The Holy Spirit (formerly known as "Ghost") Knows What He's Doing

About a month or two ago, I was rummaging around my apartment in search for my original "St. Joseph's Missal" from when I was a kid. It was a pre-Vatican II publication, and I was hoping to follow along using it at my church, which was going to celebrate a Latin, aka Tridentine Mass. I couldn't find it, and I forgot about going the night of the Mass. I hoped that another would occur one day soon. In the meantime, I was at Mr. Anonymous' of the Deluxe Barbara Judith Apartments apartment, and out of what seemed left field, he handed me my 1961 missal. Some time in the dim dark past I had loaned it to him, chock full of the old Latin rite and the little funeral cards of loved ones, for a story he was writing. Another thing I had forgotten. I perused it before going to bed, and read over the order of the Mass as it was done up till I was about 11 years old. And hankered for the good ole days.

About a week ago, another opportunity to attend such a Mass was announced. And tonight, I was there. It was an uncharacteristically packed house, the likes of which I don't see except at Christmas or Easter Sunday. The crowd was overwhelmingly younger and largely members of the entertainment community--a media group being among the sponsors for the "event". Perhaps that was the most enheartening thing about the evening, that althought it may often appear that religion has been cast onto the garbage heap in favor of an overwhelming humanism and positivism, even an anti-sectarian boom, quietly He is working his Divine power on the hearts and minds of the next generation.

Except for maybe ten people, I did not recognize most of the attendees.

There was a kind of program, with the Latin prayers followed by translation in English. I really wanted to follow along with my old missal, hoping that instead of my vague memory of Sundays at Christ the King services, I'd access the past in full mental color. This was the high/solemn Mass celebrated tonight, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and even as a child I attended few if any of those.

There was chant. The priests, there were several, sang the prayers. I had forgotten, if I ever remembered, how little the people participated, in addition to having the backs of the priests to them, rather than what we have become used to for some 40 plus years. What I have become used to. We were more spectators of the ritual than participants in it. Was that how it had been? I wanted to say the prayers, even in Latin, rather than only to hear them intoned. I did not remember that, as one of the Norbertine priests who did a little preface of what we would see and hear, said, that the consecration was done in near total silence, except for the bells. And with his back still to us, I could not see the Host very well as it was raised becoming Him, really and truly present.

I was truly amazed that not one of the people who went to rail, including me, to receive Communion put out our hands in the modern way. We all received Him on the tongue. I forgot my "Amen" while I worried that having not receive in that way for so long, I would cause the priest to miss. Shades of the old days indeed.

Ninety minutes later, it was over and I was surprised by my mixed feelings. Perhaps it was that even the youngish priests (except for one) were themselves not particularly comfortable with the old rite and their discomfort radiated to us, to me. But mostly I thought, the things that had changed from former days, most of them, had been changes which brought, at least me, closer to what was happening on the altar, and really, closer to God. If I ever were, I would not be among the ones who would say, "Bring back the Latin rite Mass." I do think there is a place for it, not as a relic, but as a progenitor and a reminder of the amazing continuity of our faith that draws all generations. As what went before and merges into what is today and what brings us to that Sacred Heart. And really, except for the Latin and making it more accessible to the people in the pews who are part of the Church Militant, it IS the same now as it ever was. When I went to look for the readings for today in the Missal, they were what was printed on the program. Things really had not changed. Certainly not the Essence. We used to call Him, in the Third Person, "The Holy Ghost", and now we say, "The Holy Spirit". Somehow the Spirit sounds friendlier than the Ghost, and I guess I like that, but whatever we call Him, He is the same always and everywhere, and He knows what He is doing. And the changes He inspired, they were and are and always will be Good.

Dominus vobiscum. The Lord be with you.