Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa Oklahoma offered the traditional rite Mass at Our Lady’s Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Monsignor Charles Pope wrote a short piece on the event in the Washington DC Archdiocesan website. He also answered there questions about the traditional liturgy, one of which was why the western Church used Latin in her liturgy for so many centuries. He answered in part: “At the time of Jesus, the synagogue services and the Temple liturgy used ancient Hebrew. Jesus and his contemporaries did not speak Hebrew at home or in the streets any longer. They spoke Aramaic. But when they prayed they instinctively used the ancient prayers which were Hebrew.”
Msgr. Pope’s short article has some valuable information that one can use for a quick reply to inquisitive Catholics or non-Catholics who want to know about the Latin liturgy. Read the full article here.
