Wrenovating a Wreck

Shawn Tribe at the New Liturgical Movement http://www.thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/ (one of the greatest of all blogs,) links to a temporary renovation shown on video

http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2007/04/tale-of-two-altars.html

Among the comments is on by a Fr. Christopher G. Phillips
One more example of the fact that it doesn't take a lot of money, just some good taste and imagination (which might be harder to find than money, now that I think about it...)

My thoughts on it -
Fr Phillips reminder that such efforts do not take a great deal of money is not an insignificant point.
At the risk of sounding anti-capitalist, and admittedly going off topic, let us consider what, (or who,) drives the worst excesses of the post-conciliar liturgy.

Cui bono?

Does it benefit a publisher if I chant the responsorial to a Gregorian psalm tone, when I can point the verses and make copies, ( if need be for my choir and cantors, for a few pennies at the local office supply store,) instead of buying 30 copies of the Celebration series at 11.95 a pop?

Who would favor having the beloved antique embroidered silk banner that matches the altar clothes repaired by the immigrant tailor who set up shop down town, when a garishly bright nylon NEW one can be bought from a company that espouses a faux naïf style of lettering that implies that nobody at the manufacturers possesses a ruler much less any actual training in art?

What worship space consultant is going to say, "Very nice, and it nearly complies with the rubrics, but I would lose the fake ficus tress in the sanctuary, and you should get a crucifix that is not eclipsed by that statue of St EthnicaPatrona," when he can have months of work overseeing obliterating the mural with new paint, tearing out the baldachino, and designing a set of stations for which you need your "scorecard" to check the numbers and figure out what each is intended to depict?

What paid liturgist is going to say, "first, let's get everybody on the same page doing the red and saying the black before we worry about extras" when he can put his own stamp on or even "create" new "vibrant" rituals to meet the liturgical needs of this Catholic Community (which are so very different from every other parish, that what some old Italians or Poles or Germans, envision [and 'most all of them men, did you notice? as if they could ever understand what women look for in a liturgy,] doesn't really apply in OUR parish?

What Director of Catechesis is going to know enough to take the Compendium and elucidate it for the varying ages and education levels of his or her parishioners, abstracting what each is capable of understanding now, when he is being sold a bill of goods that so much more can be learned from a trip to L.A. in the middle of the winter to experience the wonder that is the modern religious ed conference?