Archaic language in church services

In the comments Billy Carmichael says that one of the things he likes about "thee" and "thy" and so forth is its archaic tone.

I agree absolutely.

One of the things that used to be said much more often about the Catholic mass is that it is supposed to be a conversation between the living and the dead. You don't hear it much anymore but the idea is still there.

Anyway, when WH Auden was living in Europe, he used to attend a Catholic mass in Latin even though he was an Anglican. When the reforms started to come through, he was at a mass where the priest said that it was important to have a mass in the vernacular so the people could understand. Auden marched right up to him afterward and said none of that mattered because the mass was a conversation between the living and the dead.

That's the way I see it. I think we have a sacred duty to understand the language and conventions of those who have gone before.

That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called out 'Lord, '
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive."

We show that by keeping alive their worship.