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JMJ
I am not a 'cradle' Traditional Catholic. In fact, one of my earliest 'church memories' is of the pews in my family's first parish. Specifically, how they tasted. I remember a lot of people standing up around me as I got as much of the pew in my mouth as possible. At that moment as I reached the sweet spot, an older lady caught my eye and I got the impression she was less that impressed that I had achieved the maximally effective amount of pew in my 4 year-old mouth.
Looking back, I realised that the parish of my youth was a haven for Conservative Catholics. The Pastor had succeeded in isolating the parish from much of the madness of the 1970's. The result of a conservative parish with doctrinally sound teaching, catechesis and confessions was a parish packed to capacity.
The downside, as I heard decades later, was that when a young member of that parish moved into another parish, he found a completely different Church from the one in which he had grown up. When I met him at a men's meeting he stated that the difference was so great that he felt betrayed and was considering leaving the Church.
This is telling as that was the effect of going from a conservative (ultra) parish to a normal (liberal) parish. Perhaps this was just a sample of the effects of V2.
A mere seven years later (as described earlier) we 'transitioned' to the Tridentine Mass.
Within months of arriving I attended my first Requiem Mass, my Dad's.
Obviously, this was not my favorite Requiem.
Over the coming years my love of the liturgy was nurtured by participating as an Altar Boy, Sacristan and Schola Member. Having been soaked in the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, Shakespeare, poetry and legends - the artistry in the in the liturgy was not lost on me. As the decades past it only became deeper.
Having served Mass, Weddings and Funerals for years and youth choir in the Novus Ordo, I can say that it took immersion in the Tridentine Liturgy for me to realize the deficit of the New Mass. Until then, ignorance kept me from realizing what the Church had lost.
Based on my experience, I think that ignorance is the first 'pain' that needs to be addressed.
Many Catholics just don't realize what Church life was like before 1970. When was the last time that any pre-conciliar teaching or council was cited in a meaningful way in a major Vatican Document? It's like there's a chasm between the V2 and a couple hundred years of doctrinal development. "They" are rewriting the teaching of the Church in a passive manner by ignoring where the Church 'was' right before the council.
The second 'pain' is cultural.
Two generations of Catholics who have been raised on popular culture (civil and religious) and are ill equipped to appreciate the Tridentine Liturgy. In fact, I would hazard that most would be repulsed by it. The silence wouldn't be deafening, it would be maddening for them as well as foreign. Being used to being spoon fed, they would have to work to understand what was being said in the Mass, learn to follow in a truly active manner a mass in latin before learning how to contemplate it in periods of silence or music the elevates instead of instigates.
When I convinced one Conservative Catholic to go with me to a funeral, he described it as 'reverent'. Yet, he was unimpressed. It took about seven years for him to acknowledge that the SSPX was right to preserve the Tridentine Mass.
Yes, you read correctly, seven years.
When I accidentally attended a 'Midnight Mass' at 8pm, he asked me what I thought. My answer was simply that it was as I remembered it. Nothing in the Modern Mass had improved in the thirty years since I became a Trad. Nothing had changed, it was exactly as bad as I remembered.
Let's extrapolate my experience with becoming a Trad with others who 'came' to the Tridentine Mass. I didn't want to be there ... it was irrational ... like most other humans I didn't want to change and the Tridentine Mass is a MAJOR change from the Novus Ordo. I can barely imagine the pain that knowledgeable and faithful Catholics endured in the 60's and 70's.
A common theme of those who come to our chapel today is that they were already dissatisfied with what the New Order provided by way of spirituality, liturgy and doctrine.
So what does this mean?
It means that when (not if) the SSPX is regularized it will take a while before the SSPX chapels burst at the seams. I would guess that the 'indult' faithful will be the first to make the move. They are closer and some are only held away by the fear of being tainted by the irregular situation of the SSPX.
When they do come, then they'll be immersed in a foreign world with some familiar feasts.
Like Holy Thursday.
This is my second most favorite Feast because it calls us back to the First Mass ever offered, the happy time a few mere hours before OLJC began His passion to redeem Mankind. In the 1963 liturgy some elements will be familiar - particularly the washing for feet - for men only thought :).
In then, the Requiem remains my favorite because it is the last Mass you'll ever attend as a Catholic.
... and that's something to be happy about.
P^3
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