Correlation is not the same as causation. I don’t question that many good things are happening at that parish but am skeptical that they are happening because of altar rails and ad orientem.
Monks have been gathering around altars facing each other for as long as records have been kept and no one can claim that monks in general don’t live very holy lives.
Today in the bidding prayers our pastor told us that our parish is experiencing a phenomena - he and the other priest have been experiencing an unusually large number of fallen away Catholics in the confessional and asked us to pray that it continues. We don’t have altar rails or ad orientem.
My experience is that when parishes unite around the Eucharist as their common mission and primary purpose for existing - when everything else is put aside and the Eucharist becomes the most important thing in the life of the pastor, priests and parishoners, many good things happen. Things usually begin picking up dramatically when Eucharistic Adoration is put in place.
Many small parishes near me have started perpetual adoration in blind faith, not knowing how they are going to fill the chapel because they just don’t have the numbers. People come one way or another, and good things begin happening. God responds when there is a contstant stream of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
-Tim-
