When Lay Eucharistic Ministers became the norm in the Novus Ordo, it became much more difficult to explain why we cannot have female priests.
When the priest stopped facing ad orientem, the liturgy started to be focused on the charisma of the individual priest rather than him being merely a vessel for Christ's work in His church.
When the vernacular became the norm, the liturgy began to be filled with excessive verbiage, making it nearly impossible to actually pray. There's hardly any time of silence at all.
When we stopped kneeling at the altar railing to receive Communion on the tongue, the Eucharist stopped being considered sacred.
When taken to its natural conclusion, the Novus Ordo is basically the Catholic Protestant service. Music, sermon, some vestments, fellowship, communion assembly line, Bible focus (not Eucharist focus), fellowship focus (not sacred silence), explanation (not mystery).
Even the Low TLM is better than the NO Mass because it allows for personal prayer, and it highlights the reverence due to Jesus in the Eucharist.
Is it better than the Orthodoxy Divine Liturgy, though, which seems to always be the equivalent to the Missa Cantata/High Mass. The reason we love it is that it is reverent and joyful. Silence is reverent, but is it joyful? Incense, candlelight, and ongoing chanting in a church interior that is beautiful and colorful... can this be found in a local TLM?
What if I'm being asked to let go of the beauty found at the Orthodox Divine Liturgy? Let go of the chant, the colors, the joy, and instead truly surrender to the weekly opportunity for a prayerful atmosphere. It's not about all the fixings. They are nice, but not essential. Our prayerful attitude and the presence of Our Lord are what is key. The Novus Ordo does not incline one to a prayerful attitude, so the presence of Our Lord gets lost on us. And the Orthodox indeed inclines to prayerful attitude, but for me personally, the presence of Our Lord is not really more obvious than in the NO Mass.
What if I trust the Lord about what it is my children and I need in order to be formed in the faith? To be surrounded by like-minded families and individuals? What if it's not what I expected or even hoped for? Am I prepared to accept what the Lord offers instead? Am I prepared to trust Him?
What if it's enough to dress up and be surrounded by others who are dressed up? To settle into the silence until our own prayers find the thought-words needed without rushing? To have only a reverent reception of the Eucharist modeled and experienced?
My goal is for my children to take the faith seriously, not to have fun at church, right?
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