The Council of Trent stated that, “Holy things must be treated in a holy way.” How does the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Mass help promote this reverence?
When celebrated with faith, devotion and adherence to the mind of the Church, the ceremonies of the Traditional Latin Mass foster beauty, dignity, silence, and reverence in the faithful by providing ample room for recollection and private prayer in the midst of the communal worship of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. According to Christian Tradition, reverence is fundamental to worship as it increases a sense of the sacred and allows us to ‘see’ the eternal and the supernatural. Cardinal Newman said that anyone who does not fear and revere has not known the reality of God. It is also true that reverence for the traditional form of worship and fear of abandoning it are fundamental to the continuity of the Faith. “Lex orandi, lex credendi” (As we pray, so we come to believe) sums up the Church’s centuries-old wisdom.
