It does get a message across. In all fairness, it does have a few prejudices built in, my personal favorite being:
The priestmonk may appear to be more “spiritual” because he is in church for six or eight hours a day, and has few other responsibilities. Try to do that with a family, and dozens or hundreds of parishioners to serve!
Well, us Latins do have opinions on that matter!
Yes, I am sure we have met a Bill. But what is important is that we not adopt an adversarial attitude to him. Just like how we witness to people not part of the Church, through our actions, works, and words, we have to help him along in understanding that faith is not just ritual and worship rubrics.
They serve an important purpose but can be misused like any good thing. Performing charity in a humble manner as a matter of course, particularly in this broken world, is so vital.
It is also important that we avoid the temptation of clinging to some hyper-‘orthodox’ spiritual seer. If we do so, we start to act like the Protestants (lacking obedience) and even pagan groups (following some self-styled guru will impede Christ living in us).
What else is a fair point is that people with families, normal jobs, and day-to-day concerns can’t be expected to be up on the third order feast day. Similarly, it is unfair to guilt people into locking themselves into a room to pray for over an hour because if they do not they would be ‘too concerned with their worldly endeavors’ (i.e., trying to not get fired and raise multiple children).
Little note: don’t take this to mean I’m against the Rosary. That really is 15 minutes we should set aside and can be said driving to work or waiting for the water to boil. Takes discipline, but this can and should be done!]
With that said, I think that Traditionalists are too often characterized as legalistic oddballs who obsess about minute details.
The vast majority of Traditionalists lament the modernistic style of many within the Church today and firmly believe that the decline in morals is directly caused by the decline in seriousness, reverence, and solemn atmosphere of worship. They just want to give to God a few minutes of perfect respect, thanks, and seek forgiveness. Remember in the book of Tobit that before enjoying marriage, Tobiat and his wife prayed. I bet that sounds a little weird (it does to me!) Sometimes we have to go little further in meeting the minimal to get that grace we need in this very weird modern world.
Perhaps a way to look at it is through this example. I used to go to daily mass; now I do not because I moved and because of work. Theoretically I could still go, tack on a couple hours in the morning, and be burnt out before work has begun. Or I can equitably judge what my vocation requires of me. (My pastor understood I was not ‘ditching class’ but simply had some overriding life changes)
I will close by saying that I think it is very important for us traditionals/orthodox to really get involved in parish life. Homeless and hungry relief, pro-life activities, and parish councils are there for us to show that our faith is not just sit-stand-sit-Latin-stand
Indeed, we can fall into these illusions…
We have to be careful.