One of the most noticeable differences between the new rite of Mass and the old rite, especially for those who attend the old rite for the first time, is that many of the prayers we are accustomed to hearing aloud, are said silently - particularly the Canon of the Mass. In The Spirit of the Liturgy (1999), the then Cardinal Ratzinger said: It really is not true that reciting the whole Eucharistic Prayer our loud and without interruptions is a prerequisite for the paricipation of everyone in this central act of the Mass. He had suggested, in 1978, that the priest might say the first words of the various prayers out loud so that each person could, in his silent prayer, bring his personal prayer into the communal prayer and the communal prayer into his personal prayer. (He notes that this suggestion annoyed many liturgists.) He went on to say, Anyone who has experienced a church united in the silent praying of the Canon will know what a really filled silence is. It is at once a loud and