I grew up with the Tridentine Mass and was in a Gregorian Chant choir as soon as I made my First Holy Communion, through Eighth Grade. I also was in the Sacristry Club and was president of the Sacristy Club in both high school and college. Sacristans were trained to memorize the Liturgical Calendar, set out vestments, and clean and iron linens.
Also, I had the end of Catholic Classical Education, which I passed on to my child. The small cultural habits were also in my family, which I passed on.
One of the things I have been noticing, and discussing with older TLM members, is the lack of continuity in the home regarding the Catholic culture. The break of continuity is not merely in the Mass, but in home life.
The Mass will not save a person if the daily life is not being formed in conjunction with what is seen and prayed and experienced on the Sunday.
In some TLM congregations, the faith is living and well grounded in the homes of families. I have seen this with solid homeschooling TLM families, where the domestic Church is alive and well in the home.
However, in my last two experiences of TLM congregations, and discussing this with friends my age or younger, but TLM Boomers, I and they have seen a huge falling off of Catholic culture, which impacts the Mass.
I have offered to help restore this by teaching and conferences, but no one is interested in this area.
Here are the problems, which were addressed in the 1990s and early 2000s, but missed by the Millennial and late Gen-Xers parents.
1) The use of Protestant home schooling material, which includes heresy. This has already been addressed years ago, and there are many excellent home schooling curricula by Catholics.
2) The sending of Catholic children to public schools, especially now with the Common Core, which endangers souls-see previous posts. This could be a sin on the part of the parents.
3) The lack of discipline at Mass for younger children, as if children cannot be disciplined, which is a lie from Satan.
4) The lack of proper comportment among teens, even girls, who whip their mantillas off after Mass is over in the church and being talking in the church.
5) The refusal to follow the norms of rituals for the laity as indicated in the 1962 Missal, either ignoring these, or worse, imposing stricter rules which are cultic.
6) Having cultic relationships with either false groups, such as Necedah (condemned), Bayside (condemned) or others.
7) An idea that only going to the TLM is enough for salvation. It is not.
8) A love of the American ideal of materialism and the Protestant Work Ethic, which are not based in Catholic teaching.
9) An avoidance of the reading and study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is part of the infallible teaching of the Magisterium. I have even heard TLMers say it is "wrong" which it is not.
10) A refusal to separate politics from the TLM, and the avoidance of the reading of the social encyclicals of the Church, which are infallible.
11) A deliberate misunderstanding of the SSPX status in the Church, thinking that the norms of worship kept by that group are superior to the 1962 Missal, which they are not..
I do not know how to break through this trends which seem to be more obvious. Unless what is experienced and taught in the Mass goes home in the car with the family, nothing will change.
