Interesting Correspondence

Excerpt from a recent e-mail from a priest:

I have been saying the Novus Ordo in Latin and I am more comfortable with it.  I have to admit though, I don't understand your attraction to Latin.  The important thing is to understand what you are praying.  It seems to me that the vernacular does that.  I appreciate the Latin because I want to understand it.  To me it is no more or less beautiful.  You may respond it is the extraordinary form that you prefer, but I'm not sure about the silent canon.  It also seems to me saying the Novus Ordo ad orientem would do more to promote a different sense of the liturgy than having it in Latin.

I just figured I'd offer you my observations in an effort to understand your more traditional liturgical tendencies.  Please correct me if I'm wrong or misunderstanding something. 

 Perhaps he knew that that was just the sort of thing that would provoke a quick response, even if I had other things to do.  So, I wrote back:

It's great that you're getting used to Latin N.O.  I find it more beautiful than the vernacular N.O, and I find the EF more beautiful still.  You say that the important thing is that we understand what we're praying.  I beg to differ.  Prayer is not for us, but for God.  The important thing is we give Him honor and reverence in our prayer.  There is a sense of mystery that we associate with God when we pray in Latin.  A sense of the extraordinary.  The vernacular is more humdrum, day-to-day, familiar language, which takes away from the mystery of the Mass.  There is something awe-inspiring when one has to concentrate more on the language, and when one finds it hard to understand.  There's something special about setting aside a language used for prayer and communion with God, rather than that which we always use.  Christmas dinner is special at home when we take out the good china.  Similarly, the Mass, our prayer, becomes more special when we take out the good language. 

You hear people complain about the new Mass translation in English.  You hear people say that it's better than what we had before, a step forward.  You hear people complain about the old Mass translation in English.  Very seldom do you hear people complain about the Latin of the Mass. It is simply more beautiful.  It happens to be more mysterious, and more intriguing as well.

Yes, I much prefer the Vetus Ordo Mass.  I love the silent canon.  By now I'm so familiar with the words of it, I could come close to reciting it for you in Latin, but no matter.  I love being able to pray around the words at that part of the Mass, to focus on praying for the living and dead at their respective mementos, knowing the priest is going on with the Mass.  I love the added sense of mystery there, too.  Remember, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and even him only once a year.  This added to the sacredness of the place.  What is more sacred than the Mass?  What is sacred, is veiled.  Our Lady veiled herself.  The veil in the Temple separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the sanctuary.  A tabernacle bearing the Blessed Sacrament is veiled.  I could go on giving examples, but I'll stop here.  (Alice von Hildebrand had lots of interesting things to say on this point.)  The silence in the V.O. also veils the most sacred part of the Mass--the canon and consecration!  Do you not find this beautiful?  And the bells.  The only thing to break the silence at consecration is the beautiful call of the bells, harkening to us--God has come!  And after the consecration, the only words in the canon spoken out loud in humility by the priest, "Nobis quoque peccatoribus..."  "For us sinners also..."  A reminder of who we are and who we want to become.  Very striking.

Then, in sung Masses in the EF, during the canon and offertory the choir sings beautiful sacred music.  Then the silence is not the silence of the church, but of the altar.  Sometimes I find the music helpful to me, to lift my mind to God, and sometimes I find it distracting.  But in the High Mass, everything directs the mind, through all the senses toward God.  There's the singing to attract and lift the soul, the incense, the stained glass and holy images, and the vestments and candles and decorations, the postures for prayer that seem sort of like "Catholic calisthenics" to those not familiar with when to sit, stand, or kneel.  We are easily distracted, but in the church during EF Mass, everything calls us back, if not to the exact words of the Mass itself, at least to union with our God, which is the purpose of the Mass and all prayer in the first place. 

Of course the Mass is far more reverent when celebrated ad orientem.  Then the priest does not find himself on stage, and has no need to entertain.  Then the priest and faithful all get more the sense of going in one direction, toward God, led by priest.  This does a lot to change the atmosphere of the Mass for the better, but it is not everything, as the Latin in itself is not everything. 

Why would I so much rather write something like this than something I need to hand in for school?