[wideawake]

Another compromise which people have suggested is that Ordinary of the Mass - the Asperges, Confiteor, Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Canon, Agnus Dei etc. - should be retained in Latin. These are repeated every Sunday and it isn't asking much for Catholics to know these central prayers (about four pages worth of printed material) by heart.

The readings, occasional prayers and homily (of course) would be in the vernacular.

But I sense the real problem most people have with the Tridentine Rite is not the Latin.

If we were to translate the entire Tridentine Rite into English and retain the same rubrics, the same stretches of quiet stillness, the same solemn tone, the same deference - the usual suspects would be just as upset. By the same token, if the Novus Ordo were celebrated exactly according to the GIRM as the Holy Father recommends, the same objections would follow.

There are a certain number of people who need their worship to be as frenetic, casual and loud as the rest of their free time.

[ultima ratio]

People fear the silence--it forces them to confront themselves--the depths of a modern void. They are precisely the ones who would benefit most from a more focused interior spiritual life. God speaks loudly in silence.

[SoothingDave]

Another compromise which people have suggested is that Ordinary of the Mass - the Asperges, Confiteor, Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Canon, Agnus Dei etc. - should be retained in Latin. These are repeated every Sunday and it isn't asking much for Catholics to know these central prayers (about four pages worth of printed material) by heart.

Exactly, IMHO, where we will someday end up. My parish has used, during Lent, the last few years the Latin Sanctus and Agnus Dei, and the priests do the final "per ipsum" of the canon in Latin.

It is the beginning of a restoration of the Latin to the people. And none too soon, for those of us 30somethings, who are experiencing this for the first time ever.

SD