Since returning to "in-person" church following the COVID lockdowns, I have been attending the traditional Latin mass, or TLM. The TLM has been in the news lately, for bad reasons and for good. The bad news has been the attacks on the TLM by Cardinal Culpich in the Archdiocese of Chicago and, more recently, by Cardinal Gregory in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C..
One bit of good news for the TLM came last week when news broke that actor Shia Labeouf had converted to Catholicism while making the movie Padre Pio. He discussed his conversion, and the "leading role" that the Latin mass had in it, in an interview with Bishop Barron. A rather interesting coincidence is that the news of Mr. Labeouf's conversion came on August 25th, the feast day of Saint Genesius of Rome. Saint Genesius was a Roman actor who was jokingly baptized during a performance mocking Christianity. After this, he began to profess the faith and was later martyred by beheading when he refused an order to deny the faith.
I had recently watched another moving conversion story about how UFC fighting champion Bas Rutten returned to the Catholic faith while making the movie Here Comes the Boom with actor Kevin James, a devout Catholic. I have seen Mr. Rutten at mass, and had the opportunity to meet him a few weeks back.
But, back to the topic at hand and an explanation of the image above. Yesterday, the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost, I attended mass and used my mother's old Sunday missal. Normally, I use this modern missal, which is based on the 1962 Typical Edition of the Missale Romanum:
My mother received her missal as a gift on June 23, 1952, according to an inscription inside the cover.
She continued to use this missal for years after that. Evidence of that use are the torn pages and ink marks made by yours truly:
Although it was a beautiful experience to pray the mass using the missal that my mother had used while I was an infant, I think I'll keep it at home to avoid damage. The pages are pretty delicate, and I don't want to damage any more as an adult than I did as a child.
If you read this far, I hope you found the story interesting. If you would like to know more about the TLM, I recommend watching The Mass of the Ages. The camera crew for part three of MOTA was at my church a couple of weeks ago. I was told they interviewed Bas Rutten. I can't wait for that video to drop...
Very interesting mass in Latin! I wanted to learn Latin at school but no teachers were available then!
I took three years of Latin in high school, but I forgot ALL of it.
The missal makes it easy to follow, even without knowing Latin, by having Latin alongside the language of your choice.
I have been to churches that have English mass, Spanish mass and Vietnamese mass. Those groups attend mass at separate times and never meet or mingle. Two weeks ago, at the potluck after mass, I met English, Spanish and Vietnamese speakers. We had all attended the same mass!
Pontius Pilate ordered that "Jesus of Nazereth King of the Jews" be put on Jesus' cross in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Consequently, these are the three sacred languages. The Latin mass includes all three - Latin, of course; Hebrew (amen, alleluia, hosanna, saboath) and Greek (Kyrie eleison).
Thanks for looking and commenting :)
Synchronicity does happen especially when it involves spiritual energies. Hope three of you would meet together unplanned again.
Never knew that Roman spoke in three languages! Horrific history whose consequences continue to these days! Yet, all these were already foretold by Jesus and recorded in the Book!
The future looks very ominous!
I couldn't agree more. Stay well and stay safe, my friend.
Thanks so much. The more I read and research, the heavier feelings my heart could feel. Most people here are not aware of drastic changes in the near future!