Editor’s note: beyond theological debates, beauty can communicate to the hearts of all why we will never give up the Latin Mass. Please share these videos, subscribe to Una Voce’s channel, and bookmark their website to join the work of this apostolate, one of the founding organizations of the Trad movement.

Since its beginning in 1965, even before the New Mass was promulgated, the Fœderatio Internationalis Una Voce has gathered together laypeople from all around the world with the aim to ensure that the traditional Roman rite of the Church is maintained in the Church and to safeguard and promote the use of Latin, Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, and all the sacred, artistic, literary and musical traditions of the Roman Church in all their beauty and integrity.

The Una Voce movement has always worked on the basis of local efforts capable of adapting to varied circumstances. During the last 56 years, its members have tirelessly working to increase the number of places where the Usus Antiquior is celebrated, and most of them know how difficult it has been. They have also been threatened and discouraged all these years by frequent restrictions, misconceptions, and prejudices. But in their hearts, they have always been happy to fight the good fight, even while knowing that they may not see the day where the old Missal becomes dully recognized and widely celebrated again in the whole church. But they all know it will.

Today once again, after a period of an apparently improving situation, we are labelled as divisive, stubborn, nostalgic people, and other epithets. But these insults do not represent who we are. The falsity of this old-fashioned name-calling becomes clear when you see how many different people fall in love with the Traditional Mass. We come from all parts of the world. From Japan to Argentina. From South Africa to Norway. From China to Venezuela. We are old people and young people; students, farmers, entrepreneurs, unemployed, migrants, teachers, artists, mothers, fathers, poor and rich people. Everyone can come and join. For most of us it is not about re-fighting the battles of 50 years ago; we have simply discovered something, the liturgical treasure of the Church, whose spiritual value has bourn real fruit in our lives and in our communities.

In these times even the most modern have frenetic “upgrades,” “updates,” “new versions,” and things become “obsolete,” “deprecated,” “antiquated” and “disposable.” In these times in which we are always required to produce more and new things, where the present and future are in perpetual change, we find in the old Mass our spiritual home. We participate in a liturgy that doesn’t need a permanent quest for “updates” because the traditional rites and symbols can show us the immanent love of Christ on the Cross, the love for which our souls have always aimed. It is the place where we rediscover the past and encounter the future. It is not nostalgia, on the contrary, it is the hope it gives us, that will make us never give up the old Mass.

Recently, with the restrictions that have been imposed on us in the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, like the ones forbidding us to use our parochial churches or discouraging the creation of new groups, we feel we are treated like undesirable, second-class Catholics. It is unjust, but, with God’s help, we will endure those trials. It is difficult not to remember when the apostles were asked not to talk, but, what was their response? “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

Besides the sadness, frustration, and incomprehension that we are facing, Una Voce wants to encourage all the laypeople attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, to make an extra effort to share with more people the reasons why we say yes to the Usus Antiquior, and why we won’t give it up.

Among many things, the people attached to the Usus Antiquior are those who say yes to the sacredness, yes to tradition, yes to what the Church has always taught, yes to the silence, yes to kneeling when receiving Our Lord, yes to praying oriented towards God, yes to adapt ourselves to the liturgy, and not the other way around. Yes to love our priest, the bishops, and the Pope. All of those things help us to say yes to our daily crosses. It is important to go and speak with respect to our Bishops, Priests, brothers, and sisters and share what we have seen and heard.

With the aim to help with this, Una Voce has produced a series of short videos about some of the reasons why we love the Traditional Mass. The Silence, Sacred Music, worship Ad Orientem, etc… These videos were recorded using several languages, and people from many different backgrounds and countries helped to make them. You will hear testimonies from common families, professional musicians, personalities like Joao Silveira, secretary of the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage committee, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Dr. John Pepino, Gregory DiPippo, and many more. All of them trying to summarize what we often want to say about the Sacred Liturgy but often don’t know how to.

These versions have English subtitles, we will be soon releasing the videos with subtitles in other languages as well. We are also starting to share small resolution versions that can be sent through Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp etc. If you receive one of these messages, please forward them to your contacts. Feel free to copy and share these YouTube videos on your social media networks or in the best way you consider to help the cause. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!

Photo: Pontifical High Mass of the Assumption with Bishop Perry by Allison Girone. Used with Permission.

 

The post Faithful Laity: We Will Never Give Up the Latin Mass appeared first on OnePeterFive.