Latin Mass Celebration

Mass in Latin is celebrated the first Saturday of the month at 8:30 a.m. in the Holy Spirit Chapel. To help prepare for the Latin Mass, all are welcome to attend Chant Practice the first Friday of the month at 3:30p.m. in the Chapel.

Chant Information

To help familiarize yourself with the Chant, you will find a recording and the sheet music for the August 7th Latin Mass.

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Sheet Music for Sapientiam Sanctorum (Will open in a new window.)

The Introit or (Processional Hymn) will always be taken from the Graduale Romanum (The Graduale Romanum is the official book of the cantor and choir)

Why Celebrate Mass in Latin?

The ordinary language for celebrating the Mass is Latin. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states. “The Eucharistic celebration is to be carried out in the Latin language or in another language provided that the liturgical texts have been legitimately approved.” Can. 928 The Mass, both before the Second Vatican Council and after the Council, has been celebrated in Latin and still is. It was only after the Second Vatican Council that permission was granted for the Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular, the language of the people. The proper language of the Mass is still Latin. With the new translation of the Roman Missal in English coming soon, it is a good time to learn the Latin Mass of which it will be translated from. One can then more fully understand the reasoning behind the new translation in English.

As our world becomes more global, having a universal language is more essential. When we come to worship God from many different cultures and languages, having the same language of worship is a blessing. At World Youth Days the Masses are celebrated mostly in Latin to help everyone worship with one voice to God.

The Catholic Church’s chief liturgist Cardinal Arinze had this to say about the Mass said in Latin, courtesy of the Catholic News Agency.

“The Roman rite has Latin as its official language,” he said. The great religions of the world all “hold on” to their founding languages: Judaism to Hebrew and Aramaic, Islam to Arabic, Hindu to Sanskrit and Buddhism to Pali, he reportedly said.

Latin “suits a Church that is universal. It has a stability modern languages don’t have,” he said.  The Cardinal also said it’s no small matter for priests or bishops from around the world to be able to speak to each other in a universal language and lauded the possibility that “a million students” gathered for World Youth Day every few years could “say parts of the Mass in Latin.”

He suggested that larger parishes offer Mass in Latin at least once a week and that smaller, rural parishes offer it at least once a month.  Homilies, he said, should always be in the vernacular.