New wine in new w --... hey, we got some cute plastic carafes at K-Mart, wouldn't that be kinda fun instead of wineskins?

Having awakened earlier than is my wont on a Saturday, I betook myself to a Mass I do not usually attend.

At the homily, the priest extemporized on the day's Gospel reading, and spoke with contempt of the picture that had greeted him in that morning's paper, the priest in "fiddle back," a communion rail, and a bunch of patently (to him,) ignorant people, "don't tell me you understood what was going on in Latin, give me a break!"
It was not his basic stance that caught me off guard (I knew of that,) it was the utter hostility and the contempt, (and, dare I say? the projection.)
I already knew from his preaching at other times that he is... misinformed, about Vatican II, what the Constitution actually called for, what subsequent documents actually said, what is called for by current liturgical law.But I thought, he was merely passively ignorant, not actively hostile.

The thing is...You know I am not a Traditionalist, per se.
Neither, I venture to guess, are many if not most of the people who have been promoting the Extraordinary Rite.
The Latin language, the celebration ad orientem, the Leonine prayers, kneeling at the communion rail (that came in for particular vitriol, as something that kept people away from the altar where they belong "by virtue of their baptism!"), birettae, the smells and bells....

They are all just emblematic of a liturgy with neither improvised nor stultifyingly wooden language; with more communicants than lay "ministers;" without hooting and stomping from approving young people, no gum chewing in the communion procession, no one wearing indecent clothing with obscene slogans, silence instead of cell phones ringing; free of obsessive self- regard, and contempt for tradition (small "t",) and ugly cheap-looking vestments, and campfire songs; with actual belief in what the Church teaches; and with a healthy fear of the Lord.

That's all that is wanted.

The Tridentine rite just seems like the best.... no, in my neck of the woods, the only way to get it.