Impossible!

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I'm watching papal Vespers (Evening Prayer I) for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on EWTN, & I just saw something that I have been told over & over again was impossible:

YOUNG, LAY PEOPLE IN THE CONGREGATION WERE SINGING THE GREGORIAN CHANT ANTIPHONS ALONG WITH THE SCHOLA.

But, but, but... That's impossible!!!  No one knows Latin anymore.  Gregorian chant will never reach the young people.  Vatican II got rid of all that.  Everything is supposed to be in English now, even in Rome, I'm pretty sure.

Sorry my guitar-strummin', tambourine-shakin' brothas & sistas: everything old may be new again, but somethings are timeless.  Such is the beauty of Gregorian chant, which belongs to no time, but is perfect for every time.

Aside form a few modern touches (including my ability to watch it live form a quarter-world away), this celebration of Vespers could have been from a hundred years ago or a thousand years ago.  It might have even resembled worship in the great Hagia Sophia in the heyday of the Byzantine Roman Empire.

Thanks be to God, indeed.
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