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| First Mass at St. Micheal's - Windsor, PA |
Why we attend the Traditional Latin Mass
By: Amanda Kauffman
I was raised Methodist in a wonderful loving family, in a small tight knit parish. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I began to learn about Catholicism. At that time he was attending the “New” Mass, and I began attending with him. About a year before we married (2001) I joined the Catholic church, but was not happy with ANY of the parishes in the area. The church I attended as a child had at most 200 members, the Catholic churches were as large as 3,000 members. There was just no feeling of family.
I tried to get involved in every way that I could, from making advent wreaths to being in charge of vacation bible school. That was probably the point in time that I decided either we find something MUCH smaller or I wasn’t going anymore. The women were so rude and unwelcoming that it was so disappointing to me. The CCD ladies wouldn’t even let me borrow their scissors.
As soon as Bible school was over we I left that parish. We tried several parishes with the same results. My husband was attending collage at local University and was in contact with a professor that was talking to him about the Traditional Mass. He read and read for hours on end researching on the Mass. He went to visit the Latin Mass around Christmas time sure that he would be struck by lightning or something of the like. Instead he found the nicest group of people.
By this time we had an almost 2 yr old daughter, and he came home and told me about all the families and children. We decided to give it a try, we went to our first Latin Mass as a family in December 2004.
I remember wearing my veil for the first time, there was a feeling of reverence that it brought on, even feeling a bit self-conscious. There was something so beautiful about the mass itself. The smell of the candles and incense, the way the vestments looked and they way everyone actually prayed. It was a whole different atmosphere then that of the Novas ordo church, a feeling of respect for Our Lord.
It was at this parish I had that feeling of “home.” We walked in and were greeted by almost every one in the parish. We were invited to coffee and from there we never looked back.
The faith life of this family has changed so completely!
