Comments from Fr. Z. on WDTPRS:
There is a good piece at NLM. In a nutshell, a diocesan priests spent time with the FSSP learning about the older form of Mass. The experience changed him.
I would characterize my experience as frankly stunning, and even life changing. I must admit that the experience has recast my understanding of the priesthood to some degree.
Also, by this intensive introduction to the ancient Roman liturgical tradition, I now more fully understand the paradigm shift and rupture that Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has spoken of. I can’t help but feel that once the adolescent rebellion of liturgical abuse and rejection of our living heritage subsides, they will be there to help all of us reclaim and reinvigorate the Latin Rite in a way that is truly organic and faithful to our roots, strengthening and in some areas reestablishing a vibrant Catholic identity.
This is exactly the point I have been hammering all along.
Pope Benedict is convinced that the Church has a right to her own language, symbols and identity.
I direct your attention back to what I wrote elsewhere on this blog:
Pope Benedict is working to re-root celebrations of Holy Mass in the tradition whence it emerged. He has written that it was unreasonable that a rite of Mass so important to the Catholic Church for so long should suddenly be virtually forbidden. He wrote in the past about how liturgy grows slowly and organically, from rites and cultures enriching each other. The Novus Ordo, stitched together by experts on table tops, constituted a break in this process. Derestriction of the older form of Mass will help to heal people hurt by the loss of the older rite. Widespread celebrations will have an impact on the way the Novus Ordo is celebrated… and vice versa! It cannot be otherwise. This has already been happening. ...
... Above all, the document will make concrete Benedict XVI’s desire for a “hermeneutic of continuity”. A “hermeneutic” is a principle of interpretation, like a lens through which you examine a question. In his 2005 Christmas address to the Roman Curia, His Holiness spoke of a “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” used by many after the Council. This resulted in a terrible break with our tradition. For many it is as if nothing good or worth preserving happened before Vatican II. Pope Benedict is working to reestablish continuity with the past, though not uncritically, through a “hermeneutic of reform”. Derestriction of the older form of Mass must be seen as part of his vision for this reform, this rebuilding of continuity with the Church’s tradition.
The fact is that even now younger priests who have learned about the older Mass change their way of saying the newer Mass. At the same time, celebrations of the older Mass today are more than likely so much better than they were before the Council precisely because of the experience (good and bad) gained from the last few decades.