Why Pray in Latin?

Latin is a Sacred Language
  • The Latin language was consecrated at the Passion by its mystic inscription on the Cross.
    • “From the first four centuries, no liturgy can be shown to be composed in any other language other than the three languages from the inscription on the Cross.” (Gihr) 
    • The Body of Christ was nailed to the Cross, the Altar of sacrifice, and the sacred languages bearing His title were nailed there on the Altar with Him.
    • Our Lord Himself prayed in non-vernacular ancient Hebrew, used almost exclusively in rabbinical temple worship. 
  • “The Latin language…has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic see, the mother and teacher of all Churches.” – Pope St John XXIII, Veterum Sapientia, 1962.
    • To consecrate by definition means “to make holy”; in a similar manner bread and wine are consecrated when they become the Body and Blood of Christ.
    • “Latin was the language used by St. Peter when he first said Mass at Rome. It was the language in which that Prince of the Apostles drew up the Liturgy” (Fr. Michael Muller, C.SS.R., The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).
    • “The most ancient custom of the Church agrees…in the whole West there are no ancient liturgies except in Latin” (St Robert Bellarmine, On the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass). 
  • The Latin language was sanctified by the usage of 2000 years, and it was most closely interwoven with the primitive Roman Catholic liturgy (Gihr).
    • Sacraments and sacramentals are made holy by the prayer of the priest such as the exorcizing and blessing of an object. The Latin language similarly is in itself as a language holy; it is sacred, and thereby brings great favor with God. 
Latin is the Principle Language of Catholic Prayer
  • Prayer in Latin is a prayer in union with the rest of the Church in the same universal language she has prayed in since her inception.
  • The Roman Catholic Church has always been directly connected with the Latin language in its very name as the “Latin Church.” From the early centuries, St Augustine, St Jerome, and other early Church fathers refer to her explicitly by this name. (StA, LII, LXXI; StJ, XLVI, LVIII)

Popes throughout history have unwaveringly embraced and defended the Latin language.

“It must be esteemed a treasure…of incomparable worth.” -PJXIII
“The language of the Angels.” PPVI

Pope Benedict urged All Catholics to pray in Latin.

  • Pope John XXIII forever canonized the Latin language in his Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia (1962).
    • An Apostolic Constitution is the most solemn form of a papal decree. It was an Apostolic Constitution in which the Immaculate Conception was infallibly defined a dogma by Pope Pius IX.
  • Ecumenical Councils have prescribed prayer in Latin.
    • The actual texts of Vatican II mandated the retention of Latin in the liturgy – “…the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites” (36). “Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them” (54). 
    • In Trent, the Church excommunicates all those who declare the vernacular to be the necessary or only permissible language for the liturgy. (Trent, Ss XXII, Ch IX, Can IX)
First Pope in prayer holding keys
Latin is a Mystical Language

“The Latin Language is both venerable and mysterious” (The Catechism Explained, FrS).

By praying in a sacred language, Latin has a unique ability to enable greater focus in meditation and deeper levels of mystical prayer.

“Latin points to the unfathomable and unspeakable depth of the mystery of the altar” (Gihr).

“Latin…through its dignified character elicit[s] a profound sense of the Eucharistic Mystery” (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, 1980).

“[Latin is] the language of the angels.” (Pope Paul VI, General Audience, Nov 26, 1969). 

Latin creates a sense of sacred space and time to help focus on the sense of God’s otherness. 

The use of a distinguished language for prayer and worship instills the sense of awe and reverence that reminds us that we are worshiping and imploring the help of the Almighty transcendent God in a way entirely distinct from ordinary chatter with friends. 

Latin Prayers and prayer medal
Latin Possesses an Inherent Beauty and Dignity
  • This beautiful prayer language elevates the mind and heart through means such as sacred chant and polyphony. Latin’s inherent beauty is evident even to those on the natural level who hear it chanted, prayed, or sung. 
  • “The phonetic characteristics of Latin, with its alternation of long and short syllables, with the robust but never ungraceful sonority created by occlusive consonants, refined by frequency of sibilants and liquids, make it a poetic language (In Praise of the Tridentine Mass and of Latin, Language of the Church, Fr Spataro, 2019, pg 67).
Latin is Unifying and Universal
  • It is fitting that a universal (“catholic”) Church should pray in a universal language.
  • The Latin language unifies all under one tongue thereby countering the havoc from the tower of Babel, and in a practical way it continues the gift of Pentecost by enabling people from all nations to understand and pray together in una voce (one voice) universally.
  • Inhabitants of a country naturally desire immigrants to learn the county’s language. In terms of identity, “Language is the most important cause of unity and feeling at home.” “It brings people together–language.” “Take away a language and people feel out of place” (Sensus Fidelium, 8/12/2014).
  • “The Holy Spirit has ‘gathered all the nations from out of the babel of tongues into the unity of faith.’ Being formed of ‘all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues,’ she constitutes but one family of God, one kingdom of Christ, a kingdom not of this world, but exalted above every nation of the earth'” (Fr Gihr, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).
  • “Precisely in the multiplicity of languages and cultures, Latin, for so many centuries the vehicle and instrument of Christian culture, not only guarantees continuity with our roots but continues to be as relevant as ever for strengthening the bonds of unity of the faith in the communion of the Church” (Pope Benedict XVI, Presentation of the Compendium, 2005).
  • This universal language creates a spiritual home of prayer anywhere in the world. *It is a good form of globalism!*
  • It unites all Catholics together with their spiritual patrimony, as they pray the same prayers in the same language as the Saints have from the catacombs and throughout history.
  • Latin in a unique way unites the faithful together in doctrine and belief in the same immutable faith. 
Latin is the Prayer Language of the Saints

When praying in Latin, you are praying in the same exact words in the same exact language that countless Saints have prayed throughout the ages and are being united with them through entering into this venerable tradition they handed down and preserved faithfully throughout the centuries.

Many Saints have commented on their love for the Latin language and prayed both publicly and privately in this lingua sacra. The most famous Saints including St Augustine, St Benedict, St Patrick, Pope St Gregory the Great, St Thomas Aquinas, St Dominic, St Francis of Assisi, St Anthony of Padua, St Padre Pio, St John Vianney, St Frances de Sales, St Alphonsus Liguori, St Catherine of Sienna, and countless Saints throughout all ages of the Church all prayed in the same sacred Latin language.

Latin has always been a part of private devotions. 

Because the liturgy is the source and summit of the faith and by its nature far surpasses any private devotion, the Church teaches that “devotions should…accord with the sacred liturgy, [be] derived from it, and lead people to it.” The Latin rite liturgy has been handed down and prayed in Latin from its earliest days throughout the centuries. Thus, private devotions deriving from the liturgy are most fitting to be prayed in that same sacred language. 

The Rosary, the greatest private devotion, was also originally prayed, taught, and handed down in Latin, and a regular practice of the Saints was to pray their devotions in their holy Church’s mother tongue. 

Saint Gregory praying in ecstasy
Latin is Stable, Unchangeable, and Immortal
  • This ancient language has a stability, precision, and consistency that is unparalleled, due largely to the fact it is no longer spoken, a so-called “dead language.”
  • Unlike spoken languages that are constantly in a state of flux, change, and evolution, the Latin language remains the same.
    • “If the sacrifice [of the Mass] were going to be offered in the vernacular…it would be necessary to frequently change the words of the sacrifice whenever the vocabulary, which is common in one time, would later cease to be the vernacular” (St Robert Bellarmine, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).
    • “It is a fact well known that the meaning of the words is changed in the course of time by everyday usage. Words which once had a good meaning are now used in a vulgar or ludicrous sense” (Fr. Michael Muller, C.SS.R., The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).
  • “It is the question of a dead language and a dying language. Every living language is a dying language, even if it does not die. Parts of it are perpetually perishing or changing their sense; there is only one escape from that flux; and a language must die to be immortal.” (G.K. Chesterton)
  • Latin is the language of theological science and precision. 

Unchangeable Faith : Unchangeable Language

Latin is the arsenal of orthodoxy
  • “The Latin tongue [is] the key…of sacred science” (Pope Leo XIII, Depuis le Jour, 1899).
  • “Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the heart of all the enemies of Rome. They recognize it as the bond of Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit . . . We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Institutions, 8).
  • For a Catholic to reject Latin is to reject 99% of his liturgical patrimony.
  • “The use of the Latin language prevailing in a great part of the Church affords at once an imposing sign of unity and an effective safeguard against the corruption of true doctrine.” (Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 1947)
  • Latin—”it is like putting up a bullet proof shield around the most sacred thing that we have, which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Eucharist. We cannot risk any slippage in language…Therefore, it’s in Latin. It’s bullet proof.” (Dr Taylor Marshall, 4/24/2019)
Latin Creates a Sacred Veil Over Language
  • Veiling has always been a part of sacred history. God reveals Himself to His people and directs them to approach and worship Him through various types of veils.
  • “We cannot be enlightened by the divine rays except they be hidden within the covering of many sacred veils” (St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Pt I -Sec I -Art9).
  • We veil that which is sacred, that which is holy. Thus, it is only fitting that our prayers likewise be covered in a sacred veil. 
  • Read a full explanation on sacred veiling and how it relates to prayer here. Veiling is everywhere in our faith. This is why we veil. 
  • Latin covers over and hides the defects of the priest. All priests have various defects in their mannerisms and speech that are hidden through prayer in Latin.
  • Latin with its sacred linguistic veil covers over, sanctifies, and mystifies our prayers.
Latin Teaches Us About God
Christ on a sacred Crucifix
  • Prayer in a sacred language manifests God’s transcendence, His beauty, His power, His omniscience, and his His holiness.
  • By praying in a distinct language directed only to God, it teaches us humility to learn that He is God, and we are not.
  • It further facilitates our worship of God as approaching Him in a unique manner. 
  • Latin engages the higher faculty of our intellect and gives us something more to strive for, as we continue to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12)
  • “If,” says St. Augustine, “there are some present who do not understand what is being said or sung, they know at least that all is said and sung to the glory of God, and that is sufficient for them to join in it devoutly.” (The Catechism Explained, Fr.S). (This quote evidences that even from the time of St Augustine the sacred Latin prayers they used in the liturgy were not understood by everyone present, yet all sufficiently join in through their devotion.)
The Devil Hates Latin

“The Devil hates Latin. It is the universal language of the Church.”
– Exorcist priest Fr. Gary Thomas, subject of the book and film The Rite  (NLM)

Interestingly, there have been numerous reports from exorcists that Latin prayers are more effective in driving away the demonic. 

The Vatican’s chief exorcist, Fr Gabriel Amorth, who performed well over 70,000 exorcisms, repeatedly testified to this reality of the power invested in this sacred language. “It is most effective at challenging the devil”

Sacred Latin exorcism prayers

Bishop Andrea Gemma of Isernia, one of the Roman Catholic Church’s leading experts on exorcism, explained, “demons have a horror of [the Latin] language.” He later stated, “The devil is happy with the near-disappearance of Latin”

As a Sacred Language, Latin is Inherently More Efficacious
  • “Latin is more efficacious than any profane language because of the fact it is a sacred language, and by virtue of it being sacred it is in the eyes of God more precious and more meritorious” (Fr Chad Ripperger, exorcist). 
  • God appreciates the effort to learn to pray in this sacred tongue and rewards it generously.
  • How much more pleasing to God is it then to pray to Him in this most holy sacred language that He has blessed and infused with so much power and grace?
A Compilation of Videos and Audio Sermons on Latin

The Language of Prayer and Worship – from The Catechism Explained by Fr Spirago 

WHY IN LATIN? – by Fr. Michael Muller, C.SS.R. | from the book: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

On the Latin Langauge – From Father Nicholas Gihr’s book “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”

In Praise of the Tridentine Mass and of Latin, Language of the Church – by Fr. Robert Spataro

See also Why Pray the Rosary in Latin

Full Text of Encyclical Verterum Sapientia

Next:  How to Pray in Latin


What to Pray in Latin:

   Complete Online Prayerbook

  Printed Prayerbooks – The Latin Shop

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Pope Urges All Catholics to Pray in Latin

Pope Benedict presents summary of catechism, urges memorizing Latin prayers

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Presenting the new “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics around the world to memorize the most common Catholic prayers in Latin. Learning the prayers in Latin as well as in one’s own language “will help Christian faithful of different languages pray together, especially when they gather for special circumstances,” the pope said June 28, 2005 as he distributed the Italian version of the compendium, which included an appendix with the Latin texts of many traditional prayers, including the Sign of the Cross, the Gloria, the Hail Mary and Come, Holy Spirit. The pope said he hoped the compendium, a 200-page synthesis of the voluminous 1992 catechism, would give Catholics and non-Catholics easy access to the basic and essential tenets of the Catholic faith.

 

General Council of Trent: Twenty-Second Session

Council Fathers – 1562

ON THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.
CANON IX.–If any one saith, that the rite of the Roman Church, according to which a part of the canon and the words of consecration are pronounced in a low tone, is to be condemned; or, that the mass ought to be celebrated in the vulgar tongue only; or, that water ought not to be mixed with the wine that is to be offered in the chalice, for that it is contrary to the institution of Christ; let him be anathema.

The Anti-Liturgical Heresy
 By Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., Abbot of Solesmes
              Dom Prosper-Louis-Pascal Gueranger, founder of the Benedictine Congregation of France and first abbot of Solesmes after the French revolution, wrote in 1840 his Liturgical Institutions in order to restore among the clergy the knowledge and the love for the Roman Liturgy.

                Here we present to our readers a fragment of the Liturgical Institutions, where Dom Gueranger summarizes what he calls the anti-liturgical heresy, a summary of the doctrine and liturgical practice of the Protestant sect, from the XIVth to the XVIIIth century.  As it can easily be seen, many of these principles have a striking similitude with the post-Conciliar liturgical reform . . .

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The first characteristic of the anti-liturgical heresy is HATRED OF TRADITION AS FOUND IN THE FORMULAS USED IN DIVINE WORSHIP.  One cannot fail to note this special characteristic in all heretics, from Vigilantus to Calvin, and the reason for it is easy to explain.

Every sectarian who wishes to introduce a new doctrine finds himself, unfailingly, face to face with the Liturgy, which is Tradition at its strongest and best, and he cannot rest until he has silenced this voice, until he has torn up these pages which recall the faith of past centuries.

As a matter of fact, how could Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism establish themselves and maintain their influence over the masses?  All they had to do was substitute new books and new formulas in place of the ancient books and formulas, and their work was done.  There was nothing that still bothered the new teachers; they could just go on preaching as they wished: the faith of the people was henceforth without defense.

Luther understood this doctrine with a shrewdness worthy of the Jansenists, since he, at the beginning of his innovations, at the time he still felt he should maintain a part of the external form of the Latin cult, gave the following rule for the reformed Mass:

              “We approve and preserve the Introits of Sundays and of the feasts of Our Lord, that is to say Easter, Pentecost and Christmas.  We should much prefer that the entire Psalms from the Introits should be taken, as was done in former times; but we will gladly conform to the present usage.  We do not blame even those who would wish to keep even the Introits of the Apostles, of the Blessed Virgin and other Saints, since these three Introits are taken from the psalms and other places in    Scripture.”

              He hated too much the sacred songs composed by the Church herself as the public expression for her faith.  He felt too much in them the vigor of Tradition, which he wanted to ban.  If he granted to the Church the right to mix her voice with the oracles of the Scripture in the holy assemblies, he would expose himself thereby to have to listen to millions of mouth anathematizing his new dogmas.  Therefore, his hatred for everything in Liturgy which does not exclusively derive from Holy Scripture.

-2-

              This, as matter of fact, is the second principle of the anti-liturgical sect: TO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE FORMULAS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL TEACHINGS READINGS FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.

This involves two advantages: first, to silence the voice of Tradition of which sectarians are always afraid.  Then, there is the advantage of propagating and supporting their dogmas by means of affirmation and negation. By way of negation, in passing over in silence, through cunning, the texts which express doctrine opposed to errors they wish to propagate; by way of affirmation, by emphasizing truncated passages which show only one side of the truth, hide the other the eyes of the unlearned.

Since many centuries we know that the preferences given by all heretics to holy Scripture, over Church definitions, has no other reason than to facilitate making the word of God say all they want it to say, and manipulating it at will.

( . . . ) Protestants . . . have nearly reduced the whole Liturgy to the reading of Scripture, accompanied by speeches in which one interprets by means of reason.  As to the choice and determination of the canonical books, these have ended by falling under the caprice of the reformer, who, in final analysis, decides the meaning of the word itself.

              Thus Luther finds that in his system of pantheism, the ideas of the uselessness of good works and faith alone sufficing should be established as dogmas, and so, from now on, he will declare that the Epistle of St. James is a “straw epistle” and not canonical, for the simple reason that it teaches the necessity of good works for salvation.

In every age, and under all forms of sectarianism, it will be the same: No ecclesiastical formulas, only Holy Scripture, but interpreted, selected, presented by the person or persons who are seeking to profit from innovation.

The trap is dangerous for the simple, and only a long time afterwards one becomes aware of having been deceived and that the word of God, “a two-edged sword”, as the Apostles calls it, has caused great wounds, because it has been manipulated by the sons of perdition.

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                The third principle of the heretics concerning the reform of the Liturgy is, having eliminated the ecclesiastical formulas and proclaimed the absolute necessity of making use only of the words of Scripture in divine worship and having seen that Holy Scripture does not always yield itself to all their purposes as they would like, their third principle, we say, is to fabricate and introduce various formulas, filled with perfidy, by which the people are more surely ensnared in error, and thus the whole structure of the impious reform will become consolidated for the coming centuries.

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              One will not be astonished at the contradictions which heresy shows in its works, when one knows that the fourth principle, or, if you will, the fourth necessity imposed on the sectarians by the very nature of their rebellious state is an habitual contradiction of their own principles.

It must be this way for their confusion on that great day, which will come sooner or later, when God will reveal their nakedness to the view of the people whom they have seduced; moreover, it is not in the nature of man to be consistent.  Truth alone can be consistent.

Thus, all the sectarians without exceptions begin with THE VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF ANTIQUITY.  They want to cut Christianity off from all that the errors and passions of man have mixed in; from whatever is “false” and “unworthy of God”.  ALL THEY WANT IS THE PRIMITIVE, AND THEY PRETEND TO GO BACK TO THE CRADLE OF CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS.

To this end, they prune, they efface, they cut away; everything falls under their blows, and while one is waiting to see the original purity of the divine cult reappear, one finds himself encumbered with new formulas dating only from the night before, and which are incontestably human, since the one who created them is still alive.

Every sect undergoes this necessity.  We saw this with the Monophysites and the Nestorians; we find the same in every branch of Protestantism.  Their preference for preaching antiquity led only to cutting them off from the entire past.  Then they placed themselves before their seduced people and they swore to them that now all was fine, that the papist accretions had disappeared, that the divine cult was restored to its primitive form . . .

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              Since the liturgical reform is being undertaken by the sectarians with the same goal as the reform of dogma, of which it is the consequence, it follows that as Protestants separated from unity in order to believe less, they found themselves led to cut away in the Liturgy ALL THE CEREMONIES, ALL THE FORMULAS WHICH EXPRESS MYSTERIES.

              They called it superstition, idolatry, everything that did not seem to be merely rational, thus, limiting the expression of faith, obscuring by doubt and even negation all the views, which open on the supernatural world.

              Thus, no more Sacraments, except Baptism, preparing the way for Socialism, which freed its followers even from Baptism.  No more sacramentals, blessings, images, relics of Saints, processions, pilgrimages, etc.  No more altar, only a table, no more sacrifice as in every religion, but only a meal.  No more church but only a temple, as with the Greeks and Romans.  No more religious architecture, since there is no more mystery.  No more Christian paintings and sculpture, since there is no more sensible religion.  Finally no more poetry in a cult which is no longer impregnated by love or faith.

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The suppression of the mystical element in the Protestant liturgy was bound to produce, infallibly, the total extinction of that spirit of prayer, which in Catholicism, we call unction.

A heart in revolt can no longer love, a heart without love will be all the more able to produce passable expression of respect or fear, with the cold pride of the Pharisee.  Such is Protestant liturgy.

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              Pretending to treat nobly with God, Protestant liturgy has no need of intermediaries.  To invoke the help of the Blessed Virgin, or the protection of Saints, would be, for them, a lack of respect due to the Supreme Being.

Their liturgy excludes that entire “papist idolatry” which asks from a creature what only should be asked from God.  It purges the calendar of all those names of men, which the Roman Church so boldly inscribes next to the name of God.  It has a special horror for those names of monks and other persons of later times who one can find figuring next to the names of the Apostles, whom Jesus Christ had chosen, and by whom was founded this primitive Church which alone was pure in faith and free from all superstition in cult and from every relaxation in morals.

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Since the liturgical reform had for one of its principal aims the abolition of actions and formulas of mystical signification, it is a logical consequence that its authors had to vindicate the use of the vernacular in divine worship.

              This is in the eyes of sectarians a most important item. Cult is no secret matter.  The people, they say, must understand what they sing.  Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the hearts of all the enemies of Rome.  They recognize it as the bond among Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. ( . . .)

The spirit of rebellion which drives them to confide the universal prayer to the idiom of each people, of each province, of each century, has for the rest produced its fruits, and the reformed themselves constantly perceive that the Catholic people, in spite of their Latin prayers, relish better and accomplish with more zeal the duties of the cult than most do the Protestant people.  At every hour of the day, divine worship takes place in Catholic churches.  The faithful Catholic, who assists, leaves his mother tongue at the door.  Apart form the sermons, he hears nothing but mysterious words which, even so, are not heard in the most solemn moment of the Canon of the Mass.  Nevertheless, this mystery charms him in such a way that he is not jealous of the lot of the Protestant, even though the ear of the latter doesn’t hear a single sound without perceiving its meaning.(…)

. . . We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language.  If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory.  Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks on the marketplace.  ( . . .)

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In taking away from the Liturgy the mystery which humbles reason, Protestantism took care not to forget the practical consequence, that is to say, liberation from the fatigue and the burden of the body imposed by the rules of the papist Liturgy.

First of all, no more fasting, no more abstinence, no more genuflections in prayer.  For the ministers of the temple, no more daily functions to carry out, no more canonical prayers to recite in the name of the Church.

Such is one of the principal forms of the great Protestant emancipation: to diminish the sum of public and private prayers.

The course of events has quickly shown that faith and charity, which are nourished by prayers, were extinguished in the reform, whereas among Catholics both still nourish all the acts of devotion to God and men, since they are impregnated by the ineffable resources of liturgical prayer as accomplished by the secular and regular clergy, and in which the community of the faithful participate.

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Since Protestantism had to establish a rule in order to distinguish among the papist institutions those which could be the most hostile to its principle, it had to rummage around in the foundations of the Catholic structure to find the corner stone on which everything rests.  Its instinct caused it to discover first of all that dogma which is irreconcilable with every innovation: Papal authority.  When Luther wrote on his flag: “Hatred for Rome and its laws”, he only promulgated once more the underlying principle of every branch of the anti-liturgical sect.  From then on he had to abrogate, ‘en masse’ both cult and ceremonies as the idolatries of Rome.  The Latin language, the Divine Office, the calendar, the breviary: all were abominations of the great Harlot of Babylon.  The Roman Pontiff weighs down reason by his dogmas and the sense by his ritual practices.  Therefore, it must be proclaimed that his dogmas are only blasphemy and error, and his liturgical observances nothing but a means of establishing more firmly a usurped and tyrannical domination. (. . .)

One should here bring to mind the marvelous reflections of Joseph de Maistre in his book The Pope, where he demonstrates with so much wisdom and depth that, in spite of the disagreement which should isolate the diay aent sects, there is one thing in which they are all alike, namely, they are non-Roman.

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The anti-liturgical heresy needed, in order to establish its reign for good, the destruction in fact and in principle of all priesthood in Christianity.  For it felt that where there is a Pontiff, there is an Altar, and where there is an Altar there is a sacrifice and the carrying on of a mysterious ceremonial.

Having abolished the office of Supreme Pontiff, they had to annihilate the character of the bishopric, from which emanates the mystical imposition of hands, which perpetuates the sacred hierarchy.  From this derives a great presbyterianism, which is nothing other than the immediate consequence of the suppression of the Supreme Pontiff.  From now on there is no longer a priest, properly speaking.  How could simple election without consecration make a man sacred?  Luther’s and Calvin’s reforms only know of ministers of God, or of men, as you prefer.  But this is not enough.  Chosen and established by laymen, bringing into the temple the robe of a certain bastard ministry, the minister is nothing but a layman clothed with accidental functions.  In Protestantism there exit only laymen, and this necessarily so, since there is no longer a Liturgy.  (. . .)

Such are the principal maxims of the anti-liturgical sect.  We certainly did not exaggerate in any way.  All we did was to reveal the hundred times professed doctrines of the writings of Luther, Calvin, the One Hundred Signers of Magdeburg, of Hospinien, Kemnitz, etc.  These books are easy to consult.  That is to say that what comes out of them is under the eyes of all the world.  We thought it useful to throw light on the principal features of sectarianism.  It is always profitable to know error.

It is now up to the Catholic logician to draw the conclusions.

See 42:19 to 49:00.

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St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Prima Pars

Question 1. The nature and extent of sacred doctrine

Article 9. Whether Holy Scripture should use metaphors?

Objection 1. It seems that Holy Scripture should not use metaphors. For that which is proper to the lowest science seems not to befit this science, which holds the highest place of all. But to proceed by the aid of various similitudes and figures is proper to poetry, the least of all the sciences. Therefore it is not fitting that this science should make use of such similitudes.

Objection 2. Further, this doctrine seems to be intended to make truth clear. Hence a reward is held out to those who manifest it: “They that explain me shall have life everlasting” (Sirach 24:31). But by such similitudes truth is obscured. Therefore, to put forward divine truths by likening them to corporeal things does not befit this science.

Objection 3. Further, the higher creatures are, the nearer they approach to the divine likeness. If therefore any creature be taken to represent God, this representation ought chiefly to be taken from the higher creatures, and not from the lower; yet this is often found in Scriptures.

On the contrary, It is written (Hosea 12:10): “I have multiplied visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.” But to put forward anything by means of similitudes is to use metaphors. Therefore this sacred science may use metaphors.

I answer that, It is befitting Holy Writ to put forward divine and spiritual truths by means of comparisons with material things. For God provides for everything according to the capacity of its nature. Now it is natural to man to attain to intellectual truths through sensible objects, because all our knowledge originates from sense. Hence in Holy Writ, spiritual truths are fittingly taught under the likeness of material things. This is what Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. i):

“We cannot be enlightened by the divine rays except they be hidden within the covering of many sacred veils.”

It is also befitting Holy Writ, which is proposed to all without distinction of persons — “To the wise and to the unwise I am a debtor” (Romans 1:14) — that spiritual truths be expounded by means of figures taken from corporeal things, in order that thereby even the simple who are unable by themselves to grasp intellectual things may be able to understand it.

Reply to Objection 1. Poetry makes use of metaphors to produce a representation, for it is natural to man to be pleased with representations. But sacred doctrine makes use of metaphors as both necessary and useful.

Reply to Objection 2. The ray of divine revelation is not extinguished by the sensible imagery wherewith it is veiled, as Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. i); and its truth so far remains that it does not allow the minds of those to whom the revelation has been made, to rest in the metaphors, but raises them to the knowledge of truths; and through those to whom the revelation has been made others also may receive instruction in these matters. Hence those things that are taught metaphorically in one part of Scripture, in other parts are taught more openly. The very hiding of truth in figures is useful for the exercise of thoughtful minds and as a defense against the ridicule of the impious, according to the words “Give not that which is holy to dogs” (Matthew 7:6).

Reply to Objection 3. As Dionysius says, (Coel. Hier. i) it is more fitting that divine truths should be expounded under the figure of less noble than of nobler bodies, and this for three reasons. Firstly, because thereby men’s minds are the better preserved from error. For then it is clear that these things are not literal descriptions of divine truths, which might have been open to doubt had they been expressed under the figure of nobler bodies, especially for those who could think of nothing nobler than bodies. Secondly, because this is more befitting the knowledge of God that we have in this life. For what He is not is clearer to us than what He is. Therefore similitudes drawn from things farthest away from God form within us a truer estimate that God is above whatsoever we may say or think of Him. Thirdly, because thereby divine truths are the better hidden from the unworthy.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1001.htm#article9

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

The Devil Hates Latin, Says Exorcist

DAVID CLAYTON

I just attended a talk by the exorcist for diocese of San Jose, Fr Gary Thomas. He is the subject of a book and a film called The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins. (The talk was organized by a group called Catholics at Work.)
First, he was a great speaker. He described how almost by accident, and after 20 years as a parish priest, he found himself sent to Rome to learn how to perform the Rite of Exorcism. He was very clear in saying that, in his opinion, the recent rise in interest in New Age paganism has opened the door to adherence to the occult for greater numbers of people than before, which in turn opens the way to diabolical possession. He has always been inundated with requests, even before the publicity. 
The fact that he described these things pretty much in the same straightforward, matter-of-fact way that one might describe what goes on in a marriage or baptism in a parish RCIA class only served to reinforce the truth of it all for me. And I would say that if anything is to increase your faith, it is listening to accounts of how the Church overcomes the effects of possession by the devil and demons, and the suffering of those poor people who are affected by them.
I wanted to pass on one little comment that he made almost in passing. I do not know where he stands liturgically in regard to the Mass – there was nothing in what he said that led me to believe that he celebrates the Latin Mass, for example. However, he did explain that the Rite of Exorcism is only said in Latin. One reason is practical – there is no approved translation in English as yet. He gave another reason why he was so strongly in favor of the use of Latin in the Rite of Exorcism:

“The Devil hates Latin, it is the universal language of the Church.”

I asked him about this afterwards, and he repeated it, saying that his personal experiences as an exorcist who has performed many, many exorcisms have convinced him of this. He told me he had heard from exorcists who did exorcisms in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (the only approved vernaculars for this Rite) that

Latin was the most effective language.

TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC PRIEST

Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis
November 16, 2014 by Fr Carota

Latin Mass, Latin Exorcism, Latin Sacraments Crush The Devil

Ancient Catholic Missals show that the Latin Mass Canon has been basically the same ever since Pope Gregory the Great (560-604). Pope Pius V (1504-1572), only slightly modified this ancient Gregorian Missal, along with some of the rubrics.  He did not modify the Roman Canon itself.  He then promulgated this ancient Roman Latin Mass in all places (except where there was still in use another Rite that was 200 years or older).  This did not include where the Byzantine Rites were being used.  But remember, the vast majority of Catholics are Roman Rite Catholics.


Vision St. Gregory Had While Offering The Latin Mass

Since then, slight changes have been made, like new saints feast days, but the Tridentine Missal, or St. Pius V Missal was in use all over the Roman Rite Church for 400 years.

But then, in 1965, this Tridentine Missal was translated into the vernacular (in our case, English) and no longer was obliged to be offered in Latin only.  The Novus Ordo, (New Mass), of Pope Paul VI was promulgated and began being offered all over the Roman Rite world in December 1969.  The Latin Tridentine Mass was then suppressed in the Church, (except for a few places and for old priests who did not want to offer the new mass or could not learn it).

At the exact time that Latin was being removed from the Catholic Church’s Sacraments, all hell broke out in the world.  Many attribute the break down of society and the down fall of the Catholic faith to the “drugs, sex and rock n roll” revolution of the late 60’s.  I contend that it was the devil, and his friends (demons), who brought on the revolution.

Remember that the devil hates Latin and the sacred ancient Latin Sacraments, Rites and prayers of the Catholic Church.  So you can see that it was precisely when Latin was being removed, (1965-69), that all hell broke loose.

Many ask why the devil hates Latin and why it is used in Exorcisms and has power over the devil.  The answer is that ecclesiastical Latin is a sacred language that was reserved only for the divine service of the Church of God, in prayer and in the Sacraments.  (There is classic Roman Latin of Cicero that is also studied today.  But it is significantly different for the sacred ecclesiastical Latin.)

Our profane language is English.  It is used to cuss with, to curse with, gossip with, to lie with, to deceive with, to corrupt souls with, along with all the other common ways it is used to communicate with.

On the other hand, ecclesiastical Latin is only used for holy things, and is a dead language that does not change and has been reserved for centuries just for prayer, (especially the Latin Mass).  For this reason, the devil hates it.

It is so sad when Catholics say they hate the Latin Mass.  They literally say they do not like it, or, in some cases, say they hate the Holy Latin Mass, just because it is in Latin.  They also say that they do not want to go because they cannot understand what is being said.  I tell them, please, God gives you everything all week long, 24-7, can’t you just offer God one hour in sacred prayer, the way He likes it?  Why hate what the devil hates?  Why not love what God loves?

The proof that God love’s the Latin Mass is the it was He that had His Church offered it that way, in the Roman Rite Church, for the last 1800 years?  The only other answer is that God and His Church had it wrong all those years, and finally, 1800 years later we got it right.  How absurd.

My theory is that when the popes removed Latin from the Roman Catholic Church, and suppressed the Tridentine Mass, that is what allowed all hell to break out on earth.  We need to return to the Latin Mass and other Latin Rites and prayers to fight the devil.

I talk about the Roman Rite or Roman Catholic Church because Latin is our sacred language.  Other rites use other sacred languages like Greek, Russian, and Aramaic.  Most of these rites have not had their Divine Liturgies altered since Vatican II and are still basically in their ancient form.

Let us all do our part to get rid of hell out of this world by bringing back the Latin Mass, all the Latin Rite Sacraments and the Exorcisms.  We are so blessed to be traditional Catholics and have these nuclear weapons to fight the devil.
Father Carota
The original author of this blog passed away in July of 2016. RIP Father Carota.