Very enjoyable article, thanks. I was an altar boy for years during the reign of the “Latin Mass.” We had to learn the Confiteor by heart and us altar boys competed to race through it without error. I still remember much of it today. Of course, the Greek "Kyrie Eleison" was far easier to learn and to say. Both, I think, are beautiful prayers.

I had two years of required Latin in my Catholic high school, failing through the school years and summer school too. It was like speaking calculus. Oh, those declensions! I only remember this popular rhyme among my classmates and me:

Latin is a dead language; it is plain to see.

It killed off all the Romans, and now it’s killing me.