My Response to, ‘I’m Not Entirely Convinced As of Yet That Worship Is the Most Fundamental or Important Aspect of Being Catholic or That I Need the Tlm To Worship Properly’

A few years ago on FishEaters Forum, a recent revert to the Faith made the title statement in a post.

My response:

It may not be the most fundamental or important aspect, but it is vital, because 'lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi', the law of prayer determines the law of belief, which determines the law of life. In other words, how we worship, has a powerful influence on what we believe, which determines how we live.

As a glaring example, the NO, with cafeteria line Communion in the hand, has led to over two thirds of American Catholics either not knowing or disagreeing with the Dogma of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and I would argue that that sort of thing has a direct effect on the fact that NO 'Catholics' are contracepting themselves out of existence.
 
One does not have to attend the TLM to be a Trad, but it makes it much easier. Being a Trad is essentially believing and practising the Catholic Faith as it was believed and practised by the Saints, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and the vast majority of Catholics who ever lived before the Council.

It is summed up by what Robert De Piante once said:

What Catholics once were, we are, If we are wrong, then Catholics through the ages have been wrong.

We are what you once were. We believe what you once believed.

We worship as you once worshipped. If we are wrong now, you were wrong then. If you were right then, we are right now. 

Personally, since I no longer drive, I can't regularly attend the TLM. But I still believe and practice 'the Faith once delivered to the saints' (St Jude 1:3), 'that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all'. (St Vincent of Lerins)