Friday, January 1, 2016

Another Latin Mass

St. Martha complex.

Today I attended another Latin Mass. This time I drove north to St. Martha' Church in Enfield, CT. I wanted to compare it with my recent experiences at St. Mary's Church for Christmas Midnight Mass and the following Sunday. Kind of odd that it has turned out to be Martha and Mary [Luke 10:38-42] so far. There are only a handful of churches within driving distance doing Latin Masses. There is another one in New Haven but it is at 2 p.m. St. Martha's Latin Mass was at 12 Noon.

Technically, January 1st is a Holy Day of Obligation for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. However, for the Latin Mass, the calendar they use celebrates  the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. All this is rather ironic for me since I am not a practicing Roman Catholic. But is stems from my heritage and experience as well as curiosity.

Interior of St. Martha's church (taken via cell phone camera after Mass).

Compared to St. Mary's Church, St. Martha's Church is incredibly ugly. It was apparently built in 1963 as the auditorium for the school that was built. And it looks like an auditorium. It is in somewhat ratty condition.  However, there was a surprisingly large number of people attending. My guess is several hundred were at this mass.

The atmosphere was one of a suburban RCism in the 1970s.  Even the altar boys had hair styles of that era. If there were any confessional booths, I did not see them. A fair amount of incense was used but it was not overpowering.

There was only one priest and four altar boys. No choir or organ. However there were three women singing by the organ (at the left side of the church). The one singer that I heard had a strong, confident and accurate voice that was attractive in its execution. I will have to go back for a Sunday Mass to see if there is a choir.


This time I initially had a difficult time following the order of the mass. However, the readings and homily were in English. I was delighted to find that the pews had copies of the First Edition of St Edmund Campion Missal & Hymnal. I first saw this book when it was published in 2013 and I am rather sorry I didn't purchase a copy. The First Edition is now out of print and the Second Edition eliminated the color cover and much of the color graphics. I was able to follow much of the Mass using this Missal. I also saw that they have the little red paper booklets for the Latin-English Mass. I glanced through one of these and it appeared to be a decent primer.

At the end of Mass, I was confused because a large number of people remained in the pews. I was waiting for something to happen but as I was writing this post, I learned that a basic practice for the Latin Mass is to remain after Mass for silent reflection and prayer.

I am contemplating returning on Sunday because they are advertising a social hour after mass. As I mentioned above, I am curious about what a typical Sunday Mass involves. Since I sang in a Motet Choir during my post-college days, I am curious about (re)learning to sing Latin chants. Perhaps this might be a goal for the new year.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)