Thankful Thursday ~ The Latin Mass

Jenny at Just a Minute reminds me...

*UPDATE* O! You must see Kimberly's post copied here below.





There was once a young boy who grew up with a beautiful young girl. They knew each other their whole lives. He knew everything about her and one day, took her for his bride. They lived in great happiness for many years, loving one another faithfully. Tragedy strikes. One day, with little warning, he’s told that his bride has been killed, while traveling abroad. He’s never allowed to recover her body, but mourns, and as people do, eventually moves on.
He meets another young woman. She is lovely, not much like the first wife, though there are a few similarities, yet he loves her for herself. He is faithful to her, although from time to time, he remembers his first love, with a wistful longing.


Forty years go by.

One day he receives a call…there was a mistake. His first wife is not dead! She had been held captive, kept in darkness and only let out infrequently, but has been set free and will be restored to him. Joy…confusion…a conundrum…

To whom does he owe his allegiance, his fidelity? To the first bride, the holder of his past, his youth, his memories and his first love? Or to the second…she who sustained him throughout his grief, giving him comfort and solace in his latter years? He loves them both…

The analogy:

The young man: the priesthood, our holy priests

The first bride: The Traditional Latin Mass or Extraordinary Form of the One Roman Rite

The second bride: The Novus Ordo or Ordinary Form of the One Roman Rite

It is a conundrum, isn’t it? The original bride isn’t dead…beautiful, resplendent and majestic, she lives and she holds the memories and traditions of the ages. The second bride has provided comfort and solace for the past forty years and was never meant as a replacement for the first, and her bridegroom has loved her for herself.

This is the struggle that so many of our good priests are experiencing, particularly those with their own memories of the “first bride.” To be told she is gone, to mourn and then find her again! To have our Holy Father release her, restoring her dignity as a true bride…is there any wonder that our priests, young and old, are returning to their first love?

I try to imagine that I’m the first bride…I’d like to think my husband would owe his allegiance, his fidelity…
…to me!

Click on my top LATIN MASS tab for more.

6 comments:

Marianne said...

Thank you for this. I really long for a Latin Mass!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful videos, +JMJ+!

Thanks for the link...it is a lovely analogy, isn't it? My fifteen year old was very taken by it...I praise God that this holy priest was his retreat master.

BTW...this priest? He had no attachment whatsoever to the TLM until he spent last summer with our parish priest. Now he wants to offer it exclusively and is running into much opposition in even offering it occasionally. Keep him in prayer!

Christine said...

We are blessed to have the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in our Archdiocese. Thank you for sharing all of these resources.

Laura The Crazy Mama said...

Whoa. I tried to imagine being the second bride. I think if I had signed on to that, I would have known that there was a possibility that I would ALWAYS be second and that if the first bride came back (somehow), that she was the original and best. Wowie.

Tina Marie said...

Thank you for this and all your references to the Latin Mass. As you might know, I have been following your blog for a while now. All my life, I have gone to the Novus Ordo Mass. Other than the odd reference from my Godmother to the veiling they used to do, I had no idea that the Mass had ever been so different. We have friends in our homeschool group who attend the Latin Mass. I became curious, but could never convince my husband that we should go. The Mass is long and during lunch and we have three kids to keep still. After praying and discerning for a long time, I mentioned to my husband this past Saturday my wish to go to the Latin Mass. Well, to make a long story short... we attended our first Latin Mass on Sunday and no one was hungry, the kids were attentive and amazingly well behaved and the whole family wants to go again. My oldest is also expressed his wish to become an alter server (he serves at the Novus Ordo Mass we usually attend). I think we have found our new home.

Thank you very much for the videos and the explanations. I used those to help my family prepare for the Latin Mass. They knew what to expect and there were no surprises.

God Bless you and your family.

Allison said...

Tina, I am so moved by what you wrote.

It doesn't happen that immediately for every family, although I do know of families who have had that grace, like you.

My little children also were so behaved and quiet at the Latin Mass that my husband remarked to me that they must just sense that something big is going on. :)

They respond to the silence with silence, for the most part. Still today they fidget and will make noises during a Novus Ordo that theyw ill not make at a Latin Mass. I find that fascinating and illuminating.

God bless you, Tina and thank you for sharing your story here.

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