By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
I grew up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Chester, Pa. Our church and school, Resurrection, no longer exists. It was torn down a few years ago. Our neighborhood row houses are gone as well. But I can still "smell the incense" and hear the Latin prayers of the Mass sometimes.
1969 had a few hot news items, but it was in this year that we started saying Mass in English and playing really bad guitar music.
Out went the Latin Mass. I was an altar boy for seven years in elementary school and began learning the Latin prayers early. We studied a bit of Latin in school, too. The sisters, most of them Irish immigrants, Sisters of St. Francis were very well educated, strict, but actually fun. We always had three priests in the parish. One of the fathers even coached baseball and football. He played football, spit end, at Notre Dame.
We learned Latin and sang songs in Latin, too. The nuns always had funny tricks to help us remember pronunciations…like “in egg shell cease”. And we would often sing Harry Belafonte’s song “Day Light Come and Me Wanna Go Home” after the Deo parts during choir practice. The priests and sisters had a great sense of humor…most of the time.
When the English Mass arrived, when the priest faced the congregation, when we put the cover over the organ and learned a few guitar chords, it was alright, really. I was in High School at the time and the Norbertine Fathers were very enjoyable and smart, explaining all the ritual changes. We had Mass every morning in the chapel and at lunch too. We stood in a circle and were like a family having a meal. A lot of the boys hadn’t been altar boys, so they really connected with the experience of being near the altar. I missed the altar boy days of starched surplices and ironed black or red cassocks…for a while.
Some people now would like to see the Latin Mass return and maybe some of the rituals as well. I’ve met Catholics who really miss some of the old days and it makes me think about the importance of ritual and how we present things, what sounds we hear, what fragrances and what choreography we see. Vestments are part of this as well. Liturgical colors, organ chords, and Latin phrases.
I was at a public high school choral recital recently and the students sang a wonderful Kyrie in Latin, followed by an Agnus Dei…remembering my choir days and Sister Asunta leading us, I knew every syllable and it really meant something. Latin isn’t scary, and yes it’s perhaps a language not meant for speaking, and sure it’s dead…maybe. This I learned though…that it and Greek really helped me in the study of English and came in handy when those unfamiliar vocabulary words showed up on tests and in reading.
It’s been forty years already since we dispensed with the Latin Mass…
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Ritual and Repetition
Some people deride ritual and repetition as boring. It is in repetition, however, that we often learn and remember. The richness of The Lamb's Supper is beyond comprehension for most of us in this life. Your testimony has revealed that you learned well and that there is more to learn. Nosce te ipsum.