Online Resources for Catholic discussions, the Divine Office and the Latin Mass

Catholic Information Network (CIN)
(www.cin.org)
Catholic Information Network (CIN) has been around for a long time, fostering discussions between Catholics scattered all over the country. I remember hearing about it back in the days when there was no Internet, just messages shuttled around on private computers. CIN now has a robust presence on the Web, and there’s a lot more to it than just discussion groups. On their main page you will find the latest talks by Pope John Paul II, breaking Catholic news, and a very large library of official and unofficial documents useful to Catholics want-ing to study their faith.

But the part I still like most about CIN is its chat forums. There are two ways to dialogue with your fellow Catholics on the site. The first is entirely Web-based. A person enters a question or comment that serves to lead off a discussion. Then people chime in with their responses, which are added onto the end of an ever-growing document. This kind of discussion format works pretty well on some other websites, but frankly I found the visual layout on CIN to be a bit confusing.

I like the e-mail lists better. You enter your user name and e-mail address to sign up for discussion groups that interest you. CIN hosts a large number of discussion groups, on topics such as Apologetics, Bible Discussion, Traditional Latin Mass, the Charismatic movement, and Eastern Catholicism. Group members e-mail their questions and comments to a central e-mail address, and these get distributed to everybody on the list. You can also go back and access the archives of these e-mail lists for as long as they’ve been in existence. It’s a great way to meet new people and grow deeper in your faith.


Universalis
(www.universalis.com)
For almost a year now my wife and I have been involved with the Institute of St. Joseph, an association of the faithful in our diocese that fosters spiritual formation. Part of our formation is daily recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours or, as it is also known, the Divine Office. All priests and religious are required to say the Divine Office, but Vatican II encouraged the laity to join with the Church in this universal prayer.

The Universalis site is all about encouraging and helping you to do just that. On this site is a shortened version of the Liturgy of the Hours. Just log on and you’ll be able to view and print out the Divine Office of the day, for morning, evening, and night prayers. Because of copyright restrictions, the translation of the Psalms and other Scripture readings on the site is not the same as that in the approved printed versions; and not all of the antiphons, responsorials, and concluding prayers are available. What this site does is give you an introduction to the Divine Office, helping you appreciate the beauty of the Church’s official prayer and the spiritual help that comes from praying with the whole Church in a daily rhythm.

You’ll also find the daily Mass readings and a calendar of the saints, so that you’re aware of those whom we’re commemorating today. And if you decide that the Liturgy of the Hours is something that you would like to make a part of your regular prayer life, you can order the printed books right from Universalis. But be sure to have your priest or somebody else who prays the Hours help you learn to use the book; as I know from personal experience, they can be pretty confusing for neophytes.

Una Voce
(www.unavoce.org)
The Una Voce (Latin for “One Voice”) organization was formed in response to Pope John Paul II’s injunctions in his apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei, encouraging all the bishops of the world to provide “wide and generous” access to the traditional Latin Mass in use prior to Vatican II. The movement to preserve and foster the traditional Latin Mass stems from more than just a desire to say the Mass in that particular language. It sees this form of the Mass, which extends back to the very earliest centuries of the Catholic Church, as a deep well of the Church’s most beautiful spirituality and profound theology and therefore as a treasure to be cherished and lived out.

On the Una Voce site you’ll find lots of late-breaking news pertinent to the flourishing Latin Mass movement (which is not comprised of a bunch of ancient fuddy-duddies; many of the Latin Rite parishes around the country are brimming with young people!). And you’ll also find resources to make your own participation in this Mass more fruitful. For example, if you want to learn Latin, the site has links to excellent teaching tools on the Web. It has great resources on Gregorian Chant, something that — according to Vatican II — we should all be singing in our parishes.

The many documents on the liturgy — its significance, its history, and its theology — will help you appreciate the traditional Latin Mass more fully. One of the most interesting things for me was the collection of official Church documents on the Latin Mass. I learned, for example, that for over a century the popes have been trying to get the laity to participate more at Mass, specifically in the singing of the Gregorian Chant.

If the information on UnaVoce.org prompts you to attend, you can conveniently find the nearest traditional Latin Mass right from the site.


David Palm can be reached at djpalm64@yahoo.com.

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