DVDs published to help the faithful learn the 1962 Latin Mass

cna ^ | August 12, 2009

[NYer]

Rome, Italy, Aug 12, 2009 / 04:03 pm (CNA).- The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was recently incorporated into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has announced the publication of two DVDs to help “priests and the community” celebrate Mass according to the extraordinary form of the Latin Rite.

The two DVDs include an entire Mass celebrated by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos—until recently the president of the Commission—at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in 2003.

The discs also feature segments explaining in detail the “gestures and rubrics, from the preparatio ad missam (preparation before Mass) to the act of thanksgiving in the sacristy.”

The video is available in four languages (Italian, English, Spanish and French) and is intended to be the “first concrete contribution of the Holy See for the implementation of the Pope’s wishes contained in Summorum Pontificum.” The Motu Propio “Summorum Pontificum,” which was released in July of 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI, granted universal permission to the faithful to celebrate the Tridentine Mass adapted by Blessed John XXIII in 1962.

The Commission has not yet announced where or how the DVDs can be purchased.

[Romulus]

99% of congregants CAN’T UNDERSTAND IT.

Psst...congregants can't understand much of the English either. Neither can the clergy. They are not being asked to understand. The inadequacy of human understanding is why we are called to worship, geddit?

[ctdonath2]

You’re right. I don’t understand the mission of the Latin Mass. I don’t see what the point is in deliberately engaging in a linguistic exercise in a language most participants don’t understand beyond mere rote. I also don’t see the point in insisting everyone recite the exact same phonetics at the cost of individual spiritual understanding by billions. And I also don’t see the point of insisting the living adhere to the language of those long deceased when that language has gone with them.

As for Spanish, fine - make the standard Spanish. Or Mandarin Chinese, which vies for top spot as most commonly spoken. Show me even one person who speaks Latin a majority of their time.

You’re wound up with getting this Latin fixation “right”, when you don’t even use normal bread as Christ and alleged successors did (when WAS the “wafer” invented as such, anyway?), nor do participants lounge on couches at a low table (as described in Scripture). Christ condemned the Pharisees for subverting clear written law & example in favor of “tradition”.

[ctdonath2]

I’ll depart now. I didn’t want to cause a ruckus.

[Romulus]

I did write it. Not off the top of my head; it’s been lurking in my computer for a couple of years. Thanks for the generous compliment.

[Pyro7480]

The purpose of Mass isn’t for the people- it’s for the worship of God and following His command.

[Romulus]

The Catholic author Flannery O’Connor once pointed out that a God we could understand would be less than ourselves. Whether in this life or the next, sooner or later every Christian encounters the utter transcendence of the divine nature. Even as God’s love for us extends to the joining His nature to our own in the Incarnation, this revealing intimacy opens onto ever-greater mystery that we can never comprehend. So while there’s much we can know through Scripture and the Sacred Tradition originally deposited with the apostles, there’s infinitely more that’s unknown and unknowable. It’s this very quality of infinity that moves us to worship and adoration. It’s this very quality that acts as a mighty leveler of human intellect, reminding us that human understanding, be it puny or profound, is not a destination but only a launching point into fathomless mystery.

In the early centuries of the Christian era, a religious phenomenon called Gnosticism seduced a great many souls with the idea that salvation was a matter of secret knowledge. Gnostic sects taught that the material world was irredeemably corrupt and inferior to the spiritual realm. Proud to possess secrets that they thought would save them, the Gnostics were disdainful of the created order we see around us. It was a view completely incompatible with Christianity, which teaches that God loves the world so much that he has joined himself to it, becoming incarnate as Jesus for the purpose of our redemption – one that will eventually include our very bodies, resurrected and glorified – and even for the salvation of mere things, which will be restored to their intended purpose of glorifying their Creator by their ordered beauty.

Understanding that the world exists to assist us in giving glory to God, Catholics rely upon a great many physical signs and things as a means of grace and a way to give expression to our faith. Above all, we have the sacraments, given to us by Christ the Incarnate Word of God – and among the sacraments, above all we have the Holy Eucharist and the sacrifice of the Mass.

All Catholics need a basic knowledge of what is happening at Mass and why it matters. To be sure, Christianity has mysteries because God is infinite and perfect, but it’s not a “mystery religion”. God is also love, so Christianity is about light and revelation and communion. Communion is not a remote and impersonal affair, but an intimate and loving embrace. But to enter into communion with God is to enter the infinite and the perfect and the eternal. Communion with God transcends our ability to understand. As Catholics, we know we’re called to a mystery of holiness, which we don’t reject because it’s more than we can comprehend. We can be at peace with mystery and aren’t afraid to acknowledge it. The core of Catholicism is faith that God has revealed Himself through his incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, and blesses His Church sacramentally, through outward signs, objects, gestures, and words instituted by Christ or otherwise faithful to His teaching – to convey concepts beyond our powers of expression or comprehension.

Recently a local Catholic politician was heard promoting his Bible study group, arguing that he learns more from it than he ever has at Mass. This shows how the dominant Protestant culture in this country constantly imposes itself on Catholic minds, reducing theology to whatever passes through its evangelical filter. Protestants understand liturgy as an a didactic or evangelical event – in other words, a teaching opportunity and a proclamation of God’s word and edifying preaching, evoking a corresponding expression of faith on the part of the individual believer. These are not bad things, but they place a poor second to Catholic liturgy, which is sacramental – outward signs instituted by Christ, which convey grace by their action. Where the Mass is concerned, the unique sacrifice of Calvary – the Body and Blood of the fully-human, fully-divine Lord, offered to the Father as reparation for all sins – are made present for us, veiled under the outward signs of bread, wine, and water. They are then received by us in an act that both makes us one body in Christ and gives us the grace we need to continue in that life. In a limited sense we can know all this, but we can never reduce it to our understanding. Catholic Christianity is rich in words and signs that invite our response in faith, but includes a great deal more. Nor does the Church restrict the gifts at her disposal to those capable of understanding what she has to say.

Those who obsess about “understanding” in the context of liturgy need to shake off the fundamental error that what’s taking place at the altar can or ought to be comprehensible in the first place. In using signs to convey transcendent truths not reducible to plain speech, the Church is only following the example of our Lord, who, scripture informs us, never taught the people except in parable. We readily concede that we don’t understand the Incarnation or the Atonement or transubstantiation. We don’t really understand God’s perfect simplicity, nor what it means for us to be transformed into that image.

In the traditional form of the Mass, mystery is retained and even honored in a way that almost never happens in the Ordinary Form. The use of Latin as a sacred language reminds us that holy things are rightly veiled from profane scrutiny. The communion rail is present as a barrier, reminding us that holy things set apart for God are to be revered, not treated casually. The near silence of the priest at many points (whose face we rarely have to see) invites us to recollection and preserves us from distractions. The complex rubrics are signs for the eyes of the faithful opened to distant and hidden things.

The Traditional Form of the liturgy therefore reminds us that the Sacrifice of the Mass is about far more than just our instruction. Instruction can’t save us from eternal death. Christianity isn’t a self-improvement program. So while understanding, at least as far as our powers will take us, is a good thing, it isn’t THE thing. Heaven’s full of saints who never understood much if anything and had the humility to be at peace with that fact. Meanwhile, sad to say, hell is stuffed with proud intellects tormented by rage and despair. The Mass has inescapable elements of mystery which we can’t strip out without stripping out what Christ intends for us.

[ctdonath2]

What command dictates use of Latin?
What [nuts, I keep getting sucked into this...trying to stop...]

[steve86]

I’ve added your terrific and very thoughtful piece of prose to the end of my profile (attributed to Romulus, of course), so more people can read it over time. Hope that’s OK and thanks!

[m4629]

Hey, it’s good that you speak from the heart. Didn’t realize we got you so riled up.

From personal experience, myself and most younger people who go to the Latin Mass, I had to re-learn Latin. It’s not difficult at all, you sort of flow with it. If you are curious, just try learning the “our Father” in Latin. Within a week, you will know it by heart.

Second, I have the feeling that what you actually feel is “fear of the unknown”, in this case, Latin. That could be overcome, have no fear. The Saints are with you.

Third, you are missing the transcendant part of the view in your written words. Those have gone before us are still living individuals, their souls are very much alive and didn’t die. They can hear our prayers and petitions. Pray to your grandparents, they are very much alive.

Fourth, the living Church, thru her collective wisdoms over time, do make liturgical revisions as well as corrections when they go astray. Stay tuned, and God bless.

[Romulus]

You’re quite welcome.

[ctdonath2]

It’s not riling me up, it’s that I don’t want to derail a thread (as all too often happens on FR).

Yeah, I could learn “our Father” in Latin. So? Why not Swahili? Spanish? Mandarin Chinese? Not knowing any of them enough to really _understand_ anything expressed therein, all I would know is little more than a musical sequence with a familiar text imputed thereto.

It’s not that I fear the unknown. I just don’t see the point of insisting on pushing people into it. OK, so the liturgy is in Latin. So? God did not command it. Laypersons do not understand it. Rationalizations sound nice, but appear as little more than just that: rationalizations. Again, why not in Spanish?

The transcendent part of written words are the point: if you understand the language, the transcendent parts are apparent; if you don’t, all you’re doing is mapping rote memorization onto little other than music. The tune sounds different, but again there is little inherent superiority. If you’re looking for transcendence in written language, then go back to the language of the Chosen People - Hebrew - which at least has some inkling of inherent superiority (among other reasons, as indicated in the book The Bible Code).

As for praying to the deceased: nothing in Scripture hints at that as meaningful, advocated, or acceptable. Lacking even the slightest suggestion thereof in The Word, I can only presume the practice is a manmade concoction.

That a church’s traditions may “go astray” just emphasizes the importance of inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture: such matters are too important to assume God distributes post-Biblical material solely thru such proven fallible conduits, indistinguishable from Man’s own concoctions.

I’m looking for an explanation of the vital importance of Latin, that it is so superior that the costs thereof (opacity of liturgy) is worthwhile. Don’t get me entirely wrong, I’m sure the practice makes for an aesthetically pleasing experience (I’m rather fond of listening to Gregorian Chant), but as worship it seems empty.

[m4629]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Why “our Father” or the Mass, in Latin, and not in other languages you asked? Think about it. Latin is the universal mother tongue of the church, has been for a long time. The Latin Mass is understood anywhere in the world, also that is a unifying force for us Catholics. That’s a good enough trump, over other languages.

Surely you attended weddings and funerals where the well-known Ave Maria was sung and, you understood pretty well everything in it as you do in English. Don’t let others dumb down on you.

On a side note, even for a new convert to learn Latin for worship is a good thing. We, as educated people these days learn new languages all the time, tho not necessary for worship, or in “spoken language” in the strictest sense. Look at all the computer students in universities and colleges. You realize how many new languages (sometimes in complicated codes) they learn and use everyday? Don’t tell me they couldn’t handle Latin if they wanted to.

Now the more troubling issue of your wanting to cite Scriptures to justify praying for the dead. They are there but I don’t have it off hand, Macabees is one of them. Frankly, this is a Protestant train of thought, very scary. The Scriptures came out of the Church, the Church didn’t come of Scriptures, only churches (denominations) are made up from defective Protestant scriptures. Sorry I had to be blunt. Too bad, the Protestants constantly wanting to re-invent the wheel. We Catholics have it made, we have all the Truth necessary for salvation handed down to us thru the centuries.

Praying for the dead is also a derivative of the teaching of Communion of Saints, a teaching that is to be held be all believing catholics. The CCC has a few reference on it as well.

[m4629]

I’m looking for an explanation of the vital importance of Latin, that it is so superior that the costs thereof (opacity of liturgy) is worthwhile. Don’t get me entirely wrong, I’m sure the practice makes for an aesthetically pleasing experience (I’m rather fond of listening to Gregorian Chant), but as worship it seems empty.

Good question.

"Lex Orandi, lex credendi". Strictly translated -- the Law of Prayer is the Law of Belief. Loosely but accurately translated -- how one prays reflects what he believes.

Frankly, we couldn't afford NOT to do the Latin Mass, in light of what the Vatican II experience brought us in the past 50 years. Judge a tree by its fruits. Would you honestly say that the spiritual/liturgical life of the past 50 years in the Church has been good? Not me.

When Latin Mass was the standard, Catholics everywhere at least believed the same things, sinners that we are. But now? Latest survey indicates 67% of Catholics don't believe in the Real Presence! For that, they can't be called Catholics, technically speaking, but Apostates.

Hopefully, with the unifying force and no-nonsense nature of the Latin Mass, Catholics will become real Catholics once again, and be proud of it.

The catholic Woodstock of Vatican II must come to an end soon.

[latina4dubya]

okay—i go to the Good Friday service...

[EDINVA]

We were lucky to live in a public school district where Latin was taught. My daughter studied for 3 years and, not surprisingly, had perfect verbal SAT’s. Without the Latin, she’d have done well, but nowhere near as well as with the base provided by Latin study.

[NYer]

What’s the big deal about Latin? Peter spoke Aramaic, right?

Yes, Peter did speak Aramaic but "when in Rome ..... ". Latin became the liturgical language of the Latin (Roman) Catholic Church.

Before he went to Rome, though, Peter served as Bishop of Antioch. To this day, the Consecration is still chanted in Aramaic in the Antiochene Catholic Churches - the Maronite, Chaldean and Syro-Malankara Catholic Churches. To hear those words chanted in Aramaic is like being at the Last Supper.

[NYer]

Although it is not widely known in our Western world, the Catholic Church is actually a communion of Churches. According to the Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, the Catholic Church is understood to be "a corporate body of Churches," united with the Pope of Rome, who serves as the guardian of unity (LG, no. 23). At present there are 22 Churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The new Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Pope John Paul II, uses the phrase "autonomous ritual Churches" to describe these various Churches (canon 112). Each Church has its own hierarchy, spirituality, and theological perspective. Because of the particularities of history, there is only one Western Catholic Church, while there are 21 Eastern Catholic Churches. The Western Church, known officially as the Latin Church, is the largest of the Catholic Churches. It is immediately subject to the Roman Pontiff as Patriarch of the West. The Eastern Catholic Churches are each led by a Patriarch, Major Archbishop, or Metropolitan, who governs their Church together with a synod of bishops. Through the Congregation for Oriental Churches, the Roman Pontiff works to assure the health and well-being of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

While this diversity within the one Catholic Church can appear confusing at first, it in no way compromises the Church's unity. In a certain sense, it is a reflection of the mystery of the Trinity. Just as God is three Persons, yet one God, so the Church is 22 Churches, yet one Church.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this nicely:

"From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who receive them... Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions. The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church's unity" (CCC no. 814).

Although there are 22 Churches, there are only eight "Rites" that are used among them. A Rite is a "liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony," (Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 28). "Rite" best refers to the liturgical and disciplinary traditions used in celebrating the sacraments. Many Eastern Catholic Churches use the same Rite, although they are distinct autonomous Churches. For example, the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Melkite Catholic Church are distinct Churches with their own hierarchies. Yet they both use the Byzantine Rite.

To learn more about the "two lungs" of the Catholic Church, visit this link:

CATHOLIC RITES AND CHURCHES

The Vatican II Council declared that "all should realize it is of supreme importance to understand, venerate, preserve, and foster the exceedingly rich liturgical and spiritual heritage of the Eastern churches, in order faithfully to preserve the fullness of Christian tradition" (Unitatis Redintegrato, 15).

A Roman rite Catholic may attend any Eastern Catholic Liturgy and fulfill his or her obligations at any Eastern Catholic Parish. A Roman rite Catholic may join any Eastern Catholic Parish and receive any sacrament from an Eastern Catholic priest, since all belong to the Catholic Church as a whole. I am a Roman Catholic practicing my faith at a Maronite Catholic Church.  Like the Chaldeans, the Maronites retain Aramaic for the Consecration.  It is as close as one comes to being at the Last Supper.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Besides laziness, what's your excuse for not taking the initiative and learning Latin?

[A.A. Cunningham]

I’ll buy a set just to send to Chaput.

[A.A. Cunningham]

we attend mass on Good Friday

No you don't. Mass is not celebrated on Good Friday.