This Lent my parish is offering a Vespers service on Thursday evenings during Lent. I’d been meaning to go, and finally was able to make it tonight. It was quite nice.
It is part of the Liturgy of the Hours, a daily regimen of song and prayer that goes back centuries. It was almost entirely sung, both from the presiding priest and the congregants, and at time we alternated verses, so one half said a verse, and the other replied. We sang Psalms and Gospel readings, the Canticle of Mary, and concluded with the Our Father in Latin and a Latin devotional to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I think the revival of these practices is driving a lot of the increases we are seeing in adult baptisms and conversion/reversion. The inclusion of Latin gives it a feeling of great antiquity as well as reverence.
Perhaps next week I will see if I can convince the kids to join us, because I think they might enjoy it as well.
Chateau Lloyd 
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