The View Up Here

Finally, I have selected a name for my kayak (if anyone is following this tremendously hot topic): Jayu . This is the Korean (Hangul) word for FREEDOM.  It is pronounced "CHA-yu" and written in Hangul as   자유.  When I am able to write this on my little boat, I'll post a pic!

Earlier this week I posted about why I preferred the Traditional Latin Mass to the Novus Ordo Mass . I shared that post with a friend who observed that I never said anything about the use of Latin! Duh! But before I get into that, I do want to clarify one thing. The Novus Ordo (NO) Mass as it was initially conceived and communicated, was NOT, by and large, what many of us endured or became accustomed to in the 70s and 80s. One could say in modern parlance that the "roll out" of the new mass was not accomplished in a clear and orderly fashion, and there were undoubtedly those who took advantage of the vagueness and lack of clarity in the process. As a result, incredible abuses entered into the new mass that actually had nothing to do with its design or the intention of the Church. This is why, when I attend a properly reverent NO Mass, I am more at peace than the typical version of the Mass that is prevalent today. I still prefer the older rite for all the reasons listed in my...

(Longer read here, folks.) Recently a friend of mine suggested that I write something about why I prefer the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM - or as another friend quipped, "the Totally Latin Mass") over the Novus Ordo (NO) Mass, since the reasons I'd presented made sense to her and were not grounded in problematic ideological stances (see how I danced around that one?). At first I thought it would be a useless thing to do, as there has been so much already written. However, after a couple of days, I was led to reconsider.  So here I present the whys and wherefores of my liturgical preferences to anyone who cares. The main reason I prefer the TLM over the NO is easily summed up in four words:  I can pray better.  Please let me explain: 1. Silence.      I am not forced to speak out loud or sing banal intonations at various points, or to twist around waving at people to show them that I do not hate them before going to Communion. In all seriousness, when I'm forc...