I woke up this Sunday to the brightly mischievous voice of Bill Haley as Scott handed me his phone. "Would you like a ride to Latin Mass today?" The sound of uncountable amounts of Catholic children permeated the background. I quickly explained that I would be there but that I had already made arrangements with the Lindquists to go to Mater Misericordiae. Anticipation was in the air. Subtext? Anybody who's anybody is going to be at Latin Mass. As Josh Rice so eloquently put it back at Hillsdale "Mass is pretty much just a club for the coolest people." I firmly believe that liturgical peer pressure is good for the soul.   

High Latin Mass is another of those newly discovered privileges that I desperately want to make a regular practice. I am steel in PTLSD (Post-Traumatic-Liturgical-Stress-Disorder) from climbing the liturgical ladder so quickly from Evangelicalism to Roman Catholicism. Ecclesiastical Vertigo. I used to worry about whether or not I should consider closing my eyes and raising my hands in worship. Now I frantically cross myself every thirty seconds as a sort of safety barrier. You never know when something especially holy might be happening. Garrett's little brother has a habit of referring to high church forms of worship as the "Stand-Up, Sit-Down" method. He's right. "Intuitive" is not the word I would choose to describe formal liturgical worship. So why choose it? Why not sit in comfy seats and drink Starbucks? Or why not gather in basements with praise songs and candles moving as the Spirit leads? Why insist on patterns and practices that must be learned and performed? My imagination runs wild. Screen pans left. Angry Baptists hold signs saying "Low Church: We're the 99%" "Come As You Are To Worship!" (bathrobe and coffee, anyone?) "Liturgical Legalism? Meet G-C-D-A, the chord progression dictated by God himself."

Ultimately, my attraction to liturgy is the fulfillment of the principles my father instilled in me. Church is about God, not us. It's a simple thing that requires constant vigilance. Wasn't it my Dad that complained to me about how the band was up front distracting our attention? Now I hear plainsong from the schola in the balcony. Behind me. My Dad would love it. He would often explain to me the fundamental mistakes that "seeker-sensitive" churches were making. Evangelism can never be the primary goal of the church service. It sickened him to see people brought to a service by anything other than the things of God. (I could digress here on youth group tactics but I'd like to avoid hate-speech censures from the State of Arizona for a while longer.) Church is for those who know Whom they are desiring.

The earliest Christians kept the celebration of the mysteries of God almost completely secret from outsiders. Evangelism took place in daily living, not during the Eucharistic feast. A fond memory I carry with me is the Divine Liturgy I attended for a friend's wedding. The whole thing was in Greek (and hey, we Westerners still get our weekly dose of Kyrie's) and after completing the introductory portions announced "Ta Thura, Ta Thura!" The doors, the doors. The insistence on closing communion to those only partially initiated or half-heartedly participating speaks volumes as to what Church IS. The celebration of the Eucharist deserves the privacy and reverence of the marriage bed.

As a modern Evangelical Christian, I didn't even know what I didn't know. Thank God, that my Dad had the right instincts. He knew the first question was to ask "What is the nature of worship?" Admittedly, it's a question that has hounded my friends and more broadly speaking my entire non-denominational generation and the course isn't easy. It's a question that spans a prodigious amount of history and theology that I really have no business talking about.  Luckily, we can afford to make the question more concrete. What is it that we do during Mass every Sunday?

“The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. It is the Sacrifice dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day on the Altar. If you wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart and mouth all that happens at the Altar. Further, you must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens on the Altar. When acting in this way you have prayed Holy Mass.”-  His Holiness, Pope Saint Pius X