Why do we seem to have more Latin at Mass?  I thought the Vatican council changed all that.

Please forgive me, but I need you to respond ASAP, in plain old English.

May Aqulpa

Show me where the council documents told us to dump Latin and I’ll give you a shiny new quarter.  In fact, Latin was supposed to be retained.  Well, that horse is pretty much out of the barn.

Don’t worry we not going to dump the vernacular quite yet, but asking why we have Latin at Mass is like asking why we have all that Greek or Hebrew. 

What Greek and Hebrew? 

Yep. Greek and Hebrew Liturgy, Eucharist, deacon, baptism and more are all Greek words, and more to the point, Amen and Alleluia are Hebrew words that mean respectively “It is true”  and “Praise God!” 

The bishops and the Holy Father want us to be able to do simple parts of the Mass in Latin to express our unity with the church throughout time and space.  The problem comes when we have Latin that we don’t understand an in which we can’t participate.  St. Paul says that he will pray with the spirit and the mind.  That is about right. 

We need to do more participating in English first, I suspect. 

We've got our work cut out for us.

Rev. Know-It-All