I started this web site nearly two week ago now…  I’ve articulated – perhaps overly so – why I started this site.  The seed from which this site is growing was learning a language [Latin] I had no business learning, given my utter failures to learn any language outside of my native English.  I was thoroughly convinced that I lacked any language learning ability.

But I was completely wrong, as is unfortunately the case more than I care to admit.  For example, I was horribly wrong about whether God actually existed for the first 45 years of my life, among lesser mistakes.  So, yeah… I’ve be wrong a few time in my life.  And chances are that you have been too.’

So here’s the thing – please carefully consider learning Latin.  There is nothing standing in your way, but you! You can do it, I assure you. And, by Jove, you really, truly should give it a shot.  But before I go into the Why of Learning Latin, I want to first address the objections you and others may have up front.

The typical reasons & pushback given by Catholics and non-Catholics alike are variations of these three:

1. I don’t have the time – actually you do, you just don’t think it is important enough to carve out a sliver of time to dedicate to such an esoteric & mundane task.
2. Learning Latin has no value for me – well, that’s a similar argument to what is true for me is not true for you – my reality is different than yours – relativism.  There is value for anyone – especially, Catholics.  I’ll get to that later.
3. Latin is hard – and often perceived^† too difficult – Yes, there is some truth to this… But, like anything else in life: anything worth your time is going to take some effort. For some, a lot of effort!  But like anything that is hard – break it down to manageable tasks and smaller blocks of time.  You can overcome this obstacle, yes, really, you can.  Spend 15 minutes a day, everyday and you will be making progress, learning it over time.

First, let me expand on the second objection. The value of the Latin language is many-fold, even today in our modern world.  Let me start with the arguments you have probably heard before.

One of the most common reasons cited is that it will help you better understand the English Language or any of the Romance Languages – Spanish, French, Italian, etc.  This is very true.  Your vocabulary will soar, your reading comprehension will increase, you will know or intuit words you never noticed before rather well. Your writing will likely improve – but you will need to practice more  – I see this venue –  blog posting as a means to improve my writing.  I have the means, but without practice, I won’t get any better.  So here I am practicing.

Second, expanding on the first objection cited above:  lack of time, anything worth doing is worth the time and effort.  Start with small blocks of time.  Fifteen to thirty minutes is enough, but everyday.  Thirty minutes is better. Anything over an hour is not sustainable. Therefore, stick with small blocks and if you have larger blocks of time over the weekend, spend an hour or more.  But, like exercise, it’s better to establish a habit, increasing time as needed than to over-study/train and burn yourself out/get injured.  You can take a day off, here and there.  However, you risk losing what you have gained.  With exercise, if you slack-off and lose discipline or have fits of inconsistency, you will lose fitness/gain weight.  With study, you lose sharpness/fluency & competency.

Now switching  gears, let us discuss the universal value of Latin. What attributes of the language build measureable & immeasurable value and why?  Let me list these, then expand further in greater detail.

General/Universal Benefits

1. Increase your written & verbal fluency of English and increase fluency in any of the Romance languages you may know or plan to study in the future.
2. Open up a whole world of literature, science, history, music and culture.
3. Help you to plan, strategize, reason/solve problems, discern, distinguish nuances, argue/debate – in other words, increase your cognitive abilities, making you a better thinker.
4. Render you a better communicator of thoughts & ideas because you have better cognitive tools at your disposal.
5. And last, but not least, Latin will provide a natural gateway to learning Greek which will add to number three above.

As a Catholic, I submit the following additional Spiritual Benefits.

1. Providing access to the original writings of the early Fathers of the Church, such as St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, St. Jerome, St. Gregory the Great, to name a few.
2. The ability to read the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas – the Summa and other writings in his original words.
3. Access and understand theology at a deeper level than possible in the vernacular, due to the precision of the language itself and the striping away the modern ‘interpretational’ layer of varnish.
4. Ability to read the treasured prayers of many, many Saints in the manner in which they were written and not white-washed by modern man – who’s translations have often introduced heterodox bias by suppressing the expression of the original ideas/theology and/or introducing their own ideas into the prayers.
5. To have a better appreciation of the liturgy in the older, pre-Vatican II form of the Mass and even the modern Novus Ordo Mass in Latin.
6. Ability to understand what is being chanted or sung during Mass – a better appreciation of the poetry of sung prayer –  Gregorian Chant and Polyphony.

These additional attributes, augment and strengthen the Faith, providing an added depth & dimension lost in the common vernacular.

One of my goals here at Pietatis.org, is to promote the learning of Latin as a sacred language on par with the other Abrahamic traditions.  The Jewish religion has Hebrew as their sacred language, Islam has Arabic.  We too have a sacred language  – Latin.  Unfortunately, it was for all intents and purpose scrapped.  It was thrown out the window into the turbulent winds of the 1960’s & 7o’s.  Yet, technically, it’s still the official Language of the Church. Unfortunately, from a practical standpoint, it is no longer treated as such — sadly.

Let’s go back now and expand upon an important universal value that I listed earlier – Increasing one’s cognitive ability.  Not only will Latin hone and sharpen your written and verbal skills, it will hone your logic and thinking skills.  How, you might have been wondering?

Inflection & Cognition

A highly inflected language, such as Latin requires continuous deductive reasoning in order to understand what is written,  serving to foster clear, logical thinking. Mastery of logic is essential in excelling in the sciences, business, and in the liberal arts. As I enumerated above, it enables you to reason and think critically to solve problems, using the ability to distinguish subtle differences, recognize patters, and analyze data more effectively.

Think of Latin as a way to exercise and turbo-charge the mind to think in a more systematic and logical manner.

Because of the inflected nature of Latin, the manner in which the words are arranged,  are of little consequence.  By inflected, I mean that grammatical meaning of any given word is inflected or a modified variation in a word’s ending.  Exemplia gratia, the word for love – amare– the present active infinitive – to love.  The snippet below displays amare parsed into its principal parts using Whittaker’s Words and copied here:

amo, amare, amavi, amatus  V     1 1 [XXXAO] 
love, like; fall in love with; be fond of; have a tendency to;

1st-person singular, the present infinitive, perfect, and supine or participle.

Below, amare is conjugated further in the 2nd-person singular/plural (you [all] love):

Active Indicative
Amatis Amavistis Amabatis Amaveratis Amabitis Amaveritis

Passive Indicative
Amamini Amati Estis Amabamini Amati Eratis Amabimini Amati Eritis

Active Subjunctive
Ametis Amemini Amaretis Amaremini Amaveritis Amati Sitis Amavissetis Amati Essetis

Positive Imperative
Ama (Active singular) Amate (Active plural)
Amare (Passive singular) Amamini (Passive plural)

Negative Imperative
Noli Amare (Singular) Nolite Amare (Plural)

Participles
Amans (Present Active) Amatus (Perfect Passive) Amaturus (Future Active) Amandus (Future Passive)

Infinitives
Amare Amari Amavisse Amatus esse Amaturus esse Amatum iri

Supines
Amatum (To Show Purpose) Amatu (Used With Adj. Like An Infinitive)

That’s 36 variations of one word! Not including the 1st person & 3rd person endings. See how pattern recognition and distinguishing subtlety/nuance is required to master the language. Or how learning the language would increase this ability?

Disclosing this complexity, is risky. Indeed, this is enough to scare you away, to be sure – but it is this very complexity of a highly inflected language that gives it its precision and it’s ability to exercise the mind so vigorously and effectively, providing many of the benefits that I have illuminated thus far.

Noli timere!  Noli timere! Fear not, as the Angels have prefaced their encounter with those they appear to in Scripture (Luke 2:10, Matt. 28:5). Item nolite timere!  Likewise, don’t be fearful!

Another aspect, and one of the reasons why English is simpler grammatically speaking, is that in English the word order, for the most part, determines grammatical meaning.

Here’s a simple example, using the word that means to hit or to beat – pulsare.

Marcus pulsat Lucam (Mark hit/is hitting Luke).
Lucam pulsat Marcus (Mark hit/is hitting Luke).
Marcus Lucam pulsat (Mark hit/is hitting Luke).
Pulsat Marcus Lucam (Mark hit/is hitting Luke).
Pulsat Lucam Marcus (Mark hit/is hitting Luke).

No matter how I arrange the words,  their relative position in a sentence has no barring on the meaning of a phrase.  In English, the order means everything.

Mark is hitting Luke.
Luke is hitting Mark
Mark is being hit by Luke
Luke is being hit by Mark

Whether using the active or passive voice, switching the order in the above two sets of sentences, dramatically changes who is hitting whom.

These are simple sentences. More complex sentences, where you have clauses make it harder to understand the meaning, until you get to the end of the sentence.

Note that changing the ending from s to m and m to s determines the subject-object^‡ relationship – who hit whom. The who is the subject and the whom is the object – the one receiving the action.  In this case the one being hit.

Lucus pulsat Marcum (Luke hit/is hitting Mark)
Marcum pulsat Lucas (Luke hit/is hitting Mark)

Exhortatio ad Discere

Latin forces one to master grammar & semantics.  It requires patience, diligence, and perseverance to master the language.  I have been studying Latin for 12 plus years and I still have not mastered the Language.  I read Latin every day and have achieved a serviceable and somewhat respectable level of fluency – but arguably not a particularly high level.  This little project of mine will likely, along with time, push me to a higher level and be a contributing force in increasing my fluency.  And some day, I may, Deo volente, achieve mastery – one can hope. Admittedly, I am the tortoise in Æsop’s tale of The Tortoise and the Hare: slow, yet persistent. Perseverance, fortitude,  and persistence often trumps talent.

Let me be an encouragement to all of you out there reading this who believe that Latin is too hard, who lack confidence in their ability to learn a language, let alone Latin.  The language often associated with preparatory schools and the Ivy League – the so-called cultural elite. As the great Latinist, Fr. Reginald Foster has been quoted saying, “You don’t have to be clever to speak it. In ancient Rome it was spoken by poor people, prostitutes and bums^ª.”

Thusly, you too can learn Latin.

I am calling out to you — exhorting and beseeching you —and in Latin, I say to you in closing:

Venite lector carissimi et dilectissimi: Latinam discere obsecro — linguam pulcherrimam mundi!

Come, most dear and beloved reader: learn Latin, I beseech thee – the most beautiful language in the world!

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^†One thing I have learned in the 55 years I have lived my life, is that perception often times does not match reality.  There have been many things I thought were beyond my reach – memorizing a 12-stanza poem, reading a book longer than 100 pages, learning computer programming, building a piece of furniture, and many other pursuits that I have chosen – including this website and learning Latin!  We are more capable in ways we never dreamed possible.  Don’t hold yourself back. 

^‡Recall that the subject is the doer of the action and the object is the receiver of the action.