Why I prefer the "Totally Latin Mass" (aka the Traditional Latin Mass)

(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 forced to do these things, it tears me away from the place in my soul where I pray, where I meet my God. My prayer is silent and deep, like a well that can only be accessed using a bucket. I am blessed to have a 1962 white leather missal with beautiful color photos and introduction by Ven. Fulton J. Sheen (which I picked up in a used bookstore in Burbank for $4 several years ago - long before I even knew the Latin Mass was still around). I follow what the priest is doing with my missal, and have absolutely no problem knowing "what's going on." 

2. It is more beautiful 

    Beauty is of God. Gregorian chant takes precedence, with its upward-moving inspiration, toward God, not toward men; the timelessness of this liturgical music leads me to give glory to God far more than modern hymns. The forms and movements of priests and altar servers are also precise, and there is order - not the oppressive kind, but the kind that gives dimension, form, and purpose to everything. Every movement means something, every piece of hand-crafted vestment has a prayer and a significance attached to it. It is beautiful in my eyes.

3. It points to the centrality of the Holy Eucharist in a clear, unmitigated manner, and with all proper and fitting reverence.  It presents us with the Sacrifice of the Mass, not a "supper around a table."

    There are no quickie Eucharistic prayers. The Roman Canon and everything that follows prepares us to receive Christ. Everyone receives on their tongues, while kneeling, the proper disposition to receive the King of Love. In this way, there is much less opportunity to drop the Host or pieces of the Host. The hands that were ordained for this purpose are the hands that give us Holy Communion. I have an entire meditation in mind about the reception of Holy Communion, but I'll save that diatribe for another post.

4. The priest presides.

    The priest is ordained and anointed for the very office in which he presides - to say Mass in persona Christi (in the person of Christ). The priest does all action - including reading the one epistle as well as the Gospel. There are no "prayers of the faithful" or "universal prayers" because all the prayers that are included in the TLM (and which were excised in the NO) say everything that needs to be said. So in reality, there is no call for lay people to be "doing stuff" around the sanctuary or tabernacle. The Mass is streamlined, flows naturally, and has no need of "transitions" for people walking up and back and forth between chairs/pews and the sanctuary. This is a relief for me, personally. I've seen tremendous abuses around this, stemming from such over-familiarity with the sacred space that it no longer seems sacred to anyone.

    A side note about altar boys, who are of course "lay" -- their purpose is to become acquainted with Mass, the vessels, the protocols, etc. in a kind of apprenticeship function, to assist them as they discern a vocation to the priesthood. The ideal future of the altar boy is to one day become a priest, if it is God's will for that young man.

5. The priest and the people face God together. 

    We are united in one sweeping forward and upward motion, instead of the priest facing us, causing us to focus on him rather than on God. The cult of personality, to my mind, more easily leads to abuses and is intensified when the Mass becomes about the priest, rather than about God. And for me, I don't want to look at the priest; it's distracting to me.

    The priest leads us in worship, and traditionally, churches were all built facing East. We were all facing toward the coming of Christ (traditionally from the East). And the tabernacle and altar were in the same space, without the cognitive dissonance of tabernacle - priest facing people - altar - congregation. Or worse - the tabernacle off to the side, as if Our Lord's Presence was somehow disengaged from the Mass.

    And so, friends, all of these points, when taken together, point to one thing: transcendence. The point of worship is not to feel better about yourself, nor is it to feel like I'm "doing something" for God.  These things may be part of worship, but they are not the reason we worship. The Holy Mass is the Sacrifice of Calvary, re-presented in an unbloody manner for the salvation of our souls. For me, personally, this reality is more clearly present, and my spirit is lifted closer to My Lord through the transcendent elements (accidents, if you will) of the Traditional Latin Mass. There is more I could say about the NO Mass, and when it is said well, it is also beautiful, but for my money, the prayers, the silence, the environment and everything I prefer belongs to the TLM. (This has been edited from a previous published version for clarity and brevity.)

    I also want to make clear that I am in no way judging anyone who does not prefer the TLM. I am well aware that a devotee of the NO Mass could dispute everything I've written here, and that would either be an expression of personal preference or a theological debate. And that's okay. I understand that we have been encultrated since the mid-1970s to prefer the NO, and for anyone under the age of say 65 or 70, the TLM was never experienced. All this is to say that people worship as they know how, as the Holy Spirit leads them. They love the Lord and live lives according to His law of Love. And they attend NO parishes. It's all good. There is no judgment here. 

    There will be, however, judgment on parishes, priests and bishops that have embraced liturgical (and other) abuses and crazy liturgical stuff (bizarre dancing, water guns of holy water, and far worse practices involving pagan deities on the altar of Christ) and have relegated Christ's Body and Blood to almost a mere symbol.  The fact is that certain dioceses did a hatchet job on implementing "the changes" of that period, destroying churches, ripping out altars, building churches that resemble UFOs or James Bond villain lairs. The catechesis of the periods from 1980 until recently was abysmal. And so here we are with 69% of Catholics not believing in the Real Presence! But that Judgment will come from one whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

    P.S.  Addendum to this post in my next post: Yeah, but why Latin?