Posted on 01/09/2012 7:48:58 AM PST by paterfamilias
My wife and I went to the Tridentine Mass at Immaculate Conception Church(Sleepy Hollow, NY).
It has been a very long time since a Mass brought us to tears.
The prayers are beautiful, the reverence is palpable. The women had their heads covered, 90% of the men (and boys) wore jacket and tie, the priest's vestments were very traditional (when was the last time you saw a priest wearing a maniple and his biretta), a lot of young families, an altar boy (about 10 years old) and a fairly young priest, both of whom said the Latin prayers as if it were their native language.
We have lost a great deal in the Novus Ordo.
We will go back the week after next (busy all day next Sunday taking our NRA pistol course!), and the Schola Cantorum will be singing ancient music.
If I like what I hear, I will audition for the Schola. (I have been a chorister since the age of 8)
I have pretty much decided to make this my new parish.
None taken. Eastern church should be able to celebrate with Eastern norms.
You know much more than me. All I know is that a significant contingent of them were Episcopalian converts that came over in a big group. Lots of them in Colorado.
We spent three years in the Byzantine Rite prior to the reintroduction of the Traditional Latin Mass in 2007. I even explored the diaconate in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic diocese here. I have the highest regard for the Divine Liturgy and believe all Latin Catholics need to be exposed to it and educated in the history of the eastern churches.
This seems ironic. The Ukrainian Greek Catholics cling to their Latinizations (Stations of the Cross, Rosay, other Latin trappings within their Byzantine Rite) as a badge of honor, to denote their loyalty to Rome and their rejection of Russia's coercion during the Soviet era. Meanwhile the Ruthenians have expunged almost all Latinizations.
At the same time, the Orthodox Western rite is becoming more Byzantinized? Why be "Western" then?
I pray the Lord acts in some mysterious, supernatural way to bring about the reunion between East and West that us humans will likely never achieve on our own.
God Bless your heroic efforts for sung chant! I think the original Vatican II documents actaully state that chant is to be preferred - wonder what happened?
The 60’/70’s movement to push artifically created “active” participation is one of the areas I consider the NO to be an epic fail. No one wants to sing the (i.e.) Marty Haugen ditties!!! so no one does and the dreadful result often is a pitchy amateur trying to carry the whole thing alone and is enough to drive anyone to run for the nearest Latin Mass.
Active participation is active silent prayer, and that suffices. If you want to sing, join the schola. Listening to the sung Gregorian propers prayerfully as they draw the worshipper towards God is the true active witness to the sacrifice of the mass. The bad singing at odd times and the dreadful reponses are contrived and artificial.
Don’t even start me on the hand shaking. I pray very hard if I am at an NO at this time for the church to take this out. My youngest daughter has a bone marrow disease (she is stable) and has a low white blood count and simply can’t have those germs. (I don’t let her shake) How many immuno suppressed people out there are dealing with this - or those who don’t know it? It is pointless. It is only a confused interval that breaks our concentration anyway.
Ignorance sadly is rife on both sides. Eastern Catholics get hit on both sides.
We are too Latin to be Orthodox and too Orthodox to be Latin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.