Comments on: Why we attend the Traditional Latin Mass

By: mama5boys

mama5boys — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:57:08 +0000

How do we respond to Gloria personally?

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:16:59 +0000

Dearest Maria:

I’m sending you a private email to address some of your concerns and doubts regarding the Catholic Church. I believe God has lead you here, to dispel your fears and to help you re-unite with the faith of your ancestors. I send the email sometime this afternoon…

Dearest Friends: Please feel free to share any information you may have regarding Mormonism and the contrast with Catholicism.

By: María

María — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:40:34 +0000

Hi Kimberly,
I don’t have any idea how I found this blog, but maybe the reason is I’m having doubts about catholic church. First at all, sorry for my english, I speak spanish, so if I write something wrong please excuseme.
My doubts began when I found the mormons missionaries in my country, since 5 years ago. I’m still catholic but I divided between mormons beliefs and catholics as well. My family is catholic but don’t go to church, so I feel very lonely in my way. I need an spiritual life, and when a pray with mormons sisters and elders I felt something great the same as when I prayed to María Virgen.
On the ohter hand, reading mormons blogs I watched they have a great family life, here in my country the only thing a woman can do in catholic church is only attend misa, and sometimes is very boring. I’m telling this like a woman that maybe needs a new perspective about someone like you that have a strong faith. What do you think about lds churchs?, why they said they have the prophet?, I asked you this because i think you live in US, and maybe you have more information about that.
Thanks a million for reading this message,
Blessings
María

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:49:45 +0000

Dearest Gloria:

I’ve emailed you a private response, as my commentary would be far too lengthy for this forum!

Friends:

Please feel free to share with Gloria any of your own personal observations regarding the efficacy of the Traditional Latin Mass and/or the historicity and Biblical roots of Catholicism in general. Remember…Charity, always!

By: gloria

gloria — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:00:48 +0000

Hello – I fell upon your blog from another blog. I was raised in a traditional roman catholic home ~ was raised in parish schools, and my dear grandma had studied to be a nun.
With that said – the Roman Catholic faith did not fill the void that only Jesus Could fill…. I was not taught the bible, yes chatechism, but not the word of God….. as found in the HOly Bible……..
I chose to leave the catholic faith and embrace the Lord Jesus as the way the truth & the life…….
I am puzzled friend if you were raised in Christianity how you could turn to the Catholic church for answers? I ask in all sincerity, and not meant to offend at all.
I just can’t believe anyone who had come to the Lord would wish to be a Catholic. I have been to Latin Mass many times, as always I leave empty and void. There is nothing that compares to a personal relationship with the Lord.
I have been reading the history of the Christian Church and I am agahst at the awful otracities committed by Popes and the Catholic Church thru the centuries. They added to God’s word and implemented doctrines that Christ never taught.
By the way, I love my catholic family! My parents remain steeped in tradition and all my sibs are very active in their Parishes.
I would love to know did you have a strong foundation in the Bible as a young adult? I have found most catholics do not know their bibles very well.
I guess I am puzzled why a bible believing, Jesus loving Christian could find fulfillment there.
There are so many doctrines that are simply not biblical.
I guess I am confused as to why?
Again, I mean no offense but sincerely am puzzled.
Writing from the perspective of having been a Catholic for 21 yrs of my life and having studied in detail it’s history and doctrines.
Sincere Regards,
gloria

By: Kitty

Kitty — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:12:10 +0000

I’m so glad that you shared this with others. I might also suggest to anyone that is having similar dissatisfaction with the n.o. may enjoy the eastern rite liturgy as well.

By: Nadja

Nadja — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:11:14 +0000

Thank you for posting this wonderful article. I had similar experiences with RCIA and a modern parish when I first came into the Church. I had never attended a mass at all before I began RCIA, and had unknowingly fallen in love with the old rite through my reading and my love of history. When I finally did assist at my first mass, I went home and wept on my bed for half an hour…

I spent years praying for a TLM within driving distance, and am happy that we finally have one within an hour’s drive.

By: Friday evening « Stony Creek Digest

Friday evening « Stony Creek Digest — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:22:54 +0000

[...] blogmistress at Catholic Family Vignettes has written a marvelous post about her conversion – to Catholicism, and to the Traditional Latin Mass. An excerpt: [...]

By: Renee

Renee — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:24:24 +0000

Bless you, this is such a great writing! We too attend a traditional Latin mass with all its glory and majesty reigning, quite a drive away as well. We began to attend some nine years ago, though some of our older children never came with us and have difficulty understanding the difference of both rites. They adore the reverence, yet it is not what they grew up to know. Patience is a virtue, we are being patient. Meanwhile, they do grow, marry, have babies and members of the family require utmost respect to prevent any conflict to arise between the differences.

Truly, we yearn for a parish community closer by, but that is just not going to happen. We love and embrace this rite, and the tide really is turning. We see so many young families flocking to find their traditional mass like you, so many babies too. Just imagine all these small children in twenty years from now!

One thing I would like to add is the beauty and wonder of hearing a young child humming parts of the mass sung in Latin, and the peace a soul engulfs just attending such a mass.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:03:53 +0000

Dear friends (old and new!)

Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging comments. It’s truly heartwarming to read so many stories of conversion. It’s also a bit heartbreaking to realize that so many are still struggling to hold onto faith in parishes where there are still so many liturgical abuses. The tide is turning…patience is required. Our Holy Father is ever diligent in his duties. God bless you all!

Rhonda: The CCD program at Holy Family is only taught by those loyal to the Magesterium of the Church. I believe all of our teachers currently attend the Latin Mass (though that is certainly not a requirement for obedience!). My children don’t currently attend, only because the class is held after the later Mass, not to mention that fact that I teach religion every day while homeschooling. Father is incredibly supportive of home education and allows parents to decide when their children are ready for the sacraments. He simply interviews the children to make sure of their understanding…just as any good shepherd would do. We are not required to participate in “group” sacraments. Our baptisms are scheduled when we want them (and Father’s schedule allows!) as are First Holy Communion and First Confession. I’m not sure what is going on with Confirmation right now. We’re working on having the traditional Latin Rite and want the Bishop to administer it. I’m not sure whether that will happen. If it does, it would be the first in many decades. If it doesn’t, Father will simply perform the Rite. We’ll see…

Hope to see you at Holy Family…you’ll be amazed at the wonderful community we have: faith, family and a whole lot of fun!

By: Jean

Jean — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:48:22 +0000

Kimberley, I wept as I read this post. I am where you were. I have returned to the church after many years and can’t believe what is happening. In our Diocese we aren’t even allowed to kneel at the consecration, though some of us at the back of the church quietly DO, although there are no kneelers.

I am passionate about serving and honouring God, but people at our church walk into church and sit and chat, or read their newsletters, ignoring our Blessed Lord, in the side tabernacle. It’s just like being in a Protestant church. I feel so lonely and weep often…. My husband is not a Catholic.

Our nearest Latin Mass is 2 hours drive away. How I long for it. But with the price of fuel it’s not an option.

I’m praying and I know God is faithful and will bring me through this. In the meantime I offer it up with as much joy as I can muster. Thanks for sharing YOUR journey.

By: Wendy in VA

Wendy in VA — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:04:33 +0000

What a great post! We attended our first TLM about a year ago, and have fallen in love with it. Our youngest son received his First Holy Communion this spring with five other children in our Latin Mass community, and it was so simple and beautiful — it felt like that was the way it is *supposed to be*. Thank you for sharing your story!

By: llmom

llmom — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:15:40 +0000

Thanks for sharing. I love to read stories on how people came to the Traditional Mass. We have been attending for 8 years and LOVE IT.

By: J.C.

J.C. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:34:30 +0000

Hi Kimberly,
This is my first time commenting at your blog; I recently subscribed to your blog feed after visiting your blog and realizing you were a fellow traditionalist! Thanks for sharing your story. I can totally identify. We, too, moved our family in search of the Mass–all the way from Brazil! My husband is also a convert, and after we met in the States and married, we moved to Brazil, where he was a lawyer. It was an especially excruciating experience for my husband, who expected to return to his own presumably Catholic country and live a devout and sacramental Catholic life together with his new family. Like many protestants, one of the primary things that led him to the Catholic Church was a lack of concrete moral authority found in his denomination. He loved the moral certitude and unalterable conviction he found in the Church and its Catechism. Imagine his surprise, when he was unable to find anyone else, let alone priests, who knew and believed what he understood the Catholic Church to represent. We unsuccessfully cajoled and argued with priests about liturgical abuses and dogma for years. Eventually, we found that the religious and faithful who most embodied and lived the eternal Catholicism in which we believed were without fail those who celebrated the Latin Mass. (That’s not to say you can’t find it anywhere else, of course….) Unfortunately, there weren’t any where we lived, so we set out, with God’s help, to move where there was a Latin Mass and where we could raise our children in the true Faith. My husband had to begin his career over and leave a cushy job and our home in Brazil, but finally we have moved here definitively and are able to attend the Latin Mass, befriend like-minded people, homeschool our children, and generally fight the good fight, with God’s grace, on a daily basis. Deo gratias!

By: +JMJ+ @ TotusTuusFamily

+JMJ+ @ TotusTuusFamily — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:01:14 +0000

Kimberly – you KNOW how this speaks to my heart. So beautifully written and said, and quite akin to how we feel.

We’re STILL surprised TWO YEARS later how deeply and quickly we fell in love with this Mass of Saints, this Mass of ages. Yes, it speaks to the soul!

And, although we live 4 minutes from a church I too would weep to go there. It’s not the same…distracting, sadly…

So much to say about the expereince of the Latin Mass. I must put it on my to-do list for blogging. I have loved reading your story and I hope it encourages others to embrace their Catholic identities.

HUGS!

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:03:41 +0000

Your family sounds so beautiful! Thanks for sharing such an equally beautiful story with us! It’s funny, our conversion stories are so similiar! I too took two years to convert. It was always a matter of intellectual debate…who was right. Then, of course, there was the liberal nun running RCIA who called God our Mother/Father the first week we met. That night I politely argued and then quit RCIA. The next fall I was prepared for the battle. I fought this woman the whole year and even handed out information to the fellow converts who were being told “you don’t have to believe in Purgatory” and such. I was a thorn in her side for sure….lol. Boy was the battle worth the fight! I’ve been Catholic now for seven years and thankfully had a conversion of heart as well during RCIA.

I am so thankful for my faith, but lately can’t seem to feel good about the Parish I attend. I know it is not all about feelings, but I have to tell you that I did attend Holy Family in Columbus a few times for Mass during the past few weeks and felt renewed. We didn’t attend the Latin Mass although I plan to on Wednesday morning. One of the things I liked the best about Holy Family was that my 13 ds actually came out after Mass and said that he liked this Church. That is a big deal for him. He doesn’t like the parish we attend right now at all. It is very orthodox and is maybe just too much “head” and not enough “heart” if you know what I mean. I would love for him to be an altar server someday.

Just one more thing, can you tell me about the CCD program at Holy Family? Do homeschoolers attend?

By: Sine

Sine — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:16:09 +0000

My fiance and I go to mass with each other every weekend, and recently we have started attending TLM twice a month. It is quite a hike from where we live, but it is so much more fulfilling than when we go to a mass in ordinary form. This was such a beautiful and encouraging post to read.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:47:16 +0000

I haven’t written about this much – but our first Latin Mass was like returning to something I had never been to. Does that make sense? It was all so new, but very familiar. I was absolutely thrilled when my husband, a convert, felt the same way. Thanks for sharing. It was beautiful.