When I was a lowly undergraduate at the University of Maryland (class of ’81 — barely), I’d sometimes attend mass at the beautiful campus chapel. Frankly, I wasn’t a big mass-goer in those days, and tended to spend my Sunday mornings in less sacred pursuits, like sleeping.

But when I wandered into the chapel for mass, it was usually a very communal experience, with hand-holding around the altar and someone strumming a guitar.

Well, things have changed.

Imagine my surprise to find some intriguing news about Catholics on campus in my old school paper, the Diamondback:

Students at the Catholic Student Center are trying to infuse the present-day Mass with some customs from the past.

For the past two months, students at the CSC have gathered each Wednesday before the evening Mass, or the Catholic worship service, to learn prayers and portions of the service in Latin, the formal language of the Catholic Church. During the same time period, four students learned the traditional songs and chants of the church as part of the Schola Cantorum, an all-male choir with a name that means “school of song” in Latin.

The semester’s work culminated in an extra Mass celebrated Nov. 30 in Latin with music provided by the schola. Approximately 25 students attended that Mass, said the center’s chaplain, the Rev. Kyle Ingels.

Ingels, who taught the Latin translations for the service, said he decided to start the informal classes because he wanted the students to learn the official language of the church. Teaching the Latin traditions is also a way to diversify the activities offered at the center, he said, which helps the center reach out to a wider variety of students.

“There is a lot of interest these days in learning about some of the more traditional aspects of the faith, Latin being one of them,” Ingels said. “Latin is a beautiful language, a beautiful tradition, and it is still the official language of the Catholic Church throughout the world.”

The students are learning the modern Mass translated into Latin and accompanied by the traditional Gregorian chants rather than the older regimented Tridentine Mass, Ingels said. The Tridentine Mass, celebrated entirely in Latin, was discontinued in the mid-1960s after Catholics expressed concern that it had become too impersonal. Some churches have added Tridentine Masses since September, when Pope Benedict XVI decreed that they could be celebrated once more.

The schola was taught by Dominican Brother Louis Senzig, who has long had an interest in traditional music, Ingels said.