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I don’t know why people get so upset about the liturgy. Was Jesus there? Was the Holy Spirit there? If it’s good enough for them, who am I to worry about it?

I’m sorry that a priest feels the need to sneer at people who pray in the traditional way. Shame on him.

By the way, I went to a melkite rite service on Sunday. Normally, I go to the standard Mass at my local parish. Seeing the enthusiastic orthodox and traditional Latin parishioners here on FR inspired me to see what the fuss was about, so I went to this ancient form of the mass.

I am underwhelmed by the wonderfulness of it all. Not bowled over by the dignity and mystery or anything. Nevertheless, I felt right at home. It was really pretty normal, despite the languages coming and going (there were arabic, greek and english parts). I enjoyed listening to the cantor, joining in the prayers and singing, taking in the icons and candles (and the donuts with the kind old people afterwards). We said a lot more “Lord have mercy’s” than I am used to and there was a lot of incense. But it was still so clearly the Mass, in basically the same order. Two or more were gathered, so to speak, and God was there. The wording of the creed was a little different and there was no physical sign of peace. Not a big deal. Of course, I have been to mass in different languages and different countries, so I’m pretty adaptable.

I came away more impressed with the universality of the Church and the core aspects of the liturgy than with any big need to embrace one rite and reject another.

I trust the Pope to do any adjustments to the liturgy he wants to do, and I’m going to roll with them. I hope the American bishops cooperate with him.