By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
On the day of the March for Life in Washington this year, I arrived early for offering the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at a church in the city that serves as a home for those who prefer it. A priest was in the act of offering the Mass of Vatican II, so I entered into the prayer with the others present. A man and woman were supporting the music by means of guitar, and the celebrant was a middle-aged cleric from the staff of a northeast seminary. Those he led in prayer, clustered closely to the altar, were uniformly white-haired retirees. Others scattered throughout the church appeared to have wandered in on their own or with smaller groups. I took a seat near the back and between a group of cassock-clad seminarians, also participating in the worship, and the venerable elders.
Later, after the Mass and as I prepared myself to offer the TLM, the pastor remarked that he could not remember the last time that there was guitar music in the church, it was so many years ago. In a way, it is a testimony to the strength and variety of the pro-life movement that so many different tastes were present and worshipping in the churches of the city in morning preparation for the March for Life.
What was unusual about the Mass, however, was the length to which the priest went to try and insert more reverence and care into the modern rites, going even beyond what is set down in the rubrics or what falls into the general style of celebration. His elevations were so lengthy that they threatened to bleed into eucharistic adoration and his moment of silence after Communion so prolonged that it strongly resembled personal meditation. The woman singing the accompaniment to the guitar felt so uncertain as to what was happening as the priest sat with eyes closed that she was seen to glance back and forth at him several times, before reacting with relief when he rose to offer the post-Communion prayer.
And that makes the point clear: His well-meaning attempt to insert a lengthy Traditional Latin Mass sort of silence into the modern rite came off as clunky and served to draw attention largely only to itself, and to him.
It is true that those who apply the sacred rites in seminary atmospheres can take on certain affectations. Seminarians are known to marvel at how slow a particular priest’s elevations are and to judge personal holiness by such means. It is hard for any priest to resist such blandishments. It seems at times that there is in fact a competition among priests to insert such slow-motion affectations into Mass in order to win a kind of “Super Cup” trophy for the most pious Mass of all.
The fact remains, however, that the Church already has a rite for eucharistic adoration and does not intend for the Mass to substitute for it. Personal meditation time is required for priests apart from their role of service to the people in the pews. There is a proper length of time for the periods of silence mandated by the rubrics within the modern Mass, which follow the homily and Communion, and these in no way resemble the priests’ personal daily holy hour, an obligation applied entirely apart from the community Mass.
The affectations of the priest — although certainly not scandalous, as has been so often the case with the Mass fielded as part of the Vatican II package — point to a spiritual predicament yet to be resolved for the many who remain attached to this symbol of Vatican II. How do we bridge the generational gap between the guitar-plucking and gray-haired lobby attached to the Mass in English and the growing and more youthful element in the Church devoted to the Mass that can be offered largely only in Latin, the “Traditional Latin Mass”? Is the Church being broken into two irreconcilable spiritualities that will always worship only apart from each other?
The many young people attending my first Mass and the two large home-schooling families from Connecticut that requested I accommodate them by offering a second Traditional Mass that day are certainly open to the largely silent Traditional Mass, and are not put off by its abundant use of Latin. In fact, many prefer the ancient tongue of the Church and their ranks promise to continue growing. Parishes that do not serve their needs will lose their active support and participation. Two boys from the Connecticut families assisted me by very ably serving the Traditional Mass, with a polished capacity for the Latin prayers. They represent the most promising pool for priestly vocations in the coming years.
The seminarians from New York remained for the Traditional Latin Mass. They are thus open to it in a way that the guitar-Mass crowd would never attempt to be, and whom the very pious priest attempted to bring into a more traditional way of prayer than perhaps they are accustomed to by his extended elevations and period of silence after Communion. Many are so habituated to conversation in church before and after Mass that they have unwittingly lost the capacity to speak the very eloquent and beautiful language of silence so necessary for entering into the tabernacle of the soul where it is necessary to encounter and love God.
I write to you while participating in a silent retreat with brother priests. By submitting for nearly a week to the discipline of silence outside of Mass and retreat conferences, I have experienced once again its power to bring one close to God and enable prayer and reflection. The language of silence is as necessary for communication with God as is speech for communion with our earthly neighbors.
May all of the faithful discover once again that silence enables the gift of entering into the awe-inspiring presence of our all-loving God. No matter what the form, whether through the Mass that can be offered entirely in English or the Mass that requires much Latin, may the Lord grant His people the peace that comes with the certainty of knowing and loving Him in the silence of our hearts.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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(Follow Fr. Cusick on Facebook at Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick and on Twitter @MCITLFrAphorism. Father blogs occasionally at mcitl.blogspot.com and APriestLife.blogspot.com. You can email him at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.)
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