And herein lies the problem.
People are traveling 2 hours, outside of their parish to another parish to attend Mass on Sundays.
My old parish had a TLM as well, and the parishioners of that parish protested for it was attended mostly by people not of their parish and many of them were traveling from as far as sixty miles away. The attendance caused a disruption to the other scheduled Masses as the parishioners had no place to park. Also the noise down stairs in the hall of the church, interfered with the Mass that was being celebrated. As a result, they too had to move the TLM to 1 PM as it just caused too much disruption for the parish.
So the parish had to make certain accommodations in order to get everything to work... but they eventually
did get it to work.
What's the problem exactly?
Its the division Pope Benedict XVI caused by trying to compromise with SSPX members by allowing full use of the TLM, This was his main objective according to Cardinal Sean O'Malley who was part of the Pope's commission which dialoged with SSPX leaders. It backfired as SSPX couldn't get all of their demands. Its why St Pope John Paul II refused to allow its full use for he did not want a divided Church and as we've seen time and time again in these forums, its what has happened.
Division already existed as many people preferred the TLM and weren't happy about having it taken away. St. Paul vowed to become a vegetarian in all but name if seeing him eat meat would ruin another Christian's faith. Are TLM enthusiasts less worthy of consideration because they prefer the TLM? Should the Church give up efforts toward reconciliation with SSPX simply because they prefer the TLM?
I'm not defending SSPX. Their problems go far deeper than liturgy as you probably know. But if resuming the TLM in parishes which want it is all it takes to simplify discussions with SSPX, isn't that a small price to pay for visible, corporate unity?
For those who reject the Mass in the vernacular, keep in mind that not everyone has the intellectual skills to understand Latin. Heck, I'd say the majority of attendees at a TLM don't either and most have to continually cross-reference the Latin with the English in their missals and are just mimicking the Latin words. This is not conducive for true prayer.
That's unknown and unknowable. Even if it's a matter of simple preference rather than substantial difference, shouldn't we accommodate our brothers and sisters who simply want to offer their God the very best prayers and worship that they know how to offer?
To turn this thread in a hopefully more positive direction, here's what I enjoy about the TLM with the proviso that your actual mileage may vary.
-- Traditional Latin Mass Positive Points
* Humility. I don't speak Latin, which is actually helpful. The entire Mass is already a mystery. Even if it's conducted in vernacular language, we still don't
TRULY comprehend what's happening in the Mass. The Latin drives that home and the end result is a greater sense of humility. You get a fuller picture, first, of how unworthy you are and, second, just how much grace has been extended.
* Reverence. The above leads to a deeper reverence and sober-mindedness than you would have otherwise. It could just be how niche the TLM is but I don't see very much going-through-the-motions from parishioners at a TLM.
* Unity. There's a deeper sense of connection somehow in knowing that the TLM you're experiencing is more or less the same TLM that's being given in other parts of the world. And there's a universality to it to where vernacular matters less so if you're in a foreign country where they don't speak your language, you can still attend a TLM and you might miss out on the homily and whatnot but basically you're getting the same Mass as you would in your home parish.
-- Novus Ordo Positive Points
* Accessibility. They speak your language. 'Nuff said.
* Liturgy of the Word. Sort of related to the above but not really, I think it's important to be able to truly understand the readings. Yes, if you know ahead of time what the readings will be, you can bookmark them and then follow along as they're being read in Latin. But in daily TLM, the readings aren't repeated in vernacular so pretty much you're out of luck if you're not sure what the readings are or didn't bookmark them. That's a virtual non-issue with NO. I would see this universally applied to the TLM given my druthers.
* Precious Blood. I'm sure there's a reason why it isn't received in the TLM but I rather like receiving it anyway. My liturgical worship was formed by Anglicans, and there you receive the body and the blood. Not to second guess anybody but I'd prefer to receive the precious blood at the TLM as well.
* Responses. TLM has responses but there's a deeper sense of connection to do the responses in vernacular. Plus there tends to be a wider variety of responses (beyond "and with your spirit", I mean) in NO by virtue of the fact that it's vernacular and the parishioners are able to speak more of their own language (probably) than they can in Latin.
Are we all friendly again now?
