The new Mass turns 50

So much could be said of this subject,but somehow the first thing that comes to my mind is an elderly lady,now deceased,one of several 'first generation' lay-readers I've come across through the years,usually unashamedly Catholic people in the true sense of the word. She once showed me a commemorative card (the Shroud of Turin face was on it)of an ordination that she had 'read' at. She wasn't related to the candidates,she had few relations at all- it was obviously considered preferable to have a regular rather than a family member- in other words 'lectoring' was considered a special privilege rather than a right-to-be-involved. It's worth noting just how the laity perceived the new liturgy at the time,compared to the hindsight we see things with now or what the experts saw even then as the full reform.
Someone described to me an event years later,in a more multicultural world, of a day when a Catholic church was hosting an ecumenical service (praying for Egypt) (it wasn't the usual service of this kind,it consisted of Coptic clergy chanting, I suppose the equivalent of the Office)and then had,shortly after, an unrelated Catholic wedding with Mass. The black-robed,cross-wearing,mitred Copts stayed in the pews for the latter as several young ladies read,led intercessions and processed with bread and wine dressed in backless, shoulderless,spaghetti-strapped outfits. She kept wondering just what was going through the eastern clergy's minds,especially when they had just finished something which,although not mass,displayed a great sense of sacredness.
Dublin's own Blessed John Sullivan was attracted to the eastern liturgy before becoming Catholic,but the Church also had this liturgy of sacredness at the time,even the minimalist Jesuits that the saint eventually joined, and could well 'compete' with Mt Athos