The present tendency among Catholics to seek out a particular Mass - one celebrated by a devout or orthodox priest, or compassionate and merciful priest, or friendly, joyful, and energetic priest - shows just what a severe blow the liturgy has received since the aftermath of the Council. The German writer and intellectual Martin Mosebach put it perfectly in his collection of essays on the liturgy called The Heresy of Formlessness.
"Many people [...] ask, 'Isn't it still possible to celebrate the new liturgy of Paul VI worthily and reverently?' Naturally it is possible, but the very fact that it is possible is the weightiest argument against the new liturgy. It has been said that monarchy's death knell sounds once it becomes necessary for a monarch to be competent: this is because the monarch, in the old sense, is legitimated by his birth, not his talent. This observation is even truer in the case of the liturgy: liturgy's death knell is sounded once it requires a holy and good priest to perform it. The faithful must never regard the liturgy as something the priest does by his own efforts. It is not something that happens by good fortune or as the result of a personal charism or merit. While the liturgy is going on, time is suspended [...] How can a man be made to see that he is leaving the present time behind if the space he enters is totally dominated by the presence of one particular individual? How wise the old liturgy was when it prescribed that the congregation should not see the priest's face - his distractedness or coldness or (even more importantly) his devotion and emotion."
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