why latin?

A priest friend of mine asked me why I am so attached to Latin liturgy.  "What's the big deal about Latin?" he asked me.  I haven't finished formulating my response, but here is a start:

First thought: It’s not really the language.  But then, the language is really a part.  If religion is the cult/sacrifice man offers to God, is it not a good thing to have not only what we offer but how we offer directed to Him? Shall we not even dedicate the language of that cult to God?  Latin has the advantage, to us, of being a “dead” language, in that no one speaks as a native, and we set it apart for the language we use to address God.  This change in language helps direct our attention to heavenly rather than earthly concerns when we use it in the liturgy, and prevents certain distractions caused by inelegance in one’s own native language (such as times I have heard at Mass in English in my local parish embarrassing mispronunciations of “Jews and gentiles” and “flaming brazier”).  Nor is there any longer the problem of dealing with changes in meanings of the words in the Mass, as they stay the same in the “dead” Latin, while they constantly change in English (who remembers anymore what a “brazier” is anyway?).  Finally, there is the universality of Latin:  when I travel anywhere in the world, if the Mass is in Latin, there is that familiar homey-ness to it, and I don’t have to try to keep up with responses that may even be written in a different alphabet.  So, Latin does really add a certain sense of reverence, awe, and mystery to the Mass, while also leaving a sense of stability.  So, briefly, this explains my attachment to Latin in prayer (particularly public prayer).  [As an aside, all of this would apply to just about any other language, too, so I enjoy attending liturgies in Greek, Slovenian, Armenian, etc.]