I was struck by this thoughtful piece from the Los Angeles Times (by one of their senior editorial writers, no less) which asked whether it was possible to bring mystery to liturgy without resorting to Latin. The author says yes, and then explains:

I recently attended Sunday Mass at a church in Hollywood at which the liturgy was remarkably like the 11 a.m. Solemn High Mass at Sacred Heart circa 1962, complete with “smells and bells,” the sprinkling of holy water and priestly vestments of a French cut. The Mass also had something I don’t remember from the old Sacred Heart: an erudite and affecting sermon.

But the Mass, which took me to the same “mysterious world” the pope recalls from his Bavarian childhood, was in English. It was also, ironically, in an Episcopal church.

I have to say: he makes a good point. I’ve attended some “high church” Episcopal services that were stirring and beautifully executed. (Seeing how their young altar servers glide down the aisle, I once turned to a friend and cracked, “They could teach our kids a thing or two…”) Maybe a little less liturgical experimentation, and a little more sense of the sacred, would solve a lot of our problems. And maybe that’s exactly what Benedict is hoping will happen by widening the availability of the Latin rite.