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Knowledgeable posters like sitetest and patent have all but vanished from FR, and these two were major proponents of the NO.

For me and Deacon Sinky to agree is noteworthy. I agree that sitetest and patent are knowledgeable posters, I've learned a great deal from them. Have they really "disappeared"? Were they (are they) "proponents" of the NO or just well spoken defenders of the mainstream orthodoxy which includes both the NO and the Tridentine (as well as some 20+ other valid Rites)?

Dear narses,

No, I haven't disappeared, but I post a lot less.

Am I a "major proponent" of the new rite? Gee, I don't know.

I attend the new rite exclusively, even though the old rite is offered in three places on Sunday in the archdiocese in which I attend Mass. It is only 30 minutes from my home in the country to the old rite Mass in downtown Washington, DC, perhaps 40 minutes to the old rite Mass in Silver Spring, and about an hour to the old rite Mass in Southern Maryland. Mass times at these Masses are spread out, 7:30 am, 9 am, and 11 am.

So, I don't fail to attend the old rite because it is inconvenient (although an 11 am Mass is a little late for me). Therefore, it must be reasoned that I really don't feel any tug to assist at the old rite.

And I don't.

Since I was a small child, I haven't been to the old rite. And when I was a small child, I remember that the old rite was said in English. I clearly remember when the prayers changed, but the change wasn't from Latin to English.

I don't think that I would care for a Mass in Latin, since I don't understand Latin. I don't find the sound of Latin to be particularly spiritually uplifting or anything (we are trying to learn it at home), so that wouldn't do much for me, either.

Our parish priests celebrate the new rite quite well, thank you very much, and our pastor, who is a late vocation, celebrates the Mass with a deliberate seriousness of intention that is palpable. When he is celebrating it, it's difficult to leave Mass without a sense of awe at what has just happened.

So, in all these things, I suppose that I'm a proponent of the new rite. But not a "major" proponent. My "attachment" to the rite is modest. Though I would prefer the option of assisting at the old rite in English, if we were to go backwards, I will assist gladly and gratefully at any rite of the Mass that the Holy Father instructs me to.

So, though I am a proponent of the new rite, this is also true:

"defenders of the mainstream orthodoxy which includes both the NO and the Tridentine (as well as some 20+ other valid Rites)."

If it pleases the Holy Father to make available the previous Roman rite, then why shouldn't people be able to find these Masses at which to assist? Does the old rite assist them in becoming cognizant of the presence of Jesus Christ on the altar? Does it fill them with the awe that I experience often at Mass? Then why would I oppose it or any other valid rite made available to us by the Holy Father?

But heck, narses, that just puts me in the same place as sinkspur. He has no problem with folks assisting at the old rite, he just prefers the new.

Just like me.

sitetest