In the highly ritualized and minute...

In the highly ritualized and minutely codified world of the Roman Catholic Mass, the slightest change to traditional order and routine can be a shocking and unsettling imposition. In a world racked from turmoil and inconstancy, no small part of the Church's appeal for many Christian believers--Catholic and otherwise--is the uncanny stability of this in the greatest degree unchanging of earthly institutions.

Temporal runs which sweep over and all too readily reshape other churches and societies look to break apart as nothing more than trifling waves when they come up against 'the rock' of St Peter This, at least, is