My opinion?
The "Old Mass" was angelic, beautiful, holy, reverent. (what I've seen of it--I was a small child when they stopped it) It defined us as Catholics.
The "New Mass" (I'm sorry) just doesn't compare to it.
(FWIW, I just don't like the hand-shaking, either. Other than family, I hardly know most of these people---why do I need to make peace with them before Communion?)
Well take it from a NC. If you handshake every Sunday morning you get to know everybody. :')
The Latin, the most beautiful and logical language ever assembled, had a power that the Church has simply thrown away, much as it has traded Bach for tuneless teenagers with guitars.
Thje Mass is about communion with God; post-Vatican II it's abvout communion with your fellow fellow congregants, including the hug and the handshake you are now expected to bestow on total strangers.
When my son was preparing for Confirmation a few years ago, the lay preacher running the classes said (and this is an almost verbatim quote): "The Eucharist is the symbol of Our Lord."
Later, I stopped him and said. "you don't know what you're talking about. Protestants treat the wafer as a symbol, we see it as something rather more than that."
His reply: "Look, if you have a problem with your son going through with his Confirmation, that's OK. The church is a big tent."
A man charged with preparing soon-to-be adults in the Faith, and his attitude is 'Yeah, well, whatever suits."
No wonder the pews are mostly empty these days.
Did not Christ say, "Peace be with you."
As imitators of Christ, then why can't we say the same thing?