When a conversation turns towards liturgy, and the benefits offered by the traditional Latin Mass are offered for consideration, it's my experience that most Catholics who only attend the Novus Ordo respond by blurting out: "We can't go back."
With all due respect--That's obvious!
I mean, "Hello!?" Only Dr. Who can go back. Right?
But, just as someone with an appreciation for the historical development of architectural and structural design might restore a Victorian or an early-American home with the intention of living in it today (theologically, restoring an old church that had undergone "wreckovation" in the "spirit of Vatican II" would be a more appropriate analogy), so too can, and should, the liturgy be restored so that we might once again live under the protection from error that the traditional Latin Mass has afforded the Catholic faithful for many centuries.
In my opinion, this can be accomplished immediately by offering the traditional Latin Mass in every parish at least once per week, not necessarily to the exclusion of the Mass of Pope Paul; however, I also agree with this article which does not suggest such a dramatic approach.
Rather, the article promotes restoration of those elements which have, for centuries, infused reverence and a sense of the Sacred Mysteries into the Roman Rite.
At some point, and this is not a new concept, we must at least acknowledge that, when we stray from the strategy of restoring all things in Christ and, consequently, flirt with the idea of rebuilding or fabricating, we risk losing touch with the very foundation on which we stand and on which the future must be built upon, i.e., the organic development of Tradition and liturgy as guided by the Holy Spirit through the age.
As the article points out, to reject the concept of restoration perpetuates a deplorable and spiritually disastrous situation in the Church: "A beautiful liturgy handed down for centuries has become a laboratory for the innovators who force their creativity into the Mass."
