old child when my mother (who worked for Scandinavian Airlines and traveled free) to Rome. To get there and back, we had to stop in Copenhagen where we attended Sunday Mass. The fact that it was in Latin made it comprehensible. We felt right at home. Okay - that was more years ago than I care to remember ;-)