Tridentine Mass
About a month ago I saw a notice in the local paper advertising “Latin Tridentine Mass” at the Sacred Heart Church in Cutchogue the first Sunday of every month. Cutchogue is a couple of towns over from where I live, but I made a note in my date book to go in November. Part of my wanting to go is nostaglia for the Mass of my childhood; part was to experience the beauty of the Latin Mass again; and part of it, a little to my surprise, is a wish to reassert a separate Roman Catholic identity from the rest of Christendom.
There is rumor Pope Benedict is going to loosen the restrictions on the old Latin Mass. Supposedly, it is a major concession in order to woo back to the Church the ultra conservatives that bailed out after Vatican II. But I think he is also trying to reverse the slide of Catholic assimilation.
But now that I’m going to a Latin Mass, I’m not sure if I need to follow all the rules from the old days, too. Do women and girls have to have their heads covered? I don’t own a hat–other than my Mr. Met and Wego Fishing Bait & Tackle baseball caps, neither one of which is appropriate for the old Latin Mass. Rummaging around through my cedar chest, I found my old white mantilla, but I don’t want to use that either. What to do! I guess when I go into Manhattan this week I’ll go shopping for a hat…just in case!
