“Fr McDonald, it has never been proven that there has been a drop-off in reverence for the Real Presence. Count me as a big doubter on the notion of exceptionalism, that any generation past or present is superior overall to any other.”

Todd, all I can go by is my own experience from the time I knelt before the altar rail and received the Body of Christ on my tongue from the hands of Christ Himself, in the accidents of the priest, and witnessing the “one handed grab” of the host by someone with a child in their arms or the “walk and dunk” of someone self intincting. This indicates to me a serious loss of reverence for our Lord present real and in the flesh.

We are physical creatures and we are affected by our posture.

Where was this particular sensitivity when Vatican II and the Novus Ordo was implemented?

At the opposite extreme, to those who want to continue with the direction of the current reform and go much further, Archbishop Weakland challenges the theology that has caused our Liturgy to drift “into a more horizontal and purely human activity.” He then asks the most startling question of this group: “Has the reform at times led to a diminution of respect for and belief in the real presence in the Eucharist?” He goes on to ask this disturbing question: “In seeking to make the liturgical symbols more true and clear, has the renewal made the symbol more important than what is symbolized?” He notes the use of “real bread” where “ministers” become sloppy about the crumbs and thus diminish belief in the real presence. He asks, “Has the kiss of peace ceased to be a symbolic gesture of reconciliation with one’s neighbor and become a moment for greeting everyone in the church—to the detriment of the symbol and breaking the liturgical moment of preparation for Holy Communion? In the desire to emphasize the nature of the community, has one introduced rites of dubious origin, e.g., holding hands?”

I don’t recall which edition of the 1999 America Magazine this article appeared, but I guess you could Google it.
My full article from 1999 can be found on my blog site at the following link:

http://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2009/11/from-1999-am-i-prophet.html

I understand what you are saying. Let me make clear that I am not counseling disobedience. But I return to Fr. Paulus’s remark in the original post, which I believe has merit: “Authority is not supposed to be a brick wall.” The outcry against the new translation is not coming from a handful of malcontents, but from some very committed and thoughtful and intelligent people. It is part of the process that needs to take place as the Church listens for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Over and over again, we hear people say of the new translation “This is inevitable, this is inevitable, this is inevitable.” Often this is said along with an agreement that it is not good in itself. But if it’s not good, why is it inevitable? We are treating the work of a Roman congregation as though it were an act of nature, a storm, a tidal wave; it’s not. Proper respect for authority can never demand dishonesty, because such an outcome violates the conscience.

Let me also say something inspired by Pope John Paul II’s post-synodal exhortation “On Reconciliation and Penance in the Mission of the Church Today.” If many consciences are violated, the cumulative effect becomes a situation of social sin. He cautions us not to be among those who “take refuge in the supposed impossibility of changing the world” or “those who side-step the effort and sacrifice required” (no. 16). This is what I hear when I read Fr. Paulus’s call for “holy resistance” while others seem to read there nothing but willful disobedience.

Having said this, let me also say that I appreciate what you are saying about having humility, accepting imperfect situations, and bearing with one another in faith and charity.

Now, I think I have said QUITE enough! Thanks for a good discussion, everybody.

My sense would be to place a modern loss of the sense of the sacred to begin around the post-WWII period in the US, and maybe decades before in Europe. The erosion of respect for authority seemed to really pick up steam as the wars piled up in Europe. People realized their monarchs and aristocracy were sinfully disconnected from the suffering and trauma their alliances and the developing technology of warcraft landed them in one unjust war after another. And where was the Church in all this? It’s a work of the Holy Spirit that Europe wasn’t de-Christianized generations ago.

You’ve missed the advent of utilitarian church architecture by at least a generation.

Declining Mass attendance is a reality, and has many, many causes. One reason why it persists is the lack of an evangelical mindset and pastoral creativity by both clergy and laity. You may be able to point to your parish, and demonstrate your ability to lasso inactive Catholics back to the Mass, and better, having inspired your parishioners to evangelize, too. So where are you sitting in your parish? 40% or better?

The students and university folks we try to evangelize have a lot more concerns than the fussiness with which we conduct our liturgy. We do it largely the same as we always have: avoiding the worst of the post-conciliar nonsense, but also realizing that old wineskins are woefully inadequate for the challenges of the age.

That a significant number of Catholics now absent themselves from Sunday Mass, almost 80% in some places must be examined. The role of the loss of the sense of the sacred as it pertains to their desire to be at Mass, which is intimately tied to the role of faith in one’s life, which is a gift from God, is not too difficult to ascertain.

I am not a practicing sociologist, but I am a priest and I have heard testimonies of many who have experienced poor celebrations of the OF Mass, (not here in Macon, by the way) and I would lose my faith if I had to endure these celebrations on a regular basis, save for ex-opere, operato, my personal faith, which is a gift, and the sense of the sacred that I have that leads me to a profound reverence for all things holy, especially our Lord’s sacrifice and Real Presence at Mass validly celebrated either EF or OF.

And by the way, my BA was in sociology!