I have grown up with an exclusively English liturgy. Kyrie Eleison was occasionally trotted out, and a popular Marian hymn had an abbreviated Ave Maria for the chorus, but that was about it for anything that wasn't readily understandable. It's only in university that I have met the attitude that familiarity with parts of the ordinary in Latin will stand us in good stead. And it's amazing what an effect that has had.
Praying in a dead language takes you out of what the words mean and lifts you above them. Just as faith is suprarational, so praying in Latin is both above and encompassing of the prayer's meaning. My first proper experience of this came when I learnt the Salve Regina. I learnt it in English first, but came across it in Latin so often that I very quickly came to pray it happily in either language. I do not understand the Latin. Of course I can think about it and easily draw links of what translates to what, but on its own the Latin would mean very little. But it's a prayer, not a speech, so perfect understanding doesn't matter. When I sing the Salve Regina the meaning that I know separately is behind every word, so the prayer becomes more fully internalized than any English words possibly could. This is something that probably needs to be experienced to be understood.
And it isn't just the Salve. Our music director in the University Chaplaincy hates every setting of the new translation of the Gloria he has listened to: including those he has attempted to write himself. So instead we sing it in Latin every time, and I am not complaining. The Gloria is no longer just another thing we have to say every Sunday, but a prayer that rises to God like incense. And so I have continued to learn scraps of Latin to pray with and grow my spirituality, and the fruits are great.
Some people may say that I sound like the kind of person who should be whisked off to the Traditional Latin Mass from which I would never look back. But I am not convinced. Sacrosanctum Concilium makes a lot of sense to me in what it calls for: some use of the vernacular, and the "active participation" of the faithful. All this properly understood and implemented would lead to a rich liturgy indeed.
So what use of the vernacular is best? The council fathers' judgement on the continuing role of Latin in the Church is best shown in what they said about the use of Latin in the Liturgy of the Hours: Latin is to be maintained by clerics in the Divine Office. They go on to give the Ordinary power to concede the use of the vernacular in cases of clerics who find in the use of Latin a grave impediment to the due performance of the Office. In other words, priests must be able to pray in Latin, and those who find it difficult are to be an insignificant minority.
I'm now going to go through what I think the Roman rite should look like language wise (disagreement and discussion welcomed). One way or another, I think at least some use of Latin should be compulsorily brought in because when priests are given an option they go for the easiest. They are only human after all.
When introducing the use of the vernacular, Sacrosanctum Concilium says it should be above all in the readings and addresses to the congregation, in some prayers and chants. The opening rites then, by virtue of being an address to the people, may reasonably be in the vernacular, and the same goes for the dismissal. There is a case too for the Confiteor, as an exhortation to repentance, and by being addressed not only to Almighty God but also to our fellow faithful to be readily understandable- I could go either way on that one. The Gloria is a hymn to God and has no business being translated. In any case, we praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you simply does not come off well in English. The Collect I can see being in either: it changes for every Mass and gives expression to the character of the celebration (GIRM), which suggests that people should be able to understand it. On the other hand it is meant to take the people's prayers and "collect" them into an offering to God through the priest, and if it follows a Latin Gloria, the Latin feel of the Mass can be cemented (or introduced in weekday Masses) with a Latin Collect.
The Readings, of course, must be in the vernacular. The practice of reading them in Latin and then having them repeated at the beginning of the homily for the benefit of the faithful is absurd. The readings are there to teach the faithful, to show the unity of both Testaments and of salvation history (GIRM). I'd quite like to hear a psalm sung in Latin occasionally, but the readings themselves must be readily understood. The homily I won't even comment upon.
The Creed, by virtue of being a statement, rather than a prayer, should be in the vernacular. We should be able to intellectually contemplate the meaning of what we're saying when we come together weekly and profess our beliefs. Then comes the universal prayer. Now I know that many people don't like this part, but it is important. It is the point in the Mass where instead of the priest praying on our behalf, the faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood directly (it says so right there in the General Instruction). It makes sense, therefore, for the prayers to be offered in the language of the people, rather than the language of the Church. Of course, the prayers themselves must be well composed and I would advocate some sort of standardization for them, but the abolition of the prayers which I constantly see called for in traditionalist circles is not warranted.
From this point on, I want Latin. I don't want the quiet Latin of a Tridentine low Mass- I think it is important for the people to at least follow. There is, after all, no one in the world who can't learn what is meant by HOC EST ENIM CORPUS MEUM. Ideally, of course, I want priests to sing. The East worked out long ago that the liturgy is a song, and we have somehow lost that. I have come time and again to the end of the Eucharistic prayer and the priest has chanted the doxology, and I look up and ask: where was that earlier? It is consistently the most beautiful part of the Mass, especially when concelebrated.
And will this ever happen? Well, it doesn't look like it. The banning of the inclusion of the Latin Ordo Missae as an appendix to vernacular Missals is a step backwards, which simply makes it harder for those priests who do want to use our universal liturgical language in the Mass. We need to pray harder folks.
I'm now going to go through what I think the Roman rite should look like language wise (disagreement and discussion welcomed). One way or another, I think at least some use of Latin should be compulsorily brought in because when priests are given an option they go for the easiest. They are only human after all.
When introducing the use of the vernacular, Sacrosanctum Concilium says it should be above all in the readings and addresses to the congregation, in some prayers and chants. The opening rites then, by virtue of being an address to the people, may reasonably be in the vernacular, and the same goes for the dismissal. There is a case too for the Confiteor, as an exhortation to repentance, and by being addressed not only to Almighty God but also to our fellow faithful to be readily understandable- I could go either way on that one. The Gloria is a hymn to God and has no business being translated. In any case, we praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you simply does not come off well in English. The Collect I can see being in either: it changes for every Mass and gives expression to the character of the celebration (GIRM), which suggests that people should be able to understand it. On the other hand it is meant to take the people's prayers and "collect" them into an offering to God through the priest, and if it follows a Latin Gloria, the Latin feel of the Mass can be cemented (or introduced in weekday Masses) with a Latin Collect.
The Readings, of course, must be in the vernacular. The practice of reading them in Latin and then having them repeated at the beginning of the homily for the benefit of the faithful is absurd. The readings are there to teach the faithful, to show the unity of both Testaments and of salvation history (GIRM). I'd quite like to hear a psalm sung in Latin occasionally, but the readings themselves must be readily understood. The homily I won't even comment upon.
The Creed, by virtue of being a statement, rather than a prayer, should be in the vernacular. We should be able to intellectually contemplate the meaning of what we're saying when we come together weekly and profess our beliefs. Then comes the universal prayer. Now I know that many people don't like this part, but it is important. It is the point in the Mass where instead of the priest praying on our behalf, the faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood directly (it says so right there in the General Instruction). It makes sense, therefore, for the prayers to be offered in the language of the people, rather than the language of the Church. Of course, the prayers themselves must be well composed and I would advocate some sort of standardization for them, but the abolition of the prayers which I constantly see called for in traditionalist circles is not warranted.
From this point on, I want Latin. I don't want the quiet Latin of a Tridentine low Mass- I think it is important for the people to at least follow. There is, after all, no one in the world who can't learn what is meant by HOC EST ENIM CORPUS MEUM. Ideally, of course, I want priests to sing. The East worked out long ago that the liturgy is a song, and we have somehow lost that. I have come time and again to the end of the Eucharistic prayer and the priest has chanted the doxology, and I look up and ask: where was that earlier? It is consistently the most beautiful part of the Mass, especially when concelebrated.
And will this ever happen? Well, it doesn't look like it. The banning of the inclusion of the Latin Ordo Missae as an appendix to vernacular Missals is a step backwards, which simply makes it harder for those priests who do want to use our universal liturgical language in the Mass. We need to pray harder folks.
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