At Our Lady of the Rosary in Greenville the Mass is celebrated in a traditional style with the priest offering the sacrifice of the Mass facing the same direction as the people. The Novus Ordo Mass is enhanced with the Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Paternoster all in Latin and sung to Gregorian chant. The choir helps to lead the worship with chant, sacred polyphony and classic hymns. At the solemn Mass there are clouds of incense and plenty of well trained altar boys. Most of the people receive Holy Communion on the tongue, kneeling at an altar rail.
Some may criticize this style of Catholic worship as “backwardist, out of touch, and out of date” Others might accuse us of longing for some golden age in the past–hopelessly nostalgic for a make believe Catholicism that has passed its sell by date. They believe the church will die if it does not adapt–that unless the church is relevant it is ridiculous–no more than an ecclesiastical museum–a churchy version of Grandma’s attic. For them the music, the buildings, the preaching, the entire Mass must be current, relevant and with it.
No doubt they have a point, and it is true that some traditionalists can become so obsessed with traditional worship that it becomes a kind of idol–the sign of a sectarian or even cult-like mentality in which adherence to certain rubrics, quaint customs and certain rules and regulations dominates everything. When traditional worship goes to the extreme there is a tendency towards fussiness, baroque over elaboration, legalism and self righteousness.