Many years have passed. Many years of studying, listening, and thinking about the issue [of the TLM]. Many years of discernment, conversion, and continual surprise. And then, out of thin air, the book I needed all along appeared earlier this year. Dr. Peter Kwasniewski’s new book, Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed. I will forgo the cliché about Dr. K. writing a book every week—true as it may be—and stick to the topic at hand.
The title says it all. Close the Workshop. Shut it down. It’s time to stop the useless tinkering, tapping of hammers, kicking despondently at tires, and drinking beer while staring blankly at a fatally broken project. Why? Because, as the subtitle proclaims, the Old Mass isn’t Broken, and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed.
The book begins with the latter. And it is this first section that might be the hardest for people to stomach. Why can’t the Novus Ordo Mass be fixed? Dr. Kwasniewski offers a devastating critique, delving into theology, history, authority, personal experience, and common sense. He begins with a look at Vatican II’s darling liturgical document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, calling it the ultimate Trojan horse. Kwasniewski explains that Sacrosanctum Concilium “is marred by two errors: the rationalist assumption that things must always be easily understood by us, and the neo-Pelagian implication that we—or rather, the pope and his favored commission—are the primary architects of our worship, the ones who can build a better liturgy by our own efforts” (p. 5). “The bishop said no! You are disobeying the bishop!” summarizes these thoughts precisely.
Continue reading at One Peter Five