The Novus Ordu lacks intimacy; the TLM has it abundantly

A Chairde, Amici,

In his new motu proprio, Traditionis custodes, Bergoglio clearly signals he intends to end the Traditional Latin Mass. He'll allow a window for it temporarily, but he intends shutting that window. And soon. (Maybe his doctors told him he hasn't much longer on Earth?)

I know he's not going to be able to achieve his evil design. But in reflection on this: here's a excellent essay by Fr. Hunwicke at his blog Liturgical Notes, tiltled: Mass Last Saturday. Fr. H reflects on the poignancy of a thing about to be taken from one.

As for myself, here's the first in an essay series on the TLM and N.O. Liturgies regarding why one works and cannot be killed off, no matter how desperate the attempt, while the other has to be kept on life-support by all the official Church, making use of every hook and every crook, and by use of every sort of bullying and threat.

Novus Ordo is it lacks intimacy

I think one of the drawbacks of the Novus Ordo is it lacks intimacy. The TLM is like an Eastern Rite liturgy in its heart – mystical, interior, the Incarnation and yourself participating in that stupendous event are its raison d'être – and it uses time differently than the Novus Ordo does, certainly. But aside from the focus on the Incarnation, the intimacy of the the Eastern Rites and the TLM are what stand out to me so strongly.

Very much so, the individual has a different place in the two Masses. The N.O. is a horizontal construct with a horizontal vision; it is like a marching band with everyone in group lockstep, playing the same tune and all changing tunes at the same time. It lacks intimacy precisely because the souls worshiping in it are not allowed to wander. (Or wonder, either, for that matter.) On the other hand, the TLM is like floating in a river of grace, wide and warm and everyone can move along at their own time and own pace whirling about in endless eddies and currents, wherever the Holy Ghost wants them to go or where they feel the need to be, spiritually. 

That's why it is so intimate, and the N.O., well, not.

For myself, only after attending Eastern liturgies and then the full TLM did I realize I had never prayed in a Novus Ordo. I, myself. Mé fhéin. With God. The congregation prayed, sure. Loudly, too. But such congregational praying is not the same as one oneself praying. It hinders one's prayers. (This is why so many Protestants will say they feel "closer to God" on a seacoast or high on a hill, etc.) And in any event, large group recitation is only the shallowest form of prayer. (One can manage it with the family Rosary, yes, but to participate in the Incarnation, not so much.) 

That insight is worth a ton of blather about celebrating the N.O. 'reverently', as exemplified in so many Magisterium (center-of-the-road) Catholics saying, "We must celebrate it more reverently." Right. Keep trying. Didn't Einstein supposedly say, "The definition of insanity is keep trying the same experiment over and over and expecting a different result"? The truth is, it can never be very reverent precisely because of the group marching band nature of it.  

An Préachán