Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Tridentine Mass


I've attended a few Tridentine Masses and each time I've come away disappointed. Part of the reason for this could be that the masses I attended were in South Florida, where most of the Latin Mass church-goers look and act like Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. But the bigger problem is that I came away each time feeling as though I hadn't been to mass at all. Perhaps I expected too much, but instead of experiencing awe and reverence I just felt frustration and disillusionment. I kind of assumed that it was a personal defect, perhaps the consequence of not having adequately prepared myself. So I was heartened to read this post by Dan at Holy Whapping, which perfectly captures the uneasiness I've experienced before in the Tridentine Mass:
when you show up at the local indult parish, you discover something very different from what you expected.
- Participation is discouraged, except perhaps on a few chants
- It is very hard to keep track of anything for those who haven't already gotten it down
- The whole experience has a vaguely dusty feel
- Many pamphlets and literature around the Church, with the exception of maybe some natural family planning materials, feel frozen in time somewhere around the 1920's.

What I am arguing, then, is that the Tridentine Mass, as currently celebrated in indult parishes, at least those I have seen, is celebrated in such a way as to necessarily become an "acquired taste." Furthermore, an approach is often taken to make it seem as if the indult is carte blanche to act as if nothing in the Church has changed since the early 1940's, and to make such completely orthodox movements as the nouvelle theologie or even Vatican II itself as a council, seem suspect. This is not a good approach, and it works very much against integrating traditional liturgy into the present day life of the Church. This approach is not one that, in my experience, easily appeals to young people looking for beauty and transcendence, unless they're already convinced to keep coming for other reasons, or have someone to explain everything to them in detail and keep them coming back.
...
In other words, why can't we have "tradition" without "ism" in these quarters, and be willing to have the Tridentine Mass and Vatican II and new developments in theology?
There's an extended discussion in the comboxes at Holy Whapping.

6 comments:

Emily said...

most of the Latin Mass church-goers look and act like Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Jason, that's hilarious! My immediate mental picture was something along the lines of:

Priest: "et ne nos inducas in tentationem,"
Aunt Bethany: "With liberty and justice for all!"

Antony said...

Are any of you interested in learning to pray the Gregorian chants?

Anonymous said...

I think Catholics face a universal problem. No Catholic of any ilk seems to understand that his preferred style of worship is not immediately intelligible to his acquaintances. Traddies certainly have this problem, (alas - I speak as one) but I know plenty of conservative Catholics who truly don't understand why people don't convert to Catholicism after a visit to a badly sung, poorly preached Novus Ordo in a church full of sugar-candy statues. And we've all met the modernist who believes that her dance of the rainbow serpent will bring young people into the Church! The problem is not any given liturgy, but the absence of enough imagination to anticipate what a stranger to that liturgy will need. I've a few convert friends who had no trouble with the 'Old Mass' at all, because, growing up with no liturgy, they had nothing to adjust from. My experience is recorded here:
http://www.oriensjournal.com/3time.html

Antony said...

Lucy, that is a really splendid piece you wrote. Thank you!

Jason LaLonde said...

I would love to learn how to pray chant.

Antony said...

Jason, I'm in Baton Rouge, RC, a member of the Church Music Association of America, and happy to teach. Send me an e-mail!