"Participatio Nonsensio"?!

The blogger at "Catholic Sensibility" seems to regret the prospect of a greater availability of the traditional Mass, and demands that traditionalists be open to unspecified changes to the Mass and to unspecified "reforms of Vatican II", which to my ears is as vague and vulnerable to abuse as an openness to guidance from "the Spirit of Vatican II".

My reply:

I am one hoping for greater availability of the traditional Mass. Having been born in 1962, I can hardly be nostalgic for the 50’s. Too young to remember the old Mass, I am still old enough to have watched the old sensibilities fade out. After the new Mass arrived, we still knelt for Holy Communion, and genuflected when crossing in front of the tabernacle, and maintained a prayerful quiet before and after Mass, remembering that we were in the house of the Lord.

But over the last 35 years, I have seen the people of my parish behave at Mass more and more like they were in a meeting hall, rather than a church. The traditional piety that was lost here seems to have survived in the traditional Masses. With traditional Catholics less marginalized, it is my hope that some of the practices that led people to sincere worship of God in the past will benefit more people in the future.

The “individualistic, private Sunday experience” that Eric decries is the Mass that spiritually formed St. Francis of Assisi and St. Francis de Sales, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and many more holy saints besides, through which the Catholic Church has been blessed. The traditional Mass is nothing to sneer at.

It is not the mutability of the Mass that makes it a living form of worship; it is the presence of the Lord, and the adoration of His people.

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Saint Paul wrote:

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 - 3:5