TLM – Praying in Silence

[ 13 ] February 21, 2013 AD |

tlm
I grew up in the early post-Vatican II era.  I can remember the time before people held hands during the Our Father.  I was a small girl when the Communion rails were removed from our church and the old ladies shook their heads and cried.  I was 11 when girls were allowed to serve at Mass.  The late 70s and early 80s were an interesting time to be a Catholic.  Things were changing all the time, and most of the Catholics I knew were eager to embrace the changes.

I never saw a Latin Mass until a few years ago.  I never knew how much I missed it.  The folksy, friendly, and welcoming atmosphere of most “regular” parishes was exactly what I wanted.  There was a familiarity there.  I got to participate in everything which was going on in the church.  I sang, followed along, gave the appropriate responses, and prayed with the rest of the congregation.  Most Sundays that is enough for me.  I love the Mass.

This Sunday by happy accident (no one could find the 3 year old’s shoes until past the time for us to leave) we ended up at the local TLM church instead of our regular Novus Ordo parish. This  Mass was a different experience altogether.  I’ve been before, but I don’t know how I missed the silence.  I don’t know how I missed the calm and the peace. Before the Mass, there was no talking at all.  No chatting at all, there were just respectful silence and a swiftly moving line of penitents at the Confessional.  (There was Confession before Mass.  Not at 3:30 on a Saturday and only for half an hour, but before Mass began)

Once the processional began, I realized that, to my delight, nothing was required of me but to pray.  The squirmy baby in my arms usually distracts me as I try to follow along.  Sunday I just prayed.  The Mass washed over me in a soothing stream of Latin.  The chanting of the priest was met by the soaring voices of the choir.  The boys at the altar were serious about their duties and obviously joyful in the doing of them.  The whole of the Celebration was as smooth and as beautiful as a well-rehearsed dance.  I watched it all in appreciation, and then bowed my head and prayed.

All week long, I have to talk.  My voice and direction are required every waking moment of my life.  Silence is a rare commodity for me.  I’d never realized how much I value the gift of silence until I went to the one place where my voice is neither required nor expected.  How refreshing that was to me.  How rejuvenated my spirit felt to spend just one hour at rest.  I had never thought of speaking the responses and singing the songs as one more chore, but at the end of a long hard week, it was so welcome to not have to give them.

After Mass, there were no loud voices in the sanctuary.  People knelt quietly in prayer and then left in silence.  The chatting and greeting were left for the vestibule.  The prayers of others were strictly respected within the walls of the church.  I haven’t seen such respect since I was a young child at my grandmother’s church.

I don’t know when we will return to the TLM chapel.  The Computer Guy was not as enamored as I was.  He likes it just fine, but to him Mass is Mass.  To me, it was a wonderful surprise, a welcome break.  I was at the one place in the city where nothing is asked of me, nothing is required.  I got to simply rest in the presence of God and allow Him to enter in and take my fatigue away.  What a pleasure and a gift such peace is.  How did we ever let it get taken away?

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Category: Sacraments

About the Author ()

Rebecca Frech is a Cradle Catholic who came back to the Church in 2000, and thanks God for it every day. She lives just outside Dallas with her husband, the brilliant Computer Guy, their 7 not-quite-perfect children, and an ever-multiplying family of dust bunnies. When she’s not teaching math, neglecting housework, or reluctantly training for a marathon, she’s blogging at Shoved to Them.

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  • Cathy Harrell

    Thanks for this article. Like you I don’t remember the Latin Mass as I child. I remember the removal of the communion rail. My priest did not allow girls to serve but we had lots of boys. But we could read, usher, etc.
    Ironically, like you, I have come to really appreciate the solemnity and grace of the Latin Mass. We still have people who strongly dislike it but it is nice to have the choice. I feel like I am truly focused in prayer.

  • http://www.mycatholicblog.com Erin Pascal

    Thank you for sharing your story. While I was reading your story, I felt like I was also there. That was a wonderful experience. I was able to attend a Latin Mass but it was a long time ago. The environment and the ambiance was really amazing and one of a kind that you can really focus your attention and concentrate on the mass.

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  • The Sicilian Woman

    Rebecca, I’ll cut and paste my comment from Fr. Z’s blog, where he linked your post:

    Last weekend, my usually wise and in-line pastor invited a Christian singing group – complete with woodwind and horn sections, keyboards and drums – to participate in the Mass, singing the processional, the Responsorial Psalm, the Gospel Acclamation, and so on. I dreaded every musical part of Mass. Nothing against the talents of this particular group – they’ve traveled and performed across the world, including in front of JPII or BXVI, can’t remember which one – but that sort of music did NOT belong in Mass. It was loud, jarring, and not conducive to prayer or reverence at all. All I kept thinking was how much more I understood the purpose and the need for the EF Mass, on top of how badly I wanted to run out of there to the Mass at a neighboring parish about 15 minutes away.

    “How did we ever let it get taken away?” Amen, sister.

  • Sharon

    Thanks for sharing your experience. Yes! We get to be quiet, but there’s more. We can focus at the Offertory (which is much more clearly defined than in the NO Mass) on offering ourselves and our intentions. During the Canon we enter in to the Sacrifice of Calvary interiorly. This grows on you as you get more attuned to the prayers (the Latin/vernacular missals help). You are not constantly being brought back down to earth by programmed demands on you to speak or to greet someone or go and “do something”.

    For me, the traditional Latin Mass is Mass with nothing taken away and nothing added. Whether low or high, doesn’t matter, it’s about Our Lord and not about us. There are no limits to interior participation at this Mass.

    I hope you and your family can assist more often at the TLM. God bless you.

  • http://misereremeideus.blogspot.com Christopher Leo Biddle

    I like this. I go to a FSSP church often, otherwise I go to the diocesan TLM. Maybe you should consider making a permanent switch to Tradition. I decided about 14 months ago to exclusively attend the TLM and it’s done wonders for my spiritual life.

  • Lora

    Dear Rebecca,
    Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. I remember going to Latin Mass as a child. I also remember all of the changes. There is no TLM where we live. We are praying for this.
    God bless you,
    Lora

  • adrian

    I really appreciated your comments. I attend a daily NO mass in my home city and go to a TLM mass in an FSSP parish in another city on the weekends since I have more time. The NO mass isn’t bad in the morning before work. It is only 30 minutes so I have time to get to work in time. There is no music in the daily masses so I don’t have to be mugged by loud/in your face 70s pop music at their Sunday masses. But like another’s comment, the TLM Latin mass can’t be beat for firing me up spiritually for the next week and its trials. In fact, it is what brought me back to the Catholic Church. I had wandered to a Protestant religion but was being drawn back to Catholicism. I went to some of the local NO masses and felt kind of empty spiritually. I liked the friendly atmosphere but I can get an even friendlier experience at a Protestant church. But when I started going to the Latin mass, it was like my soul was being watered and could finally grow. I am now hooked on the TLM mass. One of the benefits of our TLM parish is that they have lunch after mass so we get a chance to visit after mass.

  • Cierra

    I have yet to attend a true Latin mass, but I found a local parish that, while still sticking with many of the vat II changes, has maintained it’s reverence. There’s silence when you first walk in, a good amount of women (myself included) wear mantillas, they have a pipe organ and use it while beautifully trained choirs sing more traditional, soothing hymns. There are a few masses where confessions is offered before mass starts (During the teen mass[which, that goodness, sticks with good ol' tradition leaning music instead of the pain that only a rock concert should be able to bring] the priest will even continue taking confessions up to the time the other priest begins the consecration of the Eucharist.) I find it to be the best church around, striking the best balance possible, considering the only true Traditional church anywhere near is 2+ hours away, even on weekends that’s hard for me to make. I don’t mind things that were meant to ‘bring in the laity to the celebration of the mass’ and make it more ‘united’, but in that process a terrible amount of reverence was lost, and too much of our godless society crept in. Though I don’t see anything wrong with the way (most) masses are celebrated now, I feel they have lost their distinct catholic aire. Some try so hard to bring more people in via appearance that they sacrifice far to much reverence and tradition that marks us as who we are, verses our protestant peers. Not all changes are bad (In my opinion) but that right, catholic balance needs to be found, and soon, especially since most Catholics fail to understand what it means to truly be catholic worship.

  • http://chloeaustyn.blogspot.com Chloe

    I love the TLM! We had a Traditional Latin Nuptial Mass and I thought it was so weird and noisy to hear everyone saying the altar server responses… but I kept hearing afterwards how “quiet” everyone thought it was. It breeds a different culture, for sure.

  • Sean Connolly

    I sometimes feel as if silence is talked up in traditionalist circles to the detriment of sacred music. Scratch that; it is my personal experience that silence is talked up in traditionalist circles to the detriment of sacred music. I used to work in traditionalist parishes, and it was difficult if not impossible to 1) produce music that was negligible enough for the congregation not to take it as a violation of their coveted hour-long Wall of Silent Prayer (if they noticed it they generally disliked it, thus basically undermining the whole purpose of sacred music, which is to engage the listener or singer affectively in the liturgical text by enhancing the words with melody) and 2) to engage the congregation in any way in the singing of the Mass, the form of participation so consistently enjoined upon them and recommended by Pope after Pope.

    The veil of silence over the Canon is a thing of great beauty, but the liturgy is a song and a sacred dance, and it is the manifest will of Pope and Council that it be in large measure the people’s song. In accounts like this I am always disappointed to read about “the choir” singing, although I am a choir director and precentor myself. Congregations should sing. And they shouldn’t sing trite, banal, non-liturgical music. They should own the Ordinary and be able to sing it with confidence; traditional parishes should be models in this respect, monuments to good liturgy. That they aren’t always disappoints me. That they are often promoted as just the opposite disheartens me.

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