My First Tridentine Mass
Today I attended my first Tridentine Mass! I drove a little distance to get to a small rural church that offers the Latin Tridentine Mass every Sunday at noon, and I was very happy to be there. It was quite different from the Novus Ordo Mass offered at my parish church, where we do not kneel (we sit in chairs, not pews), clap to contemporary Christian music, hold hands during the Our Father, and applaud the cantor following reception of the holy Eucharist (!). The atmosphere today was not so different, however, from a small Roman Catholic church I frequented before entering the Church (because it was close to where I was working at the time) where the Novus Ordo Mass was celebrated with reverent solemnity: silent prayer before mass, kneeling, and the singing of the Ave Maria at the conclusion of the celebration. I have missed going to mass at that little church. Since this was my first Latin Tridentine Mass, I do have some questions. Obviously, I expected the...