East and West Religion

“The story is told of Cardinal Kaspar, who heads the Vatican Congregation for Dialogue with other religions. He recently attended a Greek Orthodox service. Some of you may know that their services go on for a very long time. Afterwards the celebrant said to him, ‘I hope that you were not bored’. The Cardinal replied, ‘no, not at all’. ‘It did not go on too long for you then? Perhaps you think we might modernise it or make it simpler’, the celebrant asked. ‘No’, replied the Cardinal. ‘It should stay exactly as it is. It is very beautiful’. So the celebrant said, ’so why did you do all that you have done to your Mass then’? And it is quite true of course, that many people now look towards the east to recover that sense of the mysterious and spiritual in a religion that has sometimes been stripped bare to its essentials and sometimes even beyond. That’s why we need the traditional liturgy…”

– Fr. Martin Edwards, MA, STL, on the occasion of the first Missa Cantata for 37 years at St. Mary’s Church, Ryde, Isle of Wight on the Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, 21st June, 2003.