“I suppose it is the experience of all of us that the Mass, with its terrific uniformity- unvarying throughout Latin Christendom, varying so little from one feast or season to another-does not impose uniformity on our thoughts.”–Msgr. Ronald Knox, “The Mass in Slow Motion”
As a late-in-life Catholic convert (1995, at the age of 65), I was not familiar with the Latin Mass. My wife and I have attended two Extraordinary Form (Tridentine) Masses given by the FSSP,, but I didn’t appreciate fully what the Mass used to be before Novus Ordo. I didn’t understand the Latin and, so new to the Church, didn’t really see why the different liturgical forms were important. We’ve attended many Anglican Usage Masses, which have many liturgical forms similar to the Tridentine: the priest faces the Tabernacle (ad orientem) for most of the service; Holy Communion is given on the tongue at the altar rail, with intinction; and, although there is no Latin, the form of the liturgy is similar to that of the Latin Mass.
After reading “The Mass in Slow Motion”, by Msgr. Ronald Knox, I have begun to understand why there are so many people passionately devoted to the Latin Mass, the older form, and wish for its full implementation. Msgr. Knox was an English Catholic priest, a writer of detective stories, a raconteur on BBC, and a convert. (Do a web search, “Ronald Knox,” for a full and impressive biography.) The book (linked above to an online pdf version) is a collection of sermons given to a Catholic girls’ school during World War II. There is an introduction which provides an overview of the Mass, a reprise of a talk given to adults. I’ll quote from that:
“It’s an odd reflection, then, that when I say Mass or you hear it, though the words and the gestures are the same, and you would think there was no difference at all except the sins we thought about at the Confiteor and the intentions we remembered for the living and the dead, in fact there is a difference; the devotional overtones, the mystical nuances which the words and the ceremonies of the Mass suggest to us are not, probably, the same for you and for me. So I thought I would come clean, and try to analyse, thus publicly, the inwardness of my own Mass; talk about the odd bells that ring in my own mind, the odd vistas that open to my own view, to close again at once, in the hope that they may have some value for other people. Let me say at once that I know nothing about liturgy, so you won’t get any of the orthodox side- lights on the Mass which they give you in the books. Also that I am thinking about Low Mass; it is a long time since I had to sing High Mass, and when I did, the only thought I can remember entertaining was a vivid hope that I might die before we got to the Preface.
The Psalm Judica. What a disconcerting thing it is about the idiom of Hebrew devotion, that the psalms are always saying, ” I am upright, I am innocent, I never did anything to deserve this punishment “, whereas we are always wanting to say we are miserable sinners! Here, we prepare for the Confiteor by assuring God that we have walked innocently, and asking him to distinguish very carefully between us and the wicked. When I say this psalm, then, what should I think about? Perhaps, about myself as the representative of the Christian Church, so isolated, so shut away, in idea at least, from all the busy wickedness of the world. The Mass starts with the Church pushing the world away from her; the lodge is tiled, there are no profane onlookers, it is a cosy family party, just ourselves.”–Msgr. Ronal Knox, “The Mass in Slow Motion”, p.8, Introduction.
And there’s more. The writing is elegant, but familiar–oh, how well the English know how to put words together!
There’s one other point that is crucial: “catholic” means “universal” and this was how the term first began to be applied to The Church–a universal Church. If you hark back to the opening quote, you see that the Mass was universal–it was the same in Japan, Nigeria and Iowa. The Church has lost this, but we should recover this universality, this catholicity. So, I will join those who plead for the return of the Tridentine Mass.
Amen on return to the Latin Mass. It helped to make us one with God. The Novus Ordo Mass is divisive by emphasizing Man at the expense of God, In our Cathedral Church the tabernacle is no where to be seen at Sunday Mass and the priest is the focus of attention and in full democratic style lay readers and 10-15 ministers of the Eucharist distribute Communion to pretty much everyone, about one third of which immediately leaves the Church. The Novus Order Mass evidently has not heightened piety.
Further, Vatican II should be abrogated in it’s entirety. Our Church has gone from Catholic, to largely Protestant, and well on it’s way to full out secular humanism with Pope Francis and his socialist New World Order politics.
Thank you, for bringing, Mass In Slow Motion, to our attention. I’ll find a copy to share with our priest and other communicants at our cinderblock mission church. Now daily Mass here is said ad orientem and a kneeler used for Communion. The Sanctus and Agnus Dei have been sung in Latin at daily and early Sunday Masses for awhile. It’s a start.
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In my father’s WW2 missal, I still have a little card with a 24-hour clock surrounded an atlas of the world with the 7 continents.
The card states, “No matter where you are in the world, a Mass is being said. Unite yourself with that Mass, if you cannot attend the Mass today.”
I think of him and so many men out there on some forgotten atoll with its mandatory disturbingly deceptive beauty of palms and blue sea pouring out an emptiness and isolation vast as infinity and lonely as hell.
But they could unite themselves always, during a break in “taking care of business”, with the Universal Incredible Catholic Mass.
When I attend the Tridentine Mass (daily) I remember my days back in the 50’s” as an altar server. Those were great days! Although the Novus Ordo is a valid mass the difference is too great for me to partake unless I have no choice due to particular circumstance, I pay for the return of the Tridentine Mass at all parishes.