Reader's Letter: A Senior Chinese Catholic Talks About Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass

(translated from https://qui-confidunt.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_10.html)

Editor's note: After reading our article "Sailing against the tide: our group's analysis and position statement on Pope Francis' latest bull", an enthusiastic older Catholic contacted us to express some views on the recent liturgical reform by sending us an article. From this letter we can see that many people resist the Latin Mass on the pretext that they cannot understand or read it, especially the elderly, but the older Catholics and the devout Catholics of generations past have proved by their faith that this is no excuse, but only what is most reverent to God, that is all.

I would like to say a few words about the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass.

I am 80 years old and have attended the Latin Mass from my childhood until I was in my 40s. I still remember that the divine and melodious sacred music at the Latin Mass deepened our reverence and love for God and gave us a sense of joy as if we were in front of the heavenly altar. At the end of the Mass, I could still leave the church feeling the afterglow of the music, as if I were still in the ambience, and feeling an immense peacefulness and warmth in my soul.

The New Rite Mass today is not the same as the Latin Mass. At the Latin Mass, the Eucharist was celebrated with the utmost reverence, with everyone from the priest to the lay faithful observing eucharist fast and kneeling at the communion rail to receive Eucharist on their tongues with reverence.

At the Novus Ordo Mass, the faithful do not kneel, and some even receive the Eucharist with their unwashed hands and chew on it. Some clergy even chew the Eucharist with their teeth before swallowing it at Mass. In the past, the faithful everywhere knew not to chew and bite the Eucharist, but to consciously wait for it to soften in their mouths before swallowing it after receiving it, because they knew that the Eucharist they were receiving was no longer an ordinary pastry. The bread that is consecrated at the Holy Mass has undergone a divine transformation and is therefore not the bread itself, but the real presence of our Lord Jesus. To this day, the older generation of Catholics do not bite into the Eucharist with their teeth. I have been to Australia, Singapore and other places where this is also the case. There is no doubt that the reverence for God during the Latin Mass was unanimous. As Catholics we all know to love God above all things, but some Catholics receive the Holy Communion of Our Lord Jesus and chew it in their mouths, is that loving God? When some Catholics corrected them out of their sincere love for God and the goodness of loving people, some of them even made the excuse that "Jesus said when He instituted the Eucharist, "Take this and eat it, it is my body ......". The Lord Jesus said, "Take and eat", but when did he say, "Take and bite? Chew it? There are many ways to eat: when you take medicine, you swallow it directly with the help of water; when you eat candy, you melt it slowly in your mouth, but you do not chew it with your teeth. Why chew with your teeth when you can take the Eucharist softly and swallow it? Can one bear to chew on the body of our Lord Jesus, knowing that it is His body, and thus increase His suffering?

This strange and sacrilegious phenomenon did not exist at the time of the Latin Mass. Should we not reflect, repent, make penance and atone to appease the wrath of God, when there are so many calamities all around the world?

From Ms. Teresa Ngai (魏德肋撒), a Catholic

Translated by Darya