“The Church is losing the memory of the sacred, which it had cultivated with such care for so many centuries” (Inner Word).
One of the dangers of modernist trends and all kinds of innovations in the Holy Church is the growing loss of the sense of the sacred and the transcendent. This memory fades when proper gestures of reverence are neglected, and when it is believed that, to be considerate of Christians of other denominations, one must avoid anything that might scandalize them rather than explain it to them.
What would our Father say about this?
Should the Church not reflect something of the glory of God, although without pomp or excess? This does not contradict the poverty and simplicity she must cultivate at the same time! However, our Father wants His holiness to be honored also through the beauty and dignity of the liturgy and temples, as well as through our gestures of reverence and love.
What will worship of God be like in heaven? Sacred Scripture provides descriptions of sublime grandeur.
Today’s phrase refers to modernist trends, to the degradation of the Holy Mass. .. If we look at many modern churches, it is not uncommon to find that they lack any trace of beauty.
This is not an irrelevant issue; it leads to the loss of memory of how beautiful and dignified a blemishless sacred celebration is, or a temple not misused for “liturgical experiments” where sacred music is replaced by banal songs. Does the current generation still know how sacredness was cultivated in the Church?
What would our Father say? Perhaps something like this: The sense of the sacred must be fostered where it still exists and reawakened where it has been lost.