Clare Hudson - Church Visit #2 (Tridentine Mass)

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church

36 N Ellsworth St, Naperville, IL 60540

April 17, 2016

1. I go to an Anglican Church, and the loose structure of this service and mine were very similar.  First the priests processed down the aisle with the crucifix, then there was plenty of song, the head priest gave a little sermon, collection was taken, communion was performed, and then after a time of call and response we were dismissed.  The aspects that differed were the long list of priestly duties to be performed, traditions, and the fact that the service was in Latin and almost impossible to follow.  The priest had essentially a set choreography of motions to make during the whole service.  I had an Latin/English Traditional Mass booklet that showed a play by play of what the priest was doing, and at a couple points it even described the silent prayer that the priest had to pray.  The music of the Latin Church is not songs but words chanted almost constantly.  A few traditions that I noticed were the shaking/blessing of holy water by the priest on the congregation after the procession and great care of the table of the Eucharist (incense was shaken over the sacraments and the priest even kissed it at one point).  
2. The most prominent feature that I noticed theology wise was the attention paid to communion.  The entire structure of the service revolved around it.  After the Priest went through the motions of sanctifying himself and the congregation, he had to begin preparing the sacraments for communion, then he gave a short little speech and continued blessing the sacraments.  At least half of service was devoted to communion and post-communion as described in my booklet.  It was very clear that the Catholics view communion as more sacred than Protestants, that they view it as the actual body of Christ once it has been blessed.  Many members of the congregation appeared in the service a little before they were allowed to take communion, as if they came to get their weekly Jesus pill that will sanctify them until next week.  Also the fact that it was in Latin and not vernacular shows that the church has a high language.  All the attention payed to tradition from bowing at the pews before entering to the chanting contrasted to the five minute passage reading and words of wisdom in english was so unlike Protestantism that it could only be the tradition loving Catholics.
3. As I could not understand what was being said for the majority of the service, I did not feel as though anything was illuminated for me by words of speech.  I did feel a great respect for the early church and tradition, especially when the Nicene Creed was in the program, but to be honest I felt very un-illuminated in both scripture and theology.  I could not understand the scripture being read, and the one time that english was used it was spoken quickly and the sermon had as much value placed on it tonally as did the scripture.  While I did find the chanting and bowing at the pews to be both very respectful and demonstrative of a theology of the sacredness of scripture, words, and the church, I felt tension.  This respect is beautiful and had the potential to make me feel enlightened except for the fact that it almost felt as though these things were done half-heartedly.