Fr. Z has a very interesting discussion going. Actually, it’s not a discussion, it’s more of a “What Did You Hear” type thread in which he has invted people who did not experience the Extraordinary Rite/Classical/Tridentine/ Mass growing up to talk about their introduction to that particular rite and their reactions. It is one of the more enlightening blog threads going these days, because people are being honest, saying what they love, what puts them off, how they grew to like it, how they still don’t care for it much…whatever.
I think it’s a good thread to read for someone who is laboring under various delusions about what the typical “Latin Mass Goer” is like and what they are looking for. One of the things that comes through again and again is, contrary to the conventional wisdom, what those who are sharing on that thread were seeking was a deeper and more profound sense of participation in the Mass, not an excuse to check out of things and think about something else. Which of course, makes sense if you think about it for more than two seconds. Why would you go to the trouble of traveling a good distance, entering into something quite unfashionable and even somewhat forbidden in contemporary Catholic culture, if you were interested in distancing yourself from what was going on? You wouldn’t.
I think it would be a good thread for bishops and priests to read – not only for those who are into the TLM, but to hear the voices of those who say, “Yes, I went, it was okay, but not my thing. But for those that want it…so what?” So that perhaps they can slowly but surely recover from the vapors, widespread due to this “problem.”