quote

"One of the major errors of our time, at least on the religious plane, is to believe that a liturgy can be invented, that the ancient liturgies are inventions or that elements added in a spirit of piety are such; this is to confuse inspiration with invention, the sacred with the profane, saintly souls with bureaus and committees. Another no less pernicious error is to believe it possible to jump over one or two thousand years and retrace one's steps to the simplicity -- and the sanctity -- of the primitive Church; now, there is a principle of growth or of structure to be observed here, for a branch cannot become the root again. One must tend towards primitive simplicity by recognizing its incomparability and without imagining that it can be recaptured by external measures and superficial attitudes; one must seek to realize primordial purity on the basis of the providentially elaborated forms, and not on the basis of an ignorant and impious iconoclasm, and one should above all renounce introducing into the rites a pedantic and vulgar sort of intelligibility which is an insult to the intelligence of the faithful."

--Frithjof Schuon, Christianity/Islam: Essays on Esoteric Ecumenicism, transl. Gustavo Polit. Milan: Arche Milano, 1981.