To the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI: Petition to Celebrate a Public Mass According with the 1962 Missal.

Well, from my last post you have probably gathered that I have a love for the Traditional Latin Mass.  And I am certainly not the only one!  The sad thing is, many people are barely - if at all - aware that this beautiful liturgy exists.  

I have been attending the TLM since I was probably 6 or 7 years old.  I made my first Holy Communion at the TLM.  I pray that someday I will be married, and buried, in this rite.  Right now, I have few doubts that this will be possible, but it hasn't always been that way.  Up until 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a Moto Propio that not only allowed any priest to celebrate the TLM but even required bishops to ensure it was available to those who requested it, the TLM was an endangered species.  It was something that the bishops needed to grant permission for - and something they could withdraw permission for.  When our pastor at St. Augustine's, Fr. Raymond Zweber (requiem in pacem) retired, we wondered if the new pastor would have objections to continuing the TLM.  There was also, and still is, the problem that many priests did not know how to celebrate the TLM.  We were blessed in that there were priests assigned who were willing and able to continue this beautiful rite.  But still, it was a thing uncertain.  Which was good, in a way - I don't think I ever forgot that the Mass is a gift from God, no one else.  

Since Moto Propio in 2007, I have seem more and more parishes celebrating the TLM, and younger and younger priests.  There IS something special about it, something that the Ordinary form cannot quite touch.  Perhaps it is the timelessness of it.  Perhaps it is the beauty of the words.  Regardless, it is still too rare and too hidden.  It needs to be shared.  It is our past, our present, and our future.  This is why I share this petition.

My mother and sister were talking to a young woman after Mass a couple of weeks ago.  She told them about this petition, which she had helped start.  She asked them to sign it and to share it.  I now ask the same of you.  It is a petition asking the Holy Father to publicly celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.  Pass it on!  Oh, and be careful - the site this petition is on is a site that allows anyone to start a petition.  And after you sign the petition, it will ask you to sign other petitions.  For example, the one that popped up first after I signed asked be to sign a petition supporting Obama.  No thanks.  You've been warned!

Here's the link:https://www.change.org/petitions/to-the-holy-father-pope-benedict-xvi-petition-to-celebrate-a-public-mass-according-with-the-1962-missal 

God Bless,

Rae 

"Why I love the Traditional Latin Mass"

I’m home!  As you may have noted, I spent the weekend with a group of AWESOME people, doing AWESOME things, like going to daily Mass, listening to wonderful talks, and taking beer and brat cruises.  More on that another time.  It pertains to this post, but is not the subject of it. 

The subject of this post is “Why I love the Traditional Latin Mass.” Oh, you noticed that from the title?  Ok than.  I was working on this post before I left, but never got it finished.  Truth told, I don’t know if I could ever finish such a subject.  So I decided to recruit a little help.  I asked my friends from Sursum Corda to write down, in a short paragraph, why they love the Traditional Latin Mass, a.k.a. the Tridentine Mass, a.k.a. the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, a.k.a. the TLM.  Here are there replies (along with their ages, to forever dispel the myth that the TLM is for old people, nostalgic for their youth.) 

“There are so many things I love about the Traditional Mass that it is difficult to cut it short, but I'll try!  I'll just chose one thing. One of the many things I love about the Tridentine Mass is that it is timeless.  When I am at this Mass, I know that the words that are being said by the priest are the same as those that were once used by all of Christendom.  They were used by St. Thomas Aquinas, St John Vianney, St. Edmund Campion, and Pope St. Pius XII.  As G. K. Chesterton says, "It is of new things that men tire – of fashions and improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and intoxicate. It is the old things that are young."” --Audrey, 20

“I love the extraordinary form of the Mass because of the reverence it inspires and the way it leads you to a more internal experience of the Holy Mass.  The music, the language, and the rituals point you to the deeper reality of what is really going on during the Mass of Christ’s Sacrifice for our salvation.” -- Joanna, 26

“It is comforting to go to. I feel closer to God.  Definitely I am in love with the reverence and beauty.”  -- Ruthanne, 18

“To know the Latin Mass is to know the history of Western Civilization.  The liturgy is the hope of our time, as it has been for the ages.  The Latin Mass is Home.” -- Petra, 21

“Love the reverence and solemnity that lift up your heart to Him.  Embracing both the sensible and the spiritual sides of our human existence, the Extraordinary Form of the Mass excels at using the more sensible things like art and music to take you to the higher, less physically sensible things of God.” -- Fabian, 25

“One of my favorite things about the Latin Mass is its universality.  It isn’t for one place or another...it is for the whole world.” -- Maddie, 24

I know I cannot say it better than these, but I will add my own.  I love the Extraordinary form because it is extraordinary.  It is beyond the ordinary.  It transcends both time and place.  It is capable of inspiring awe, reverence, and contemplation.  I think one of the things I love the most, that I do not find in the Ordinary form, is the silence.  The silence holds the words sacred, as never using God’s name aloud kept it sacred for the Jews.  The silence allows me to focus on lifting my mind and heart and sacrifices to God, along with Christ’s sacrifice of the Cross. -- Rae, 26

Please, share why you love the Tridentine Mass. You don’t have to add your age, but I think it does help to show that the appeal of the TLM is not confined to any one age group.  God Bless!