Check out the article by Fr. Jay Scott Newman, Worshiping the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness. I think Fr. Newman gets it right, and if his suggestions (although they are not really "his," but rather reflect a new liturgical movement of sorts) were implemented, we would once again understand what it means to worship the Lord with beauty.
The Pontificator has provided us with an essay by Anthony Esolen looking at the proposed changes to the Roman Missal. It is well worth reading. Many of us hope that the days of politically correct, castrated, and banal liturgies are behind us.
Here is an excerpt:
I will add here, too, that there’s a reason why everybody remembers the wedding formula from the old Anglican service: it’s precisely because it is NOT in the register of everyday speech that we FEEL it as touching upon the holy. If you want to instill in people a sense that they are approaching holy ground, you have to warn them to take the sandals from off their feet. There is nothing “elitist” about this: in fact, in my experience, the elites are all on the side of destroying such aids in popular piety, just as they were all on the side of removing from secular poetry all those quaint devices that the typical person still likes, such as rhythm and rhyme.
Just to add my two cents: with the new translation of the Roman Missal being proposed, it looks like Catholics no longer have to endure weak liturgy. As for the mainlines, based on the proposed new liturgies I have seen, it seems like the journey into flakiness is just beginning. I hope the mainline liturgical planners prove me wrong, but when you have more concern for excising male pronouns from the liturgy than holding to the ancient faith, I have to wonder.
And just so you know, I am not being elitist and saying that the Mass should be hard to understand or exclude the average person. However, I for one would like to see people given the chance to appreciate good liturgy, as opposed to assuming they are not up to the task. Denying the average Joe a chance to pray a dignified Mass because he "may not understand it," is in my opinion the elitist position, because it assumes the average person is too dumb to appreciate the things that we appreciate.
