The Nature and Social Implications of the Liturgical Act

Shawn Tribe of The New Liturgical Movement yesterday posted an article under the title, The Nature and Social Implications of the Liturgical Act, wherein he gives convincing and succinct answers to two common objections often raised by conservative Catholics who don't understand why we traditionalists think that liturgical form and beauty are so important.

The first objection Shawn deals with is: "As long as Christ is present in the Eucharist, these other liturgical issues really do not matter so much and we shouldn't focus upon them / we don’t need to worry about them."

The second goes as follows: "It is more important that we work toward meeting the needs of the poor / toward working to make our society pro-life / etc. than focusing on matters of ritual, music and so forth."

Fellow blogger Boniface and I talked about this second objection early this last summer and came to the same conclusion as Shawn. If you have ever run into these arguments from your conservative Catholic friends please do follow the link and read the post (it's not very long).