I’ve pulled this from the comments – from Fr. Elijah, truly worth a post of its own, as I think you will agree:

As a boy training for serving at the altar of God Who gives joy to my youth (youthful joy) and learning the ancient Latin responses I was taught that these responses USED TO BE responded by all the people, but over time, and with growing lack of the knowledge of Latin, the responses came to be the privilege of servers such as myself. The responses belonged at one time to ALL the People of God.

In the fifth grade, attending daily Mass during Lent in the evening, the young curate 9recently from Rome) invited us to stay for ten minutes after each Mass so he could introduce the new rites of Holy Week (and of course encouraged us to participate). It was there for the first time that I heard about what participation in the Liturgy meant: to participate in the Rite was to participate in the original saving Event [now read: Paschal Mystery]. I was astounded as a young boy but the best was yet to come-The Holy Week Liturgies! When I heard the Easter Proclamation (Exultet) for the first time I thought I had entered heaven-which of course is exactly what every Liturgy brings us to

In the eighth grade in Catholic school, the culmination of our learning Gregorian Chant (yes it WAS part of our curriculum and taught byt the nuns) we prepared all the responses and ‘commons’ for a Mass. We eventually found out that we were joining many other contemporaries at a Mass organized by the Catholic school office of the diocese. The day came and a large church full of pre-teens entered into full conscious participation in the Eucharist singing and responding in Latin (oops and Greek including the Kyries), the Gloria, Alleluias, Credo, Sanctus Agnus Dei and hymns.

Near my home was a Carmelite chapel. There the Carmelite priests celebrated Mass for people stopping in (the chapel was at a shopping center) What amazed me was that the ritual of the Mass that the Carmelite priest celebrated was somewhat different than the ‘regular’ Mass we had in my parish. There were actually variations of what we call the Tridentine Mass-that were celebrated by certain religious orders.

IN the ninth grade I was given an assignement in public school to do a paper on Eastern Christians. I found out soooooooo much! But keeping to the point- found out there were many rites in the Eastern Churches (Catholic and Orthodox and other Eastern Churches) All variations of the ONE Mass!

Entering the Seminary and singing in our choir I found out that the Tridentine Mass was but one form of the Latin Rite. There was and still is the Ambrosian Rite as well as other forms such as the Gallican Rite, Mozarabic (Spanish) and Sarum (English) which have over time basically disappeared and in some cases were suppressed and replaced by the Tridentine Mass.

These reflections and memories are rich with no jaundiced look toward the past. My point is this-for the last forty years or so Catholics have got ourselves into these ‘either-or’ stances: either the Tridentine (1962) Mass or the Pauline (1970) Mass. Our Western Tradition of liturgy does not allow us really to get into this ‘either/or’ mentality [here I am speaking of Liturgies celebrated within the Western Catholic Tradition-I am not speaking of Reformation Liturgies or services].

I believe we are about to enter a quieter but deeper time of appreciation, contemplation and ‘re-appropriation’ of the wonderful richness of our Western Latin Tradition of the Mass. It is not an ‘either or’ but a ‘both-and’!