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Beth's avatar
9hEdited

“In my experience, over half the folks in our TLM community do not use a missal. And if you haven’t got a missal, you won’t have any idea how different the prayers are between the two; and if Scripture is read, well, it’s still the same Scripture (so they think). If priests start saying the Novus Ordo ad orientem, use some Latin, chant, and incense, are all the TLMers going to notice how different it still is?”

I’m going to be vulnerable here at the risk of putting myself out here as someone who may be regarded as being woefully ignorant or “not caring enough,” but I just wanted to say that the quote above may be pointing to someone like me! 🫣 I feel a bit embarrassed saying that. I’ve been Catholic for 3 going on 4 years, coming from 20 years in the Protestant world I read my way into the church, and from a distance I was immediately drawn to the beauty of the Latin mass (though I do have to say that I attend a N.O mass and my very first mass ever was the N.O and I was SO struck by the beauty of the prayers. I know TLM’ers might not understand that, but I had no idea that Catholics prayed like that. And of course it was in English, so I could understand it). I have no educational background that gave me exposure to Latin at all. I only have a high school diploma and worked as a hair stylist. I’m not an academic though I love to read theology. But the BEAUTY of the TLM (what, yes, is the “smells and bells”) made me so hungry for something deeper and more. Mystery. Drama. Beauty. Essentially, God. But worship of God in a way so, so foreign to my experience up to that point, even though I have a very intimate relationship with Jesus. But when I read the articles here on this Substack I have to admit some of it goes academically beyond what I even have time to delve into as a busy wife, mom, and business owner. I feel ashamed to admit to the readers of this Substack that it probably *would* be “good enough” for me if we did just give Latin “pride of place,” introduced chant and sacred music, incense, altar rails, candles, a priest facing ad orientum, etc. It would be “good enough” because we don’t even have anything CLOSE to that at our parish! It sounds absolutely amazing to just have that! 😂 I continue to read and study about the TLM (your books are very helpful), but again at the risk of sounding dumb, sometimes I feel like I’m just not smart or intellectual enough to fight for the TLM, and I would be satisfied with what TLM’ers would probably consider wrong, incomplete and insubstantial. Do you have any advice for someone like me who feels very “called out” by the concern of the man quoted above? Am I doing something wrong by just longing for SOMETHING more? Thank you!

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Another One's avatar

I know many Catholics who believe they are praying in an unknown-to-them human language when they are praying in tongues, so I don’t see how this calls the whole charismatic movement into question.

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