Help me prepare to take a 6yo to a Latin Mass.

In My Humble Opinion
21

There will probably be massbooks (probably not the right word) available: they have the whole sequence of “what the priest says” and “what the congregation says” and “the Psalm goes here” and “kneel down”. Churches that have those will usually keep them at the back, so you take one as you enter. I see them most often in churches that have Mass in “non-local languages” and/or get a lot of foreigners.

You may want to check for this before actually bringing the kid.

Mom and Lilbro were visiting over Easter weekend, we went to Mass in German, understood only the words “Amen” and “Maria von Magdala”, nobody had any problem. We got lots of smiles.

If you’re Episcopalian (or another church that also believes in transubstantiation), the take I’ve been taught is that it’s fine to have Communion. You may want to consult with the priest beforehand.

22

I’m in Canada, and I don’t think in North America you’re encouraged to receive Communion unless you’re Catholic. I’d just go up for the blessing.

It’s great that you’re going to Latin Mass. That will be so cool.

23

If anybody here and of a two-figures apparent age joined the communion line but didn’t take it, I’m quite sure the priests would be quite surprised. Like I said, ask the priest.

It is inadequate if you don’t believe in it.

24

Nope, we’re LDS and Catholics don’t accept our baptism, as we do not accept theirs–we’ll just stay put and not go up. It would not be appropriate in anyone’s eyes for us to take communion, and that’s fine. We get our own every week. But friendly visits are more than OK. :slight_smile:

25

I enjoyed the Latin Mass after I learned to read. (That was the only kind back then!) I could follow along in my Missal–with colored ribbon bookmarkes so you could flip back & forth between the “regular” text & the stuff that changed. And I got very interested in the Latin language.

(By the way, Kyrie Eleison is Greek.)

26

[QUOTE=dangermom]
(On preview: hi Rhiannon! You’re doing LC too, aren’t you? We started it in January and are having fun, but going very slowly. I think your Latin parish and mine are cooperating somehow.)
[/QUOTE]

Yes, we are using LC, too. It’s one of my son’s favorite subjects…mine, too. He is really pleased with himself when he hears something in Latin during Mass and he understands it. One of our priests (Msgr. Walton) thinks it’s cool the Charlie is learning Latin and gives him little assignments like learning “Agnus Dei” and greets him in Latin. It’s very neat.

I had forgotton that we are in the same Diocese. Yes, I do believe, St. Stephens, our Latin parish is working with other parishes in the Diocese to bring more Latin options for Mass to the area.

27

Are we in the same Diocese?? I had no idea they were so large. (In my head, I equate them with our stakes, but our local stake only covers us and a couple of the tinier towns nearby–about 7-10 congregations is the usual. Maybe that’s a parish?)

I have really been surprised about the Latin; it’s our favorite subject too. When I started this, I was pretty skeptical about doing Latin, but I’ve converted! (Even though Mormons don’t have much use for the theological reasons for doing Latin–LDS people will always do Hebrew or Greek if they’re into learning a language for religious study. I’m hoping to do Greek too, but not for a year or so.)

28

Rather than the link above I’d suggest the following Text from the current Roman Cathlic Latin Mass. It is from a church here in Cincinnati. They have a choir that sings Gregorian Chants you can sing along if you like. I have found it quite nice.

29

[QUOTE=dangermom]
Are we in the same Diocese??
[/QUOTE]

Here is a great link to the Diocese of Sacramento. Click on “Parishes and Schools” to see how large it is.

30

Oh, it’s quite big! Thanks for the link. I’m learning a lot about Catholicism I didn’t know I was ignorant about…so, wait. You have two bishops sharing the responsibility for all that–what comes under a bishop? Do you have someone in-between the parish priest and the bishop, who manages a bunch of parishes?

31

Depends on if it’s a low mass or a high mass. If it’s a low mass (most likely if it’s being done on a weekday evening) 45 minutes is about right, depending on how rushed the priest serves it. If it’s a high mass (not unknown on weekdays, especially if it’s for some sort of special occasion) it’ll be about an hour and a half.

Be warned: if it is a low mass, you might be a little underwhelmed at first. The audible parts of the mass are often spoken quickly and quietly, and the canon (the entire eucharistic prayer) is said silently in the Tridentine usage, so if there are long stretches where you can’t hear anything at all, that is what is intended. I personally really like low masses, since I can use the silence to meditate on what is happening. If they ever serve a high mass, though, I’d recommend taking the kid to it – it’ll have chanting and incense and is generally more of a feast for the senses than a low mass is.

This link gives the text of the Novus Ordo mass, which is likely not what the OP will be going to. Any Novus Ordo mass can use Latin, but it currently requires special permission to say the Tridentine mass, so it’s a bigger deal when it happens. The differences between the two masses are profound.

32

Somewhere there are Catholic cathechism teachers weeping tears of joy over your precocious daughter.

If I could find this in some forgotten drawer of my parents’ home, I’d be glad to send your daughter my old St. Joseph Children’s Missal, with the Tridentine Mass, and other interesting odds and ends for kids.

To add to the pre-Vatican II versimilitude, you could get your daughter a lace veil to wear over her hair. Merciful and mighty! I feel like I’m back at my First Communion.
[QUOTE=dangermom]
You have two bishops sharing the responsibility for all that–what comes under a bishop? Do you have someone in-between the parish priest and the bishop, who manages a bunch of parishes?
[/QUOTE]
If a diocese has more than one bishop, the lower bishop is usually called an auxillary bishop. The diocese isn’t divided geographically for the auxillary bishop to administer some smaller part; he just helps the bishop with the overall administration.

33

[QUOTE=Walloon]
If a diocese has more than one bishop, the lower bishop is usually called an auxillary bishop. The diocese isn’t divided geographically for the auxillary bishop to administer some smaller part; he just helps the bishop with the overall administration.
[/QUOTE]

Bishop Weigand is the bishop of the Sacramento Diocese. Bishop Garcia is our Auxiliary Bishop, but he has just been named Bishop of the Monterey Diocese. I imagine Sacramento being one of the larger diocese will have another auxiliary bishop appointed.

I don’t think there is a formal office above parish priest, but below Aux. Bishop. One thing I do know is that some of the parish priests are Monsignors. Our parish priest is one. I know Msgr. Walton helps out in other parishes in the greater Sacramento area. He also does a lot of work for Bishop Weigand’s office.

34

[QUOTE=yBeayf]
This link gives the text of the Novus Ordo mass, which is likely not what the OP will be going to. Any Novus Ordo mass can use Latin, but it currently requires special permission to say the Tridentine mass, so it’s a bigger deal when it happens. The differences between the two masses are profound.
[/QUOTE]
Well said yBeayf. People often don’t realise that there’s a significant difference between a Novus Ordo mass in Latin and the pre-Vatican II Tridentine rite.

Re the missals with parallel text - these are quite freely available for purchase nowadays. Publishers have re-issed them in response to the increased demand from the growing number of people attending traditional Latin masses. The church that I attend (where only the 1962 missal is used) provides missals for those attending mass who don’t have their own.

35

Sadly, Walloon, no catechism teachers will ever get to weep over my kid. She’ll be baptized a Mormon next year, and will never get to wear a lace veil–though I’m sure she would want to if she saw the pictures. That missal is neat, though, and we will gladly take it if you want to send it. :stuck_out_tongue:

I checked the church, and it is a Tridentine Mass. And looking at Walloon’s website, there are about 10 different missals there! What? This is all way too confusing for me.

Those bishops must be very busy guys. Maybe it’s that all our guys are laymen with day jobs; they don’t do it full-time.

OK, I’m tired now and off to bed. The kid in question is not so smart that she didn’t try to climb into her top bunk the wrong way, and she fell and bonked her head and bled some. She’s fine–no stitches, not even a real cut–it’s more of an abrasion, like a really bad carpet burn or something. But we’re all worn out now. The 4-yo was so tanked up an adrenaline that she bounced and talked and giggled for an hour before conking out.

36

Well, if anyone cares to know, we went to the Mass today. There were missals just for the Latin service, which was good; I could barely figure out where we were even when I peeked at other people’s pages. That priest was fast. And there was a little choir, too, which was nice. We knew the last hymn and could sing along.

It was quite nice, and DangerGirl wants to go back sometime, and also to own a lace veil. There were quite a few women and girls wearing them. She was quiet the whole time, but sure had a lot of questions–it was all completely new to her. The person who discovered our non-Catholicity was surprisingly thrilled to see us, and introduced us to the priest, who was also very happy. So, a nice experience, and we’ll probably do it again sometime.

37

That’s lovely. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Yep, some priests are trying to set speed records. :smiley:

38

I’m glad you had a good experience. (Sorry, I kept glancing past the thread and missed some of the questions.)

[QUOTE=dangermom]
Tomndebb, what would the reason be for not having missals any more? Are you supposed to have it all memorized already?
[/QUOTE]
Well, the parts that the congregation actually speaks–about a half dozen prayers and several short responses to the priest–are actually pretty easily memorized, (actually, they just get absorbed through osmosis), and the concept is that during the parts where the congregation are not praying, they should be listening to and paying attention to the words and emphasis and delivery of the priest or reader rather than reading along as though they were alone with their book.
Trivia and significa:
There is no official level of hierarchy between the diocese and the parish. However, many diocese organize parishes into clusters, traditionally called vicariates or deaneries, but also called clusters or other ad hoc names selected by the diocese. A vicariate, with a vicar (not the same as an Episcopalian vicar) or a deanery with a dean as the coordinating priest, has no official independent authority in RCC organization and is generally intended to establish clusters of parishes that will help each other out by sharing resources. Ultimately, the responsibilities and authority come back to the diocesan bishop and the parish pastor. (The Sacramento diocese of the San Francisco archdiocese calls each of their clusters a deanery.)
Much of the bureaucracy to operate a diocese (personnel, finances, education, special programs, etc.) is handled by the chancery office which is staffed by a mix of priests and laity (with more and more laity handling many jobs as the number of priests continues to dwindle).

A diocese can be quite large, with one hundred to three hundred parishes of varying sizes. This means that in places like NYC and Chicago, there are multiple diocese in the same metropolitan area while in regions with few people, (or Catholics) they can extend over many square miles.

The Sacramento Diocese looks like this. (Contrast to the Cleveland Diocese that has far more Catholic European immigrants and far fewer mountain ranges.) St. John Baptist of Chico has this web site.

Monsignor is merely a title given to a priest in recognition of good service. A monsignor has no more authority than any other priest except as it represents some particular office within the diocese. (It used to be tradition, for example, for the rector (head guy) of a seminary to be named monsignor within his first year in that position.)

The closest to Chico Catholic book store that I found in Yahoo! Yellow Pages was
Easter’s Catholic Books & Gifts Inc.
5441 Palm Ave., Sacramento, CA 95841
(916) 338-7272