Now, I must admit, I’m waiting with some difficulty for the big news. One “side effect” I expect from this document is a time of “experimentation.”
Yes. Just as the 1960s were a time of experimentation with the liturgy away from the Tridintine Mass, this will be a time when there will be experimentation toward it.
Someone who “prophesied” this in an ironic way is Fr. Andrew Greeley. He said in his book Religion in the Year 2000 (written back in the 60s) that around the year 2000 there would be a reaction against liturgical experimentation. Indeed, and now it is to be codified in a decision that opens up a new era.
One experimental thing I’d like to see is silence in church before and after Mass. If it is presented as “an experimental idea”, maybe it will catch on.
Latin becomes the “experimental language.” How can we incorporate this new “possibility” into our liturgy?
Maybe we could use the Introit in Latin? How about experimenting with this? And because the Sacramentary talks about turning to the altar and to the people, it suggests ad orientem experimentation.
We’ve got to get with the times, man. If “old skool” is 1980s, then we’ve got an old skool liturgy that needs some updating, with the latest B16 innovations.