A reply to an individual who posted a comment box on a priest's blog about how they did not care for Latin in the Mass:

Anonymous, as one of those people who loves to sing and pray in Latin (at Mass and beyond), perhaps I can shed some light for you. I am close to your age, so my experience of Latin in the Mass (or lack thereof) growing up is similar to yours. My appreciation of Latin has emerged only in recent years. Maybe this can be one of those conversations that Fr. V. is trying to encourage us to have where people can come to a better understanding of one another by clearing up some misconceptions and misunderstandings. I've been thinking about this for a long time and have considered writing about it, and your post gives me an incentive to finally get my thoughts on "paper." I don’t think that is “holier” to sing and pray in Latin, but I do believe there is something particularly appropriate about it, and I much appreciate it whenever I get the chance. So here are some reasons why I love it when we use Latin in the Mass (at least part of the time):

LATIN IS OUR SACRED LANGUAGE

Many other faiths have their own sacred language

Something so sacred as the Mass warrants the use of a sacred language.

The Church has developed its own form of Latin (Ecclesiastical Latin) for use in the Church unlike the Latin used on the street back at the time. Some of the words and the pronunciation differed even from the classical Latin used in ancient Rome.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Mystery.

Latin is the language normally used by exorcists. Hated by the devil.

The Church's official language. Since it is dead, it is unchangeable. It preserves doctrine.

Master

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZiSvuAJxOA

LATIN IS OUR OWN LANGUAGE

NO ONE ELSE USES IT

While Hebrew is

(well except for doctors and lawyers)

1) Latin is the sacred language of our Church. Since it is no longer used for conversation anywhere in the world, the Latin language is ours alone. Because it is reserved only for Catholic worship (and for official Church documents), it takes up a special meaning for us. I think of how people in other religions sing in their sacred languages, for example, the Jews who use lots of Hebrew in their worship. Here’s a cantor singing at Yom Kippur at a synagogue . I have to think the Jews in this congregation wouldn’t have it any other way. This same cantor sang at a multifaith 9/11 memorial gathering, and I bet that those in attendance who didn’t understand were still moved in a prayerful way by the beauty of his chant. I like to think of our use of Latin as comparable to that beautiful Elvish language in Lord of the Rings. To me, Latin, like Tolkein's Elvish, is more aesthetically pleasing than English, especially when sung. Take a listen to this hauntingly beautiful elvish song. Even without understanding, we can appreciate the beauty and mystery of this song in this special language. A viewer writes in the comment box: “There is just something magical in this. Despite the fact that I don't understand a single word of the lyrics, they're still so stunningly beautiful.”

I think the style of the music (Gregorian chant and some of our traditional hymns), in and of itself, evokes a sense of the sacred even for unbelievers. But for me as a Catholic, because the language and the style of music is set apart for Catholic worship, simply hearing it prepares my mind and heart for prayer, not unlike the feeling one gets in walking into a beautiful cathedral. It quiets my heart and lifts it heavenward and almost literally draws me to my knees.

2) LATIN IS THE HISTORICAL LANGUAGE OF THE CHURCH

It's part of our heritage. Many of us have a particular fondness for the language or our ancestors. I have a particular affinity for German given that I am mostly German, and that evokes my connection with the land and the culture my ancestors. What a joy it would be to find a letter written by my great-great grandfather in German and, with the help of someone who knows German, to come to understand it's meaning so much so that I could pick it up myself at a later date and still comprehend it.

Similarly, some of the most beautiful and powerful prayers of the Church, written by our spiritual ancestor in Latin. I don't know that any prayers or hymns surpass the beauty and depth of Thomas Aquinas's Eucharistic hymns which he wrote for the feast of Corpus Christi. Thomas was a brilliant scholar, perhaps the brightest mind God has ever given the Church, but he also was deeply in love with God. What a treasure it is that we still have the fruit of that magnificent mind and heart in the original language in which he wrote it. When we sing Tantum Ergo in Latin at Benediction, we in union with Thomas as he would have sung it over 700 years ago, and in union with Catholics all around the world throughout all those years! What a treasured gift that is!

2) Universal language of the Church I really appreciate the fact that Latin is is still used, at least a little, throughout the entire Church. When our family was in Europe last summer, we attended the Holy Mass (Heilege Meise!) in Germany. The only parts I understood were those in Latin. It was wonderful to be able to sing the praise of God in the Gloria alongside Germans with whom I couldn't even have a conversation. We were united in the Lord, through the gift of the Church’s continued use of Latin for at least some parts of the Mass. Back in the day when Latin was the only language used in the Mass, you could attend a Mass anywhere in the world and feel as much at home with the language as you would in your own parish.

3) Our traditional Latin sacred music is broadly appealing in its beauty

What frustrated me, in my love for the beauty and sacredness of our traditional music and sacred language is that it seems that some of my fellow Catholics have a strong averse reaction to it. You were respectful, gentle, and cooperative how you expressed your preference, but I have also experienced a passionate disdain for this very music that touches my soul like no other. It is hard for me to understand the resistance.

First of all, I only really appreciate the Latin when I understand most of it word for word. So I have taken it upon myself to look closely at literal translations so that I know what we are singing. I really enjoy the fact that many of Latin words we sing serve as the root of familiar English words eg. "terra" (meaning "earth") is the root of terrestrial (meaning "earthly") or "coeli" (meaning "heaven") is the root of celestial (meaning "heavenly'). But I like it even better when I know what it means. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CfRJSKk2Ls. But I think it would be a real loss if the elves were to sing that song in English.

Likewise, I feel the same way about songs and hymns that have been a part of our Church for centuries. Take for example, Pange Lingua Gloriosi. The Latin just has a different more sacred feel to me than the English. Again It's nice to be able to readily understand what you are singing. I get that! Sing my tongue the Savior's Glory (English only) But I love the sound of the Latin, the fact that it is the sacred and universal language of the Church. Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Latin only) Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Latin with English translation) But Follow along with hymn #34 on p. 142. While there is something to be said for just appreciating the beauty of these ancient hymns even when we don't understand, I think pastors would do well to give people every opportunity to learn the sacred language of their own Church.

It's great that Latin is available at St. Sebastian. Or at the very least, the opportunity to learn the language of the prayers they sing. I really like the Lingua Angelica series which teaches Latin in the context of traditional Catholic prayers and hymns. https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/latin/lingua-angelica/ Just take a look at the workbook pages for Ave Verum Corpis: https://www.memoriapress.com/wp-content/uploads/samples/Lingua%20Angelica%20I%20Student.pdf

Videos with literal translation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYxyiUB1L0s

And you can see how it is possible to learn every word, and how most of the words have some sort of connection with English (corpus -corporal) (cruce - crucify) (verus - verily) (natus - nativity). There's not doubt about it, when one first attends a Latin Mass, it is hard to understand.

I normally go to the regular English Novus Ordo Mass in my own parish, but from time to time I like to attend the Extraordinary Form Mass in Latin. At first I did feel a bit lost, but at the same time I was awed and drawn to the reverence and the sense of the sacred, the otherworldliness of it all. After all the Mass is where heaven meets earth and it is actually is an otherworldly experience. I don't suppose I felt that way just because it was in Latin, but also because of the postures and gestures, the silence, and the style of the music.

DEAD LANGUAGE

Can't be changed. It is fixed.

Imagine the elves in the Lord of the Rings singing in English

Their music sounds sacred and otherworldly, and this is what our music when heaven meets earth in the Mass should sound this different that secular music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Depf1gKhBno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CfRJSKk2Ls

Tolkien made up a new language for the elves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYM5VMr3L9w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgVM6HFFj28

Or a Jewish cantor singing in English instead of Hebrew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-0Gqn-9dKg

a German cantor is singing in Hebrew, which makes the point. As soon as he starts singing in Hebrew, the language difference is gone!

Silent Night in German

LATIN SOUNDS BETTER WHEN SUNG

LATIN IS TIMELESS

Church was using latin before English was ever even thought of.

LATIN IS THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF THE CHURCH - NO GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES

IT'S UNIVERSAL

No matter where you go to Mass in the entire world, when Latin is used it is familiar. When I was in Europe, I was lost when the priest was praying the Mass and giving his homily in German, and I couldn't participate with my voice. Yet, when we some of the parts in Latin, using a traditional mellody, I was completely at home.

BEAUTIFUL

IT SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE

Ave Maria - Schubert

Latin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVzbNPm1U8s

English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N67N2dGn5W4

Bocelli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwp1CH5R-w4

Groban: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgyy8u3zcf8

EASY TO SING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl350thFxdM

Italian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e85A21XIsRA

Son

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7aQg8-5XJs

LA DONNE E MOBILE

Italian singing no subtitles (Italian and English below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLa6hd8RMpU

Italian singing with Italian subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjVJ1lIoUBw

English singing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PysZGBRFc-I

Italian with English and Italian captions on screen phrase by phrase:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fu-Op7MlDc

"You can sing anything, even nonsense, in Italian and it sounds beautiful."

NESSUN DORMA

English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx80nX5W4OI

Italian with Italian and English on screen captions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCEQ2r38Bec

VESTI LA GIUBBA

English and Italian in "More"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0PMq4XGtZ4

English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gDzVTqY0Rs

HABANERA

French with English subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8y1dj7bvjE

French with English and French subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S06aSlYP6rg

OUR FATHER

Latin with English and Latin subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhZBj1Runp8

HAIL MARY

Latin with English and Latin subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5f9OjZXpW0

SALVE REGINA

Latin singing with English subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhoF4UCSGHo

IT'S BEAUTIFUL!

Well, at least everyone else seems to thinks so, except for Catholics when they are at Mass.

Something remarkable is how Latin chant sung by monks and nuns is actually a topping charts in the secular music world. Even nonbelievers sense a peace and sacredness in our traditional music. News stories about these bestselling Benedictines of Mary nuns are surely among the best depictions of Catholicism in the mainstream media today. Even when I have no idea what they are singing, but it is hauntingly beautiful and lifts my soul with a sense of the sacred and heavenly. It’s not the same when it is in English. Just listen! < a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGLB0wOdJyk”> Benedictines of Mary in the News < a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po5LZpGSN-k”> CBS Sunday Morning “Heavenly Songs From Classical Music’s Unlikely Rock Stars” Quire Matthew’s Passion

"The Church has produced some of the most beautiful music in the world, not the least of which are Mass settings. I grew up singing these Masses in Latin (yes, post Vatican II.) We sang them at Church. We sang them in public school. We sang them at the University of Akron. I sang them with a choir at an Episcopal church for their services. About the only place they are controversial is at a Catholic Mass. Oh, the irony." (Fr. John Valencheck on his blog)

Hi again, anonymous! Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate your respectful comments. I think we are not as different about this as it might have seemed at first. I'm not really conversant in Latin at all. I also share your reluctance with Latin when I don't understand it. Since I last was on this site, I had an experience which really brought that home to me. I was on retreat at a place where they pray the Liturgy of the Hours several times a day. The hermitess who leads the prayer makes a kind informal assessment of those who are present to determine what they are able to handle, always quick to offer instructions to newcomers. Well, I am a regular there, and somehow she determined that I was comfortable with Latin, but she way overestimated my capacity, and she led a number of the prayers and songs in Latin. I did fine when we sang the Regina Coeli in Latin because I had taken it upon myself to study it and learn it this Easter season. But then she ended up praying other prayers that I had never heard of before (in English or Latin), and I was completely lost, fumbling along and feeling quite inept.

I really appreciate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass because of the reverence in how it is prayed (although much of that can also be done in an Ordinary Form Mass), the timeless sacred beauty of the style of the music, and the opportunity to sing and pray the Latin prayers that I know. There is something to be said for just resting in the beauty, mystery, and otherworldliness of our ancient language of prayer when we don't understand it, much like just resting in beautiful instrumental music or unadulterated silence. But truth be told, as much as I love the use of Latin in the Mass, I appreciate it much, much more when I understand what I'm saying. I agree with you; you certainly can't prayerfully engage the words of a prayer you don't understand. It took me several times of attending before I became familiar enough with the missal to pray along, but I think that I would actually like it better if the longer prayers, like the Eucharistic prayer, for example, would be prayed audibly and in English so I wouldn't have to concentrate so hard on following the missal.

I'm sorry to hear that it seemed that those at the church where the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (1962 Roman Missal in Latin from 1962) was being offered seemed to be looking down their noses at you for not conforming to their customs. I sure hope that wasn't really how they were thinking. It would be nice if they could find a way to help newcomers feel more welcomed and help familiarize them with what's going on. (Of course ALL Catholic parishes could do better with this! My daughter brought a non-religious friend to Mass and really had hoped that there could be something at church to help this newcomer have a clue of what was going on, but alas there was nothing.)

While there is no excuse for inhospitality, I hope we could separate the behavior of people from the value of Latin in the Mass. I respect your preference for praying in English and I don't think that your prayer is less pleasing to God when you pray from your heart in English. Still, I'd like to propose that instead of eliminating the use of Latin, we do more to help people understand it so they can really pray it, too, from their hearts like I do. When I don't understand a prayer or hymn in Latin, I am always eager to decipher it, like a puzzle. In my final post, I'd like to make some suggestions for how this doesn't have to be as hard as people might think, even for those who don't know Latin at all!

Here's my Regina Coeli made really easy page which I will explain more below. (Please disregard the rest of the site as it needs LOTS of work!)

I want to communicate how it is that I teach myself Latin songs and prayers, which I actually do a lot, because I sincerely enjoy doing it and I love to sing and pray in Latin if, and only if, I can understand it.

At the very least, we need side by side translations, and there a lots of these all over the web, but I would propose that we do much more. My favorite go-to source when I want to understand a Latin song is an old hymn book that is now available online, Chants of the Church. They give you a literal word-for-word translation right below each Latin word. The more I can engage each individual word, the better I can pray it.

This book has some great tips on pronunciation in the beginning of the book, and while it would be good to teach basic Latin pronunciation to the members of a parish which is going to use Latin, I think it's easiest to jumpstart the process by writing out the pronunciation phonetically for people when they are first learning. I have a general sense of Latin pronunciation, but I listen to the hymn online to make sure I get it right.

For example in the Sanctus:

sanctus= sahnc-toos

caeli= cheh-lee

Another thing I find helpful to consider the text word for word, looking for words that have English words derived from them to help me remember what they mean.

For example in the Sanctus:

Latin: caeli; English derivative: celestial (heavenly); Translation: heaven

Latin "terra; English derivative: terrestrial (earthly); Translation: earth

I bring together all of these elements together (literal word-for-word translation, online audio, phonetic pronunciation, and helpful English derivatives) my Regina Coeli page. I believe that a careful introduction like this to a Latin song or prayer, perhaps included in a review before Mass and added to a parish website, would be sufficient to help a lot of people really be able to understand enough to pray as they sing.

Of course it is most helpful to actually study the Latin language. Jewish children study Hebrew for years. Latin is enjoying a comeback, even in public schools, as it is arguably one of the best languages to study for all sorts of reasons other than church-related ones. We could provide more opportunities for both children and adults to learn. It would be great if LOTS of parishioners were to sign up for the Latin classes at St. Sebastian's Academy of Culture and Arts. It is wonderful that the parish is offering this sort of opportunity! And when Latin is studied, there could be a special emphasis on learning Latin prayers and songs. The Latina Christiana course used at the Academy includes some of that. Even better, or supplemental, is a course called Lingua Angelica, where the entire purpose of the text is to gain word for word understanding of Latin prayer and hymns. If you look at the Student Book and Teacher Manual samples, you'll see what I mean.

I hope one day I might have a chance to help with this sort of education with a few Latin songs in my parish or beyond, with my love of our Church's language in spite of my scarcely knowing it, being the unique "skill" I bring to the task.