Latin language in Church - do you like it?

Sorry about that.
I understand both languages - and it is a pleasure for me to hear them mixed line for line.

 

No need to apologize, Lindis.

How did you come to learn Latin?

To some extent I wish I knew Latin so I could read the writings of Medieval and Early Modern scholars. Back in those days Latin was the language of the educated class across all of Europe and it enabled men from different countries to communicate with one another. It would be nice to read their works directly, but thankfully more specialists are taking an interest in that time period and some of the works of great men such as William of Ockham (who wrote his most important works on politics and natural rights while he was living in Munich under the protection of Ludwig IV of Bavaria) are finally being translated into English after almost 700 years. Up until recently you had to be fluent in Latin to read this:

Dialogus
http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/dialogus/ockdial.html

 

I prefer Latin in scary movies because it helps to support the character and bestows an evil overtone from our ignorance of it's meaning when used.

 

It was offered to us as a voluntary subject at school - and I took it.
And i enjoyed then to understand the CREDO word by word.

 

The Western Church wanted to unify everyone by using the same language in the Church, this is why their Mass was in Latin. To edify the people they had catechism classes.

In contrast, the Eastern Churches decided to have the Liturgy in one's native language. This is why Saints Cyril and Methodius created the Slavic alphabet. Then in order to further edify the people they have drawings in the Churches of the different events in the Bible.

The question is not whether someone likes the Latin Mass or not, but rather what is more beneficial to one's soul? I guess only Catholics could answer that. As for my personal feelings, I find their modern Mass very cold as well as their modern churches. I don't sense the Holy Spirit the way I do in a Church like Saint Patrick's Cathedral, or many of the Orthodox churches.

That though I attribute not only to the holiness of the Saint's relics, but to the prayers of the devout over the years. Basically it would be the same thing as the evil one senses in places where bad events had occurred.

 

error

 

At one time an education required a knowledge of Latin. I know in the elite schools in Boston it was required, and even my father who attended High school in a small town in Greece - and that was over 100 years ago, had to learn Latin. It might sound strange, but it was the official language together with Greek in the Byzantine Empire.

 

May I ask whether you belong to the Greek Orthodox Church?
I am interested in all the Orthodox Churches of the East.
I have visited Russian Orthodox Church services both in Russia and in Germany.
And I have visited Greek Orthodox Church services here in Germany.
And i liked the Liturgy very much.
Very very solemn!

And I like to think of a Greek Easter service where I have taken part - here in Germany.
Very impressing!

 

Not terribly strange when you consider that the Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire and Latin was the language of the educated classes across Europe. Of course, the Byzantines had a lot of contact with the Italians over the centuries, too.

 

I'm Greek Orthodox, and it is a highly spiritual faith - something that caused a divide between the more modern minded people who were just holding on to traditions and the peasantry. In the past 40 years though they've had all these Saints in Greece and now at the Church of Saint Isadore at Lykavettos in Athens, there are thousands of cures taking place with people of all faiths including Muslims.

I guess God wants to comfort and give the people strength, because of Turkey's threats and its incursions into the Greek waters. They call the Aegean and the islands their Blue Homeland and that they were stolen from Turkey.

 

The last Latin Emperor of Constantinople was Justinian, then the language switched to Greek although both were official languages. The Greek they wrote in was classical Greek though, not the spoken language.

There was a lot of contact with the Italians, especially with the Venetians and Genovese and according to a Russian documentary, it was when the Italians took over certain responsibilities from the Byzantines, that the Empire began to decline.

 

Occasionally it's interesting but I don't speak the language I don't understand it so it wouldn't make any difference if they said it in Latin or Klingon.

I have a bit of a pet peeve with Latin. Most people that say words in Latin will say a stupid word in Latin and then tell you that it's Latin for something that you probably already know just so they can sound smart... Through no fault of the actual speakers in the language it has become the language of the pretentious

 

Why would "modern minded people" cling more to tradition than the peasantry? It's usually the reverse. Maybe I am not understanding what you are juxtaposing here.

I'm seriously interested.

Thank you.

 

I'm sorry, I didn't complete my thoughts, something I tend to do lately. Either that or I'm thinking of one word, and end up writing another. I'm old so you have to excuse me.

What I meant is that the peasantry is more devout, while the secular people are just following the traditions and holidays, and ignoring the spiritual aspect of the faith.

 

Let's hear some Greek as well!

 

Now:

5 x I like it
1 x I do not like is
1 x I do not care

 

I love this Byzantine hymn. It's called the Champion Warrior and it's in honor of our Mother of God as the Protectress of Constantinople.



This is the Byzantine Hymn of Cassiani that is sung on Good Tuesday:



Stanford made a study and were able to reconstruct how the hymns in Saint Sophia in Constantinople would have sounded 1,500 years ago. According to the video it had 1,000 clerics, which included hierarchs priests, deacons, deaconesses, and chanters.

 

No need to speak it - just sing it!

 

I don't sing it either.

 

The original Bibles were written in Latin.

 

If I may add: The very first gospels were writen in Greek and in Hebrew.
But soon then translated into Latin.
Latin was the language of the Empire then.
And as important as English is now worldwide

 

Would do you good, though!
Try the Gregorian Chant - it is good for body and soul!

 

No, I don't imitate languages I am not fluent in.

 

Beautiful!



Complete Gregorian Chant Rosary

 

I said that the Bible was originally written in Latin. Sure, there were bits and pieces of scrolls floating around but they were not the Bible, which was written in the 680s-early 690s in England. Three master copies were produced and written in Latin, the language of the Catholic church. Each book weighed 75 pounds. All Bible versions originated from those master copies. One still exists. There is no earlier authentic Bible in any language on this planet.