The "Latin Mass" Sancta Familia 
will be about a year, occasionally, participation in weekend Mass at the parish of the 18
Santa Maria della Pietà, Via San Vitale. Although it is a bad time and despite being about 15 to 20 minutes by bicycle from my house, I went there very willingly
; to tell the truth much more readily than in the parish where I no longer so happy go because of the task that carries them out for about 12 years
play the guitar. It 'not that I'm sick of the songs, I can not take more than the fact that the sound seems a
my performance and the other guitarist, I can not take more than the behavior of the guitar that makes me
weigh each time I miss, I can not take more than you can not pray because they are forced to think of the songs (and I will be repeating the old story
of the Augustinian "who sings prays twice", because some St. Augustine had in mind a little guitar that strums a tune in music, but he recited the lyrics of music in prayer), and finally I am exhausted from shaking before each start ... because play is something you live, while I,
painter, I'm not made for direct contact, but to weigh each stroke ...
In two words, I can not take more than that ... blessed ...
"active participation" as they wish, that all such industrious bees have to force us to do something. But is it possible? The real is the active participation in the development of assistive
awareness of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, there is renewed. For me to be kneeling in prayer, in a bench or too far back or too far, no one asks you "want to read?" or "You fare l'offertorio?" o "come canto d'inizio fai il canto tale?", e lasciare che il prete compia il divino sacrificio, offrendo anche la preghiera mia e delle altre persone che sono in chiesa... ecco, questa è la partecipazione attiva.
Se poi uno vuol suonare, o fare qualsiasi altra cosa, che lo faccia pure, ma non fa più per me. Ecco perché sono agli
sgoccioli nel suonare in parrocchia da me... l'unica cosa che mi preoccupa un po' è come fare per dirlo al mio parroco...
Ma torniamo alla messa di Santa Maria della Pietà: non vado lì solo perché
non devo fare nulla , ma perché è una delle poche messe della città in
rito antico (detto
Vetus Ordo ). Per chi non lo sapesse, si tratta della messa "preconciliare", e balza agli occhi per essere detta in
latino con il sacerdote rivolto verso il tabernacolo, o "
spalle al popolo ", come si usa dire. Questo rito è stato reso di nuovo libero nel 2007 da papa Benedetto XVI con il Motu Proprio
"Summorum Pontificum" .
Mercoledì, festa dell'
Immacolata , essendo stato in viaggio da Como a Bologna la mattina e avendo
perso la messa delle 11 in parrocchia (che peccato...!!), ho potuto recarmi ancora una volta alla
messa tridentina di Santa Maria della Pietà. Da when a dear friend has made me know I no longer could do without, and long periods of absence due to commitments or having to play in the parish, I really feel the lack. And if I travel, I always look for the event if there is one nearby: how nice it was last summer
Trier, Germany, and to assist -
in Germany! - to understand what was being said!
the other day then, just before the Mass, I note that there are more people than usual (given the late hour and the little knowledge of this set - as well as a tide of prejudice - there never so much) , and some tourists took the opportunity of a mass at 18 to satisfy the obligation of the party. At one point a man with a camera bag with shoulder strap and a baby are close to my neighbor's place and ask him, maybe
amazed by the strange way to lay the altar, "but that language is called the Mass? "
"In Latin," answered the person sitting. And the tourist: "but you do not understand anything!"
Then the other shows him
missal compared with the translation, and the sheet with the parties' own party in Latin and Italian.
Then, during the Mass, as they are sitting behind me, I feel that the child says, "but you do not understand anything!"
What appears to Latin
a problem, but not really lo è affatto: tanti che sanno della mia partecipazione al rito antico, mi dicono: "ma tu non lo sai il latino!". Vero! Ma la frequenza
costante a questa messa abitua l'orecchio facendo prima conoscere il suono delle parole, poi le insegna a pronunciare e, poco alla volta, si abitua anche alle traduzioni a fronte. Perché non è che a ogni messa si legge tutta la traduzione delle parti che il prete dice in latino, ma - almeno io faccio così - mi focalizzo e medito su un brano, che la volta dopo sarà un altro, oppure lo stesso... non so, non importa. Poi le
letture sono in italiano, e questo non è male, anche se pure di esse si potrebbe leggere la traduzione. Riguardo a questo, sempre pensando last summer in Germany, I would have preferred the readings in Latin and German ... Then
Latin is a sacred language
not pretend we are believers or not? It is not only culture that every part of the Mass in Latin has its own ... what to call it?,
transcendence? Each text, not only for what is said, but the simple fact of being said in Latin, has a "fragrance" of old as well as holy.
The human mind does not always understand everything when I think of how many times, studying, I
distracted and I have read two or three times the same line of a text ... I believe that the Italian in the Mass or a way to give us the impression
to understand everything, but I I wonder how many really listen to everything, word for word? Of course, the Italian gives the opportunity to understand, but in fact we should get into the head of each person to determine if this is so.
And I also wonder: why waste the
beauty (which is not an optional
!) And the sacred office of a language of the prayers of centuries of saints and Fathers of the Church if the understanding between Latin and Italian is actually very similar
?
I present, being formed in the '
Byzantine and Russian iconography, the beauty of the Orthodox liturgy fully expressed in the ancient language, greek or Old Slavonic. Why miss the beauty of an ancient tradition alive and extremely (and enlivened by the Spirit), to have the illusion of immediate comprehension of the texts?
I have additional things to add, and say sooner or later. I'm not an expert on liturgy, I talk a lot ... "Skin", but I would like to take
to others the beauty and sacredness of what I have learned to know and love in this set are not barriers that separate us from God, but great gifts through which He shows us and blesses us. Including Latin.
