Lucy E. Carroll has an excellent article in the latest issue of Adoremus Bulletin, a newspaper dedicated to the “reform of the reform”(I wish them luck), titled “What the Novus Ordo is – and Isn’t.” I have posted excerpts from the article below (forgive the length). Emphasis and commentary are mine.
“There is no such thing as the ‘new’ Mass. No, the Mass is not a new Mass. If so, it would be called the ‘Missa nova.’(Are you telling me that no priests or bishops, many of whom were ordained back when Latin was still a mandatory subject in the seminary, caught that in the past 40 years? Hardly. Or did they purposely misinterpreted it for the laity because they had their own agenda?) No, it is the same Mass, trimmed down and slightly re-ordered, hence the new ordering (or Novus Ordo).
“Some practices vary between the two forms. In the extraordinary form, the priest and people always face the tabernacle while in the (plain ol’) ordinary form, the priest almost always faces the people, though the Council never mandated this change in posture, and it not required.
“After the Council, Communion rails were often removed, or were not installed in new churches, though this was an innovation. The rails were not just to keep folks out of the sanctuary. The Communion rail can be seen as kind of an ‘extension’ of the altar, and, like the altar, the railing was often made of marble.
“Contrary to some mistaken ideas, bells and incense have never been forbidden. Indeed, the Novus Ordo allows for a more generous use of incense.
“But even with the variations (or in some cases nonsense and novelties), the ordinary form of the Mass is still the Sacrifice of Calvary prefigured at the Last Supper and completed in the Resurrection.(It is sad that so many people who attend Mass and call themselves Catholic do not know that, much less understand it.) It is not something new."
