Lutheran Ping!
Be rooted in Christ!
Rev. Chaplain (CPT) Graham Glover is an LCMS Active Duty US Army Chaplain currently stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. In his spare time he is a PhD student in the University of Florida’s Department of Political Science. He is interested in the relationship between religious and political thought, especially as it relates to how we understand our role in a democratic/capitalist society that extols individual rights. He isn’t afraid to stir the pot and even kick it over when properly motivated.
Honestly, I have never, ever heard anything in this line of thinking before and have posted it to get some reaction primarily from Lutheran FReepers.
Very curious to get some reaction to this...
If one wants to be backward, why stop at a recently dead language? Why not require ancient Greek, Aramaic, or ancient Hebrew?
I put this in the same context as those who consider the King James Bible to be the original Bible, as written by the Hebrews and Apostles.
I have been to an LCMS service in Greek (old Greek) sung to the litany of St John C.
And in German of course. When my grandfather was old, some of his generation got together with an older pastor to have a German Litany sung. That was forceably ended in WWI.
But not Latin. Oh, we have a lot of Latin in some of the liturgy settings, but I don’t remember a full service in Latin.
I attend an LCMS church that uses only traditional liturgy at every service. Our school includes Latin as a subject every student takes.
Reverting to the Latin mass as the norm would be a mistake. There is power in hearing and participating in a service in your native language. It has more personal meaning when one understands what is being said.
As for reconciliation with the Roman church, that’s not going to happen this side of the second coming of Christ!
Be rooted in Christ!
To paraphrase Newton's third law of motion:
Every extreme liturgical action produces and equal and opposite reaction.
As an LCMS Lutheran who posts here on a fairly regular basis, I probably should say something about this. But I have sat here for a long time, trying to think of something to say, and there is nothing to say.
God doesn’t listen to our language; God listens to our hearts, and to Himself the Holy Spirit who prays alongside our prayers (Romans 8:26-27). If liturgizing in Latin opens your heart to God, then do it in Latin; if liturgizing in Greek or Aramaic or Russian or English or Japanese or Hindi or Spanish or Yoruba or Afrikaans or Quechua opens your heart to God, then do it in that language.
Jesus praises the scribe who brings forth out of his storehouse treasures both new and old (Matt. 15:32). It is the liturgy that ties us to the great cloud of witnesses, from St. Francis to Pope Francis, from St. Clement to Kim Clement, so that we practice, every time we engage in it, the song that is, and will forever be sung before the Throne. But we are also told more than once in the Bible to sing, not just the old songs, but new songs as well, because it is Christ who makes all things new.
The Introits, Collects, and Graduals of the SBH are virtually the same as those of the 1962 Missal so beloved by Latin Mass trad Catholics.
My reaction (I'm Missouri Synod) is that the good reverend academic who wrote the essay has been nibbling too much on those little wafers....the one that the heroine partook of deep down in the rabbit hole in "Alice in Wonderland.
No problem in positing the idea of a Lutheran Latin Mass, or discussing and debating it. But this is one proposal that has zero chance of being fulfilled for many excellent reasons.
The writer obviously has a lot of time on his hands to explore barren, dead-end labyrinths in which no one else cares a whit to join him.
Leni/MinuteGal
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Oh, that's funny!!!
I do not agree.
Within the LCMS, liturgy - the work of worship - and (especially) reverance should be primary, not language.
That said, I do inject Latin, Greek and even some Aramaic when discussing the history of the church catholic. Being able to understand the language of the apostles and the Church fathers provides real insight into the on-going dissemination of the Gospel.
Those who do not learn from history...yada, yada, yada.
I YESSESSE TENGWAINEN ¨
THE FIRST AND SECOND CHAPTERS OF GENESIS IN QUENYA WITH TENGWAR1
http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/tgenesis.pdf
Naaah...
A Latin mass will put the parishioners to sleep faster than the memorized English version.
I’d ask how the invaders from the south ( which are mostly Catholic) would adjust to Latin masses, but then I realized, most of them are coming from Latin America, so no problem.
Hey, while we're at it, how about selling forgiveness for sins...we can call them indulgences!
“Indeed, there is goodness in hearing and understanding the Liturgy in one’s native tongue. But Luther’s experiment with language should end. It’s time to restore Latin to the Mass of the Western Church. It’s time to reintroduce the language of the Church to her people.”
The language of the Church? Only if you are Roman 2000 years ago. This is preposterously BALDERDASH!
There is an earthquake coming, from Martin Luther rolling over violently in his grave!
And if he were here today, he would post this in language (not Latin) stronger than I have done here.