"The aim of liturgical reform is repentance and conversion of the Christian who hears God inviting him or her to be a priest in his service. The Christian accepts this invitation and spends the rest of his or her lifetime claiming it and attempting to learn how to interiorize it. The transformation of the Christian into a Christ, an anointed one in God’s service, does not occur instantaneously. It is instead a gradual process requiring the participant to hear and receive the invitation to be a priest over and over again, and to actively participate in the liturgy. As the participant attempts to embody these qualities taken from Jesus’ humanity, he or she fails, only to return to the liturgy again, to begin the process of rehearsal anew. The reality of the human participation in the liturgy is such that at any point, a participant can reject the divine invitation to be a priest in his service, or simply ignore it while focusing on other matters.
Evaluating the success and impact of liturgical renewal will always be a tricky matter because the point of renewal is to create a clear path for God to communicate his invitation to serve the Church and the world in the liturgy; today, there is very little pastors can do to ensure that people will heed this divine invitation beyond joyously welcoming them.
Attempts to coerce people through the threat of ecclesial interdict or personal humiliation is a gross violation of free human will to engage the liturgy, and it is this human will which requires the creation of a custom evaluative matrix for liturgical reform."
+ Nicholas E. Denysenko, "Liturgical Reform After Vatican II: the Impact on Eastern Orthodoxy"
