Sunday Mass Form

[TerrorDæmonum]

What is the form of Mass you typically attend/witness on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation?

The question is phrased to allow all to answer, even those who cannot attend Mass, but perhaps watch it remotely in some fashion.

For explanations, if needed:

• Missa solemnis is a Solemn/High Mass where there are a Priest, Deacon, and Subdeacon
• Missa cantata is a Sung Mass, commonly called a High Mass, without a Deacon and Subdeacon
• Missa leca is a Low Mass (Read Mass)

[Justin Martyr]

Is it possible to make it where we can select two? I alternate each sunday between the Mass of St. Paul VI and a Missa Cantata of the Mass of St. Pius V (the latter is only available bi-weekly and is the only TLM within 100 miles), so I equally attend two of the options.

[TerrorDæmonum]

Is it possible to make it where we can select two? I alternate each sunday between the Mass of St. Paul VI and a Missa Cantata of the Mass of St. Pius V (the latter is only available bi-weekly and is the only TLM within 100 miles), so I equally attend two of the options.

It was possible, but the poll cannot be edited. I did not anticipate someone going out of their way to prove that my assumption that one would predominate.  There is always someone...

Pick the traditional Roman Rite form, as the question is aimed at Traditionalists and the Novus Ordo and Divine Liturgy were only really included for those who cannot pick a traditional Roman Rite form. That is why they don't have various forms, as the poll is about traditional Roman Rite attendance, and I knew some would want to participate who were unable to attend for some reason.

[drummerboy]

  I attend Low Mass, with High Mass only when that's what's offered for the day or feast (I like to joke I'm a Low Church Catholic ha ha).  High Mass gets too confusing with the choir doing their thing and the priest his, and then sometimes the priest sits and waits while the choir chants.  Combine that with my tendency to get anxious at Church or else my ears act up and I get really thirsty (Meniere's disease), the longer High Mass just doesn't agree with me.  And the Low Mass allows myself to pray along better.

[Prayerful]

Low Mass in SSPX chapel, sometimes the same the diocesan church. I detest traffic (doubly a hazard on a powered or unpowered two wheeler if used) and like the quietness of 9.00 on Sunday morning. I can follow every word and gesture at a Low Mass. Too many at the High Mass.

[mikemac]

I always thought the Missa cantata was a sung Low Mass.  The Classification is explained below.

Classification

The Baltimore Ceremonial thus classified the Missa cantata as a High Mass. The early 20th-century Catholic Encyclopedia said, on the contrary, that a Missa cantata "is really a low Mass, since the essence of high Mass is not the music but the deacon and subdeacon. Only in churches which have no ordained person except one priest, and in which high Mass is thus impossible, is it allowed to celebrate the Mass (on Sundays and feasts) with most of the adornment borrowed from high Mass, with singing and (generally) with incense."[3]

In 1960, Pope John XXIII's Code of Rubrics distinguished the Missa cantata both from a high Mass and from low Mass. Under the number 271, it defined the forms of Mass as follows:

    Masses are of two kinds: sung Masses (in cantu) and low Masses (Missa lecta).

    A Mass is called a sung Mass, when the celebrant actually sings those parts which the rubrics require to be sung; otherwise it is called a low Mass.

    Moreover, a sung Mass, when celebrated with the assistance of sacred ministers, is called a solemn or High Mass (Missa solemnis); when celebrated without sacred ministers, it is called a Missa cantata.[4]

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_cantata

[TerrorDæmonum]

I always thought the Missa cantata was a sung Low Mass.  The Classification is explained below.

Yes, but the use of the English was for vernacular usage, which is not very consistent. If we use the number of clergy as the distinction, the Missa cantata is a Low Mass. But if we use singing and incense, it is a High Mass.

Growing up, we used the words "Low Mass", "High Mass", and "Solemn High Mass" to distinguish the three, which I think is normal in the USA and consistent with the distinctions in your quote. Of course, if we were better with the words, we would distinguish a Read Mass, Sung Mass, and a Solemn Mass. I was told as a child that it is properly a Sung Mass, not a High Mass, but for a child's perspective, the length is really the distinction, not the number of clergy. Plus, I have not been in a place where having three clerics on hand for regular Mass was common, although, I have attended enough through my life to recognize them clearly, but it is usually a special occasion like Holy Week.

When a bishop gets involved, it adds more complexity, but I left that out as I don't think it is common for people here and a Pontifical form of each can be done with the distinctions made.

[mikemac]

I was born in 1952 so it was the Latin Mass then.  I just remember the Low Mass and the High Mass from back then.  The High Mass was always at 11:00 am at the cathedral.  I don't remember the Mass being call a sung Mass or a Missa cantata back then.  Only since I got access to the Latin Mass about 15 years ago have I heard the term Missa cantata.  We used to have a Missa cantata for quite a while but the schola members moved out of the area.

[TerrorDæmonum]

I was born in 1952 so it was the Latin Mass then.  I just remember the Low Mass and the High Mass from back then.  The High Mass was always at 11:00 am at the cathedral.  I don't remember the Mass being call a sung Mass or a Missa cantata back then.  Only since I got access to the Latin Mass about 15 years ago have I heard the term Missa cantata.  We used to have a Missa cantata for quite a while but the schola members moved out of the area.

I was born in the late 80s and I was born and raised in the traditional Latin Mass (and didn't even know anything else until I was 14, and even though, it was a very vague awareness). I was raised calling them Low, High (properly Sung), and Solemn Masses, although, we usually primarily distinguished the Low and Sung forms (both of which we usually called High) as in terms of experience and scheduling, that was the real distinction in practical terms.

I am using the Latin terms and translations for the poll. I grew up distinguishing High and Low, with an awareness that a Sung and Solemn Mass were different forms.

My attendance never had any prolonged interruptions, so in terms of my experience, I'm more or less entirely pre-Vatican II in terms of liturgical experience, although, the 1962 Missal is what I almost always used (but not always, as a pastor of mine was able to get permission to use the previous Missal on special occasions).

It must have been difficult for those who experienced liturgical changes and chaos. I remember once, years ago, a very old man at the time (over 70), reminisced to me at a local church where I was at for something other than Mass about how the Mass used to be in Latin, etc. It is strange to think he was reminiscing of things I had grown up with and still attended.

Of course, I had a man that old do something recently about records, and I showed him the 78s I had just bought. I actually listen to them (and they are usually quite cheap and their condition is much easier to discern visually than vinyl).

Maybe for whatever reason, I'm antiquated from the start.

[Kaesekopf]

My ICKSP oratory offers Missa cantatas and lectas on Sundays and holy days.  When they can get the clerics, they'll offer the solemnis (generally for "bigger" feast days).

We had a streak of monthly solemnis Masses, but COVID came, and one of the diocesans got re-assigned to a busier assignment. 

But, the oratory keeps growing, the diocesan priests get friendly, and we get more solemnis out of it, so, I figure it's a win either way.

[drummerboy]

My ICKSP oratory offers Missa cantatas and lectas on Sundays and holy days.  When they can get the clerics, they'll offer the solemnis (generally for "bigger" feast days).

We had a streak of monthly solemnis Masses, but COVID came, and one of the diocesans got re-assigned to a busier assignment. 

But, the oratory keeps growing, the diocesan priests get friendly, and we get more solemnis out of it, so, I figure it's a win either way.

Our oratory does this as well.  It is also an excellent means of promoting the Traditional Liturgy, while not alienating our fellow Catholics - including the clergy -but building bridges.

[OmniaInstaurareInChristo]

Most Sundays it is Missa Cantata.  On holydays it is Missa Lecta.