I have yet to go to a Maronite Rite Liturgy, but I read, and NYer knows far more about it that I do is that it is the oldest liturgy that has been in continued use. I will admit I do not know anything about the Liturgy of St. James.
As Tantumergo said so well, the orientation makes a big difference. At the parish I usually attend, it is a Novus Ordo, and the priests face the people, but it has retained most of the traditions such as incenseing the altar, use of the rail, plus none of the other more recent "innovations". The retention of the traditional rubrics and the reverence make it clearly identifiable as Catholic. Now if they would only get rid of the table and face the old altar.
You might find this link interesting. It is a brief write up on the Liturgy of St. James and then a text of the Liturgy as recntly translated. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ephrem/lit-james.htm
Influences on the Maronite Liturgy
The Maronite Church in its liturgy is fortunate in being the heir of at least two rich traditions, those of Edessa and Antioch. The Church of Edessa traces its origins to the preaching of the liturgical contributors included St. Ephrem and James of Saroug. The first Christian converts to the Church of Edessa included the earliest Jewish-Christians. Therefore, its liturgy is strongly influenced by the world-view of the Bible. As one of the oldest established churches, it developed its prayer forms before being influenced by Greek thought. Our Maronite liturgy today still has many hymns and prayers from St. Ephrem and James of Saroug. The Anaphora of the Apostles (also known as III Peter and by the Syriac word Sharrar), which the Maronite Church shares in common with the Church of Edessa, is the oldest Anaphora in the Catholic Church, and is still found in adapted form as the Anaphora of the Signing of the Chalice on Good Friday.
The Church of Antioch was the ancient See of Peter and developed its liturgy with influences from the Church of Jerusalem. The Maronite Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles represents the oldest tradition of the Church of Antioch. St. John Chrysostom took this Anaphora with him to Constantinople and became the basis of the Byzantine liturgy. As heir to the Patriarchate of Antioch, the Maronite Church represents the Antiochene liturgy in its fullness. Thus, the Maronite Church, in its prayer life, preserves the way of worship of the Apostles and their earliest disciples.
It is fitting that the Maronite name for the divine liturgy is Qorbono in Syriac and Quddas in Arabic. The Syriac term refers to the idea of "offering" and focuses on the sacrificial acts of Christ offering himself, and on our own willingness to render our lives as an oblation. The Arabic term refers to the idea of "making holy" and refers to the fact that in the liturgy the gifts, and by analogy the participants, are divinized by the action of the Holy Spirit.
Maronite Liturgy
Note, however, that according to a 2002 article in San Diego New Notes:
Rome sent apostolic visitors to Lebanon between the 15th and 17th centuries to scrutinize Maronite liturgical texts, "in the period where they started to Latinize everything," Father Mouannes explained. They ordered the Maronites to purge elements from their liturgy deemed heretical, and the Maronites complied, even when obliged to burn liturgical books. However, in doing so, some of the Church's primordial liturgical practices were lost. "That's why, now, in our Mass, we have a lot of similarities with the Latin [Roman rite] Church," he pointed out. "We were Latinized more than the other ones [Eastern rite Churches], because we searched for it. We wanted to show that now we are one with Rome, one hundred percent; we are with the rock." The pre-Vatican II Maronite liturgy was in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. Eventually Aramaic was largely supplanted by Arabic and Persian. The post-Vatican II Maronite liturgy is evenly divided between Syriac and Arabic. The Maronite rite follows its own liturgical calendar, which incorporates some of the major feast days of the Roman calendar. Since Vatican II the Eastern Catholic churches have been encouraged to reform their liturgies in accordance with their earlier tradition. The Maronites made the first such reforms in 1992 and 1993.
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