2018-09-02 Cincinnati
Latin in Church
I hope entitling my last blog “Pater Noster” didn’t turn anyone off. I don’t mean to be pretentious. “Pater Noster” conjures for me my mother’s catholic respect for historic liturgy. She’s the daughter of an Episcopal priest, high church, if you please. High church, or “Anglo-Catholic,” refers to Episcopalians who retain elements of the Roman Catholic tradition such as using Latin in church, certainly celebrating Communion at (almost) every service, genuflection, crossing yourself, incense, etc.
Those rituals reflect a relationship with the divine leaning on respect/ awe/ possibly fear. A representative hymn would be “Holy, holy, holy.”
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee;
holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert and art and evermore shalt be.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in power, in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea;
holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Contrast this theology to the low church paradigm where (simplistically), you walk arm-in-arm with Jesus. Jesus is your friend. A typical hymn is “In the Garden.”
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
(Chorus)
And He walks with me,
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing.
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Chorus
I’d stay in the garden with Him,
‘Tho the night around me be falling.
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
Chorus
Weekly mass in Roman Catholic churches was usually held in Latin until ~ 1968 after the decision-makers at “Vatican II” decided the average Joe or Jane should understand what was going on during church. My grandfather Stuart held a belief similar to the Catholics that he, as a priest, connected with God on behalf of his congregation. In fact, his major role as “father,” was to serve us lay people as our intercessor.
As a child, my mother once complained to her father after church, “Daddy, I can’t understand what you’re saying when you’re praying.”
Grandpa Stuart answered, “I’m not talking to you.”
VicWulsin 