Dear friends, while I do not know your ages, I can guess that Linda F and I are fairly close in age since I too grew up with the Latin Mass. Since that was the ONLY mass, no one questioned it. For the benefit of more youthful freepers who are just discovering the TLM, please bear with me on this, okay?
Back in the pre VCII 50s and 60s, just about everyone attended mass, not from love so much as from fear of burning in hell for all eternity. In those days, shopping malls, if they even existed, were closed on Sundays, as were supermarkets, and just about any other convenience store.
Churches were packed. There were no microphones, nor air conditioning just the steady whir of large fans blowing hot air around the packed church, drowning out the words of the priest, who was facing ad orientem. Altar servers responded on behalf of the congregation; the choir sang, also on behalf of the congregation. It was totally non participatory. As such, the older ladies in attendance would pray the rosary. The sound of clicking beads were heard interspersed with the mumbled prayers and responses and choral music. Linda, do you share a similar memory?
Post VCII, changes arrived at lightening speed. Each Sunday, we would find something new had occurred: altars were turned around and the congregation was asked to respond along with the altar servers. No matter how poor our voices, we were now asked to sing along with the choir. It took a while for people to get the hang of this; many were reluctant since it was not permissible prior to this council. It didn't take long before EMHCs were introduced and that also was a shock to the system, since we were taught that only the priest could touch the consecrated host. We adjusted.
Several years ago, after battling liturgical abuse at my RC parish, a fellow freeper pointed me to a TLM celebrated in a nearby parish. I dusted off my pre VCII missal and looked forward to finally experiencing a reverent liturgy. I settled into a pew and looked around. Nearby was an older woman on her knees praying the rosary (I could hear the clicking of the beads). Several pews were filled with young families: dad in a suit, mom wearing a dress and holding a baby, 3 young children in similar attire holding the same, small missal I used at their age, and a few teen girls wearing maxi skirts. The priest rang the bell as he entered the sanctuary. There were the two altar servers in chasuble and cassock. The mass began and I strained to hear the words of the priest. The altar servers responded in Latin, the choir sang, the rosary beads clacked, the fans whirled and I felt as though I had just stepped out of a time machine, back into the 50s. I wanted to join my response to those of the altar servers but noticed that no one else did, so I kept quiet, When the choir began to sing a hymn I love, I began to join them and drew the attention of those in the pews. I shut up. It was the first and last time I ever attended the TLM.
I returned to the NO liturgy at my parish and continued to battle the liturgical abuse until I witnessed a EMHC drop a consecrated host on the sanctuary floor, bend over to pick it up and redeposit it in her glass communion bowl. It was the final straw. I bowed my head and asked our Lord to guide me to "a holy priest, a reverent liturgy and a community where my God given abilities could be of assistance". That same day, I drew up a list of other parishes within a certain radius of home. Each Sunday I attended mass at a different parish, always repeating the same prayer. A fellow freeper suggested I include any Eastern Catholic Churches that might be nearby. There were two: Maronite and Ukrainian. On March 7 that year, the Maronite Church surfaced on the list. The liturgy immediately transported me to the East, where Jesus, Mary and the Apostles had lived. Its reverence spoke to my heart and I was transfixed by the prayers, many of which were written by St. Ephrem and even the Apostles themselves. The liturgy was chanted and clouds of incense rose heavenward. The priest explained that the Maronite Church retains the language of Jesus for the words of consecration. Hearing him chant in Aramaic was like being at the Last Supper. Communion was by intinction and on the tongue. Only the priest, bishop or deacon may distribute communion so there were no armies of EMHCs rushing up to the sanctuary. I recognized that this was our Lord's answer to my prayer.
Since joining the parish, I have shared my God-given talents, serving as VP of the women's sodality, elected to the Parish Council, made Director for Religious Education, developing a program that grew from a few children to the largest in the parish history. When the pastor decided to move us to a former Methodist Church, we needed money to refurbish the building. With God's assistance, I was able to have the church recognized as an historic landmark and successfully write 2 grants that generated nearly $500,000. (I had never written a grant and left everything in God's hands).
The point I want to make here is that I never looked to the Church for entertainment and to alleviate boredom. All I ever wanted was a parish where I could worship our Lord in a reverent manner. I am gratified to see the enthusiasm of younger catholics towards the Traditional Latin Mass. Just keep in mind that your experience is not the same as what we actually lived. Your TLM communities are small, like my Maronite community. We are all most blessed to be members of the Catholic Church and the various expressions of the liturgies celebrated in her 22 Eastern and Western Churches. It is unfair to draw the comparison of someone's recollected memory to your more recent one. The liturgy may be the same; the way in which it is presently celebrated is vastly different.
The TLM Mass I once attended recently, is a bad memory. There was no comprehension at all of what was happening on the altar and the church building was not only the ugliest churches I’ve been in (see “the Cube and the Cathedral”, G. Weigel, it was the ugliest building I’ve been in. So, as we in the congregation were ignored as participants - excluded, really- there was nothing to meditate on, but ugliness.
I would not call it reverent.
There is a novus ordo mass across town. We go when we can. The priest is reverent, not because it is latin, but because he is reverent. He is so when he says Mass in the vernaculr, english.
When people say they’re bored in Mass I tend to perhaps unfoundedly, perhaps not, but from long experience, that there is a lot more to the situation.
Latin isn’t good because it is reverent, but it isn’t bad because it’s mumbled. Where a priest is reverent, the congregation is reverent, and vice versa.
Latin is the language of the Catholic Church, with all respect and reverence due Vatican II which certainly does not obstruct Latin, as seen today when the college of cardinals enthusiastically prayed the rosary in latin en masse.
But mumbled latin is no more latin than is unintelligible english, english.