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The Latin Mass is the patrimony of the Western Church; much of it reaches back all the way to the apostolic era. There are two major forms of the Mass: Low Mass and High Mass. The Low Mass embraces silence, providing opportunity for quiet prayer. It usually lasts about thirty-five minutes unless there is a sermon. The High Mass is more elevated in its rituals, demanding more servers and time. A choir assists the sacred liturgy, adorning it with Gregorian chant and polyphony. It lasts a little over an hour, though it will usually include a sermon.
If you have never experienced a Latin Mass before, we recommend a High Mass for your first visit. On the way in, booklets called missalettes are available in the vestibule, next to the parish bulletins. These have the prayers of the Mass in Latin and English, with explanations in the margins, to assist you in following along with the prayers of the priest and servers at the altar. Once you are more comfortable with the more common prayers of the Mass, it is worthwhile to invest in a full Missal, which includes all of the proper prayers for every Mass of the year. These look like Bibles and you will see many parishioners using them during Mass.
Don’t be intimidated! Almost everyone at our parish was new to the Latin Mass at some point, most of them quite recently. Parishioners are very happy to assist visitors in navigating the Missalette or answering questions. In the meantime, simply follow the postures of those around you, standing, sitting, and kneeling. If you are well disposed to receive Holy Communion (i.e. a practicing Catholic in a state of grace), you may approach the altar rail alongside our parishioners to receive. At the Latin Mass, Holy Communion is always administered on the tongue, usually with the recipient kneeling. However, if you are unable to kneel for health reasons, you may remain standing. If you have never received on the tongue before, it is very simple: just open the mouth slightly, extend the tongue to the lower lip, and – this is very helpful – close your eyes. The priest will take care of the rest.
The custom of a sacred language is very ancient, going back even to Biblical times. For example, at the time of the Incarnation, the people generally spoke Aramaic in daily life, but the prayers at the Temple were strictly kept in Hebrew.
The advantages of a consistent language reserved for sacred worship are many. In the first place, it immediately removes one from mundane life. Everything in the sacred liturgy should signify the transcendence of the mysteries that the liturgy communicates to us, such that even a little child can immediately understand that something different is taking place. Second, the use of a consistent language provides a vehicle for the musical patrimony of the Church. Finally, the universality of the Church is made manifest by a common language. When you pray at the Latin Mass, you are often engaged in the very same prayers experienced by the saints of all the ages, whether it be a St. Augustine, a St. Francis, a St. Thomas More, or a Thérèse of Lisieux. This unity of prayer is not simply temporal, it embraces differences of culture and geography, as well. Even Catholics who do not share a common language can pray together at the same, familiar Mass.
The overwhelming majority of the prayers of the Holy Mass are consistent from day to day. These comprise what is called the ordinary of the Mass. Elements such as the Kyrie, the Gloria, and the Sanctus, quickly become familiar. Over time, all of the ordinary prayers become accessible, even without reference to a Missal. It is common to see experienced parishioners using the Missal only for the propers of any particular Mass: i.e., the antiphons, proper prayers (there are three of them), and the Epistle and Gospel. On Sundays, the Epistle and Gospel are also typically proclaimed in English from the pulpit, immediately before the sermon.
At the Mass, the priest is leading the people in prayer. He is not so much facing away from the people as he is directed in the same direction as them. He no more has his back to them than the faithful praying in the pews closer to the altar.
The priest offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is acting in persona Christi (in the person of Christ). To this end, every effort is taken to minimize the individual personality of the priest, so that nothing distracts from the spiritual reality of the Mass, otherwise invisible to us. It is Jesus Christ that offers the sacrifice, making present to us in the Mass his one, saving sacrifice on the Cross, inviting us across temporal boundaries to join his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John, St. Mary Magdalene, and the other pious and faithful women at the foot of the Cross.
The silence of the Mass places a sacred veil over some of its most transcendent moments. This veil is mirrored in the Eastern traditions, by the use of an iconostasis, a wall adorned with icons of the saints, with doors that are closed during the prayers that immediately surround the consecration of the Holy Eucharist.
It is a normal part of the human experience to respond to the awe-inspiring with silence. Although words are uttered during the most sacred prayers of the Holy Mass, the silence that cloaks them reminds us that all human expression is inadequate when it comes to giving God his due in adoration and gratitude.
If you are well disposed to receive Holy Communion (i.e. a practicing Catholic in a state of grace), you may approach the altar rail alongside our parishioners to receive. At the Latin Mass, Holy Communion is always administered on the tongue, usually with the recipient kneeling. However, if you are unable to kneel for health reasons, you may remain standing. If you have never received on the tongue before, it is very simple: just open the mouth slightly, extend the tongue to the lower lip, and – this is very helpful – close your eyes. The priest will take care of the rest.
Holy Communion is traditionally administered on the tongue for several reasons. In the first place, this method guards against the loss of fragments of the Holy Eucharist. Tertullian (in the early third century) gives us a window into early Christian practice in this regard: “You are accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries, so you know how, when you have received the Body of the Lord, you reverently exercise every care lest a particle of it fall, and lest anything of the consecrated gift perish.” St. Ephrem of Syria (in the fourth century) adds: “One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it.” This care is exercised not only in the reception of Holy Communion on the tongue, but by the safeguard of the communion paten that is held under the communicant’s chin.
Furthermore, even the priest does not place the host onto the palm of his hand. During Holy Mass, he takes up the consecrated host only by the forefinger and thumb. From the moment of the consecration until the ablutions, he takes care to hold the tips of his forefingers and thumbs together, parting them only in those places where he takes up the Holy Eucharist between them. Traditional chalices and ciboria are designed with a node in the stem to facilitate holding them in the hand while keeping the forefinger and thumb together. All of this is to secure fragments of the Holy Eucharist from falling to the altar or floor.
Finally, and most importantly, the reception of Holy Communion on the tongue is most fitting as its places us in a mode of receptivity. We are not angels – we are composite creatures of body and soul. The body is not irrelevant in sacred worship; its posture and activity conduces to forming proper and true dispositions in the soul. This is why it is generally easier to pray in a beautiful, quiet church than it is on a busy subway or place of business. Likewise, it is easier and more conducive to pray kneeling or standing than it might be lying down. It doesn’t mean that it is impossible to pray in less than ideal circumstances, or that we ought not try to keep ourselves in the presence of God in the midst of them. But in the context of the sacred liturgy we ought to leverage external realities to the greatest possible degree to make everything conducive to prayer and right relationship with God.
When it comes to the Sacraments, we receive grace from Our Lord. Therefore, we do not pour water over ourselves at our Baptism; we do not sign ourselves with Holy Chrism at our Confirmation; we do not pronounce the words of absolution over ourselves; and so on. In a similar manner, it is most fitting that we do not take the host and communicate it to ourselves.
Everyone should take care to dress modestly, and most especially when approaching the sacred mysteries. For Holy Mass, we encourage men to wear collared shirts and slacks, and women to wear long, flowing (i.e. not clinging) skirts and a modest top that covers the shoulders.
The custom of women veiling in the Church is a two thousand year tradition going all the way back to the apostolic era (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:2-16). Tragically, the custom has been all but lost in the modern era. As late as 1969, the Vatican still insisted on the veiling of women in the Church; but when the 1983 Code of Canon Law was promulgated, the canon requiring the veil was discovered to have been removed. While acknowledging that the veil is no longer required by ecclesiastical law, we still very much encourage its use by women in the parish.
A particularly feminine and spousal symbol, the veil has its origin in the culture of the Old Testament Jews and other ancient peoples. It was the wedding ring of their time, indicating a wife’s loving union with her husband. We see this in Genesis 24, wherein Rebekah first sees from afar her espoused husband: And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there were camels coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel, and said to the servant, “Who is the man yonder, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.
As Catholics we know that marriage is a sacramental sign of the union between Christ and His Mystical Bride, the Church. “This is a great mystery,” writes St. Paul, “and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church” (cf. Ephesians 5). The veil, as a sign of matrimony, is a feminine mark of the union between Christ and the soul, between Christ and the Church. This was put very well in an anonymous sermon found online: “It’s a very great mystery. Like Our Lady, every Catholic woman, as a woman, is a living icon of the Church. So when she veils herself here, in the presence of Our Lord, it’s a visible reminder for all of the spousal relationship – the bridal relationship – between the Church and Christ.”
In addition to the spousal significance attached to the veil, it also indicates something sacred and set apart. True religion has always had the practice of veiling what is holy. In the Old Covenant, notable examples include the tabernacle of the ark and the radiant face of Moses. In the New, the consecrated Hosts are veiled in their ciboria, the tabernacle is veiled under silk, the altar is veiled under linen, the chalice is veiled until the moment of Consecration, the priest is veiled under his chasuble. Often the Missal, the sedilia, and the altar rail are veiled. In more ancient times, a great curtain was drawn before the sanctuary from the Sanctus until the Communion, veiling the Holy Sacrifice; this veil still exists in Eastern practice, in the great iconostasis. In addition to all of these, the Church has the custom of veiling women, an acknowledgment of the female body as the locus of new life, the first home of souls precious to Our Lord, for whom he became incarnate and shed his blood.
Finally, the veil is a protection of many virtues. “If a woman nourish her hair,” St. Paul writes, “it is a glory to her” (1 Corinthians 11:15). The veil is the voluntary covering of feminine beauty, an act of humility and reverence in the presence of the beauty of God. Like the strict rubrics which bind the priest, and the subdued ceremonials of the clergy in the sanctuary, the veil helps draw the attention of all away from anything that might distract us from the great mystery renewed on our altar.
Elizabeth Black and Emily Sparks, writing on the veil, share the following reflection with us: [Christ] calls her to become one with Him: to come under His side and become flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. This occurs during reception of Eucharist. The covering of the head with a veil symbolizes the reality of woman sheltered in the side of her Source and becoming one with Him. She becomes covered and hidden in her Divine Spouse.
The priests of the parish are obliged to the prayers of the Divine Office in their daily lives. Often, they do so in common from the sanctuary of the church. If you are present at these times, you can follow along with a breviary, or, lacking that, the prayers are available in Latin and English at the website divinumofficium.com.
For our full schedule of the Divine Office, click here. Do take note that, while the priests make every effort to meet the normal schedule, absences or duties (such as sacramental emergencies) may impede them from time to time.
To register, simply visit our office or bookstore and fill out a short registration form. You will be added to our parishioner database, mailing list, and given the option of donation envelopes. As we are a personal parish (as opposed to territorial), it is fine to maintain registration with another parish in the Diocese.
Every Sunday, parishioners provide hospitality in the picnic area throughout the day. After the early Masses, coffee and donuts are provided in Classroom 1. Later, either a barbeque (in the picnic area itself) or a potluck (in Classroom 1) is available depending on the weather. We encourage you to visit with fellow parishioners and introduce yourself.
We also host a wide variety of parish societies and events. Our full annual rotation of events can be viewed here.
By far one of the most effective means of meeting other parishioners is to work alongside them. We have a number of volunteer opportunities that provide for the support of parish societies and events, as well as particular projects aimed at the maintenance or improvement of our campus. The priests use a Signal group to coordinate volunteers. If you would like to join, please inquire at the bookstore or office, or consult the bulletin. Otherwise, keep an eye on the bulletin and upcoming events for various opportunities to volunteer.
The priests of the parish are available to meet by appointment. The best way to reach out is by e-mail. You can find the priests’ e-mail addresses in the parish bulletin. Otherwise, feel free to reach out to our office.
We do experience large crowds on Sunday, and the Mass schedule is designed to afford as many people as possible with the opportunity to meet their Sunday obligation. While space in our parking lot is limited, there is availability for streetside parking along 44th Street and 28th Avenue. Just past the church, Soledad Avenue also provides a bit of a quieter place to park that is still within easy walking distance.
Fathers are encouraged to drop off their families, either at the 28th Avenue vestibule entrance or from the parking lot, before parking further away. This allows the elderly and single women to take advantage of the parking lot. The priests are very grateful to husbands and fathers that generously make this sacrifice every Sunday.
