Recent travels have thrown a wrench in my writing schedule, so it’s taken me longer to get to this announcement than I had intended. Last month, TAN Books released my latest work, Turned Around: Replying to Common Objections Against the Traditional Latin Mass, which I now commend to readers of New Liturgical Movement.
Here’s the idea behind it: I take nine objections Catholics make to the traditional Latin Mass, and turn them around in jiu-jitsu fashion: “You are right—but you don’t realize how right you are!”
To the objection that “the priest has his back to me. I can’t engage with him,” I reply: “Yes, he does, and no, you can’t—that’s exactly how it should be, and here’s why.” Or “at Mass the priest is doing everything and I’m just watching him”: “Yes, he alone does everything in his proper priestly way, and that makes it possible for you to do everything in the way proper to you.” Or: “It’s all fancy, like a royal court, which doesn’t fit with a democratic society like ours”: “That’s right, because we are in a royal court, the most royal and most courtly of all, and we have left democracy far behind.”
And so with six additional objections, having to do with:
• the use of a non-vernacular, ancient language;
• kneeling to receive Communion on the tongue;
• repetition in prayers, gestures, and readings;
• the “limits” of the one-year lectionary;
• fixed inherited rituals governed by strict rubrics;
• the inability to understand everything, even after long exposure.
By turning the tables around, my goal is to bring into clearer focus why, over the centuries, the Holy Spirit formed this venerable rite for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be just the way it was and is—the way that countless saints prayed the Mass day in and day out—in order to show how we, too, stand to gain from its peculiar non-modern, even anti-modern features. As many have observed, it is the paradoxical and countercultural aspects of the Latin Mass that powerfully draw numbers of the faithful, young and old, to this mysterious and luminous rite of divine worship.
Turned Around: Replying to Common Objections Against the Traditional Latin Mass transforms challenges into gateways, perplexities into fresh insights, brick walls into garden paths. Ultimately, our Catholic tradition guides us to deeper conversion: the turning-around to God that is the most important of all conversions.
I’m especially pleased to convey the endorsement of Karl Keating, the founder of Catholic Answers:
Here’s the idea behind it: I take nine objections Catholics make to the traditional Latin Mass, and turn them around in jiu-jitsu fashion: “You are right—but you don’t realize how right you are!”
To the objection that “the priest has his back to me. I can’t engage with him,” I reply: “Yes, he does, and no, you can’t—that’s exactly how it should be, and here’s why.” Or “at Mass the priest is doing everything and I’m just watching him”: “Yes, he alone does everything in his proper priestly way, and that makes it possible for you to do everything in the way proper to you.” Or: “It’s all fancy, like a royal court, which doesn’t fit with a democratic society like ours”: “That’s right, because we are in a royal court, the most royal and most courtly of all, and we have left democracy far behind.”
And so with six additional objections, having to do with:
• the use of a non-vernacular, ancient language;
• kneeling to receive Communion on the tongue;
• repetition in prayers, gestures, and readings;
• the “limits” of the one-year lectionary;
• fixed inherited rituals governed by strict rubrics;
• the inability to understand everything, even after long exposure.
By turning the tables around, my goal is to bring into clearer focus why, over the centuries, the Holy Spirit formed this venerable rite for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be just the way it was and is—the way that countless saints prayed the Mass day in and day out—in order to show how we, too, stand to gain from its peculiar non-modern, even anti-modern features. As many have observed, it is the paradoxical and countercultural aspects of the Latin Mass that powerfully draw numbers of the faithful, young and old, to this mysterious and luminous rite of divine worship.
Turned Around: Replying to Common Objections Against the Traditional Latin Mass transforms challenges into gateways, perplexities into fresh insights, brick walls into garden paths. Ultimately, our Catholic tradition guides us to deeper conversion: the turning-around to God that is the most important of all conversions.
The public argument in favor of the Traditional Latin Mass has been waiting for a book that handles common objections thoroughly yet winsomely. This is that book.... The writing is clear, approachable, and often elegant. Any reader, no matter his current liturgical preference, will come away instructed, intrigued, and edified.Eminent Thomistic philosopher and bête noire of progressives on Twitter, Edward Feser, agrees: “Peter Kwasniewski’s Turned Around will contribute mightily to the restoration of liturgical and spiritual understanding.” The director of the Mass of the Ages Trilogy, Cameron O’Hearn, chimes in:
The most common objections to the TLM answered, once-and-for-all! Dr. Kwasniewski has crystallized centuries-old wisdom with his always persuasive prose and left us with a literary treasure. It might be the most convincing defense of the TLM I’ve ever read.Lastly, Eric Sammons, editor of Crisis Magazine, has this to say:
Defending the TLM’s “foreignness” to modern minds is a high barrier that’s difficult to overcome. In these pages Dr. Kwasniewski not only ably accomplishes this task, he “turns around” the common objections against the TLM to show that it’s the Mass of Ages that is truly at home in a fully Catholic worldview.Prompted by Turned Around, Eric conducted an extensive interview with me for Crisis Point, covering some of the major difficulties people (both ordinary faithful and academic liturgists) have with the TLM. In the end we covered a good bit of ground. Although the content would be appreciated by TLM attendees, we made a special effort to address mainstream Catholics (so this could be a good one to send to people you know who are wondering what all the fuss is about, or who have been resisting your invitation to attend a traditional Mass because of preconceived ideas):
Kennedy Hall also interviewed me about the book. You can watch and listen to our conversation here:
Order a copy today, either at TAN Books (they're having a 40% off sale at the moment) or at Amazon — and, while you're at it, consider getting another copy for a friend or relative!
