Valid Does NOT Equal Good

In my ongoing conversation with a priest, the following was said;

The Reform in Continuity new liturgical movement is very, very different than what Vatican II did in terms of a shoving of a particular vision of it down everyone's throat in a lockstep fashion in the 1960's (in other words, Vatican II implemented in a pre-Vatican II way).
The renewal that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is implementing is one of invitation and giving example but not mandating. And it is catching on around the world, maybe not like wildfire, but it is catching on like the small mustard seed that is sprouting into some that will be very big and very grand.
For example, I would have never thought 5 years ago that we would have one Sunday Mass ad orientem for the Ordinary Form, that we would be celebrating the older Tridentine Mass and that people would have the personal choice to either stand or kneel comfortably at a kneeler for Holy Communion and that intinction would be as well received as it has been.
All of this is liturgical renewal without forcing anyone into a lockstep across the board. And what I have seen in my parish is that more and more people (not all certainly) are choosing to kneel as they witness others doing it. And yes there is a developing sense of a recovered piety and reverence at Mass not experienced since Vatican II!

I think that the impotice for this falls on something that Archbishop-elect Sample said in his interview, "...my fondness for the Tridentine liturgy is not based in nostalgia. Having been exposed to it, I’ve gained a great appreciation for it."

This, I think is key. For the majority of Catholics today who are either adhering or becoming adherents to the TLM; we see that they are not 53 or older, but rather they are almost all product of the post-conciliar era. This speaks volumes.

I think the other point he makes is related to this and speaks as much to the mindset as anything said in the last 10 years or so. His Excellency says, "I believe that Pope Benedict wants the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to influence liturgical reform, to lead to a reform of the reform, because in some areas we’ve gotten off track."

The bottom line is, in my estimation, that we're not going to find the answer in the Mass that we currently call the OF or Novus Ordo. It is too far gone. I think that the innovations must go. This includes everything from orientation, to language, to music, to use of extraordinary ministers, to ceremonials.

The Mass should be retired to the annals of history. It is, as the Holy Father states, "...in the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over the centuries and replaced it — as in a manufacturing process — with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product."

While it is valid, validity doesn't equal goodness. When the abuse overrides the validity, then it is time to return.

This is a good example: let's say I go to confession to a priest of the parish next to my home parish. I confess that I have been having an affair with my next door neighbor (who is stupid hot and incredibly single). Father gives me absolution after I make a good confession. As I'm praying my penance, Father comes up to me and says, you've prayed enough, I completely understand your situation, your wife deserved it, everyone knows she's a b**ch anyhow, then sends me on my way as he locks up church. The sacrament was valid, but the deficiency caused by the abuse lessens the grace and efficacy of the Sacrament.

THE VERY SAME THING APPLIES TO THE NOVUS ORDO. The perversion of the Mass, by Paul VI, Bugnini, and the Consilium may be valid, but the deficiency caused by the abuse lessens the grace and efficacy of the Sacrament.

We must return to the TLM, ditch the Novus Ordo and then we can start an authentic "Reform of the Reform," if that is still in the cards. Who knows...maybe that horse has left the barn and a reform isn't needed, just a restoration. Now there's a thought, huh?