Nov 09 2009
Concentrating on the Sacred
One thing I like about the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (also known as the Latin or Tridentine Mass) is that it forces one to concentrate more on the Mass than the Ordinary Form of the Mass. In my opinion the Low Mass requires more concentration than the High Mass because there is even less interaction (i.e. no music or incense).
This has nothing to do with reverence since I have since I have seen the Ordinary Form of the Mass celebrated with great reverence. It is just, with the Ordinary Form of the Mass, you always know where you are in the Mass due to the “active participation”. No concentration is really needed.
However, this is not what this post is really about since Mass is the easy part. It is concentration when doing things like my prayers or sacred reading. It seem that, no matter what I do, I cannot concentrate. I have tried music and silence and neither works well for extended period of time.
The only real exception is music without any vocals does help a little. If there are any voices in the music or elsewhere, my concentration is completely disrupted. This is why I usually put Baroque music on since, for me at least, it is more relaxing that other eras of classical music and there are few vocal compositions played on the Internet site I frequent most often. It is also does not help that I have extra sensitive hearing that intensifies background noise.
I have to figure out how to concentrate. One thing I am going do is to try to find a place to live where it is quieter than where I live now. Without going into detail, lets just say I can see 2 major highways from my apartment window. I will be looking in the next couple of months at a number of places. I am still a year or so away from having enough money for a sizable chunk of land where I can build my own home.
That is one thing, now to figure out other ways to concentrate. If not, I will have a very hard time growing spiritually.
