Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

This is how the former Cardinal Ratzinger in The Spirit of the Liturgy, describes liturgy which comes from one’s own imagination and creativity. He says:

. . . real liturgy implies that God responds and reveals how we can worship him. In any form, liturgy includes some kind of “institution.” It cannot spring from imagination, or our own creativity—then it would remain just a cry in the dark or mere self-affirmation. Liturgy implies a real relationship with Another, who reveals Himself to us and gives our existence a new direction (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy [San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2000], 22).

This is a profound insight. Perhaps it can help to explain the phenomenon we have seen since the widespread abuses of the liturgy began in earnest in the early ‘70s and to some degree still occur today. Since that time, we have seen a great decline in Mass attendance. Sure there are many other factors at play, including a secularization of culture and widespread public dissent since the release of Humanae vitae which works to undermine the simple faith of much of the laity. 

However, I cannot help but think that illicit and inappropriate innovations strike at something interior, beneath the level of consciousness deep in the soul. Of those who have drifted away and even among those who have stayed, many say that the liturgical changes they have seen deprived them of the experience of mystery at Mass. This sense of mystery now lost may lead to the intuition that they somehow feel separated from the Source. This is kind of like the unarticulated feeling of emptiness one experiences in churches where the Blessed Sacrament is no longer present. Could this subliminal feeling of separation from authentic worship be a good part of the reason we have seen a lessening in practice of the faith? After all, one can cry in the dark any place.