I said, «Find as many candles as you can, adopt Gregorian chant, and use
the old liturgy with its archaic thee and thou.»
He finds the idea of the priest's facing the people a most disedifying factor of the modern liturgy: «How wise
the old liturgy was when it prescribed that the congregation should not see the priest's face - his distractedness or coldness or (even more importantly) his devotion and emotion.»
I want a church that includes fussy kids,
old liturgy, bad sound, weird congregants, and... brace yourself... painfully amateur «special music» now and then.
The church in the West — and we in theological study — have
this old liturgy and a new awareness that God among us is sovereign and not so easily available.
There is something to be said for their appreciation of
the old liturgy.
Having had little contact with
the older liturgy, or good liturgy of any type, young Catholics are rootless, lacking historical anchors for critically evaluating their present liturgical experience.
But the task of critical evaluation of
the older liturgies sharpens our ability to offer constructive and critical evaluation of contemporary worship.