Reflection before the celebration of Holy Mass
Reflection before the celebration of Holy Mass is the title of a two-volume work by the Roman Catholic theologian and religious philosopher Romano Guardini , which was first published in 1939.
It was dedicated to Lene and Hans Waltmann and arose from short speeches that Guardini gave before the masses at Rothenfels Castle in order to prepare the assembled community for the celebration. The castle was the center of the Quickborn movement , Guardini was there from 1927 to 1939 "castle father". It deals with the prerequisites for the worship of the holy mass by the worship community and priests , the work wants to give the reader ideas from various starting points that should help to better understand the celebration of the holy mass.
The two-volume work follows the tradition of Guardini's earlier liturgical writings such as Vom Geist der Liturgie (1918) and Von Heiligenzeichen (1922). It bears the imprimatur of the Mainz bishop Albert Stohr dated October 31, 1939, was reprinted several times, always by Matthias Grünewald Verlag in Mainz, and according to Frédéric Debuyst soon achieved "the rank of a classic of the Eucharistic theology". The book provided important impulses for the liturgical movement and the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council .
Preface
In his introduction, Guardini mentions that the character of the celebration of Mass in the form at that time - before the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council - had for many taken the form of a “holy drama ” watched by the believer, or a “mysterious event” whom he prays ”. As a result, "the essential is covered up and the irreplaceable is lost"
“The altar , whose shape should never go too far beyond the pure form of the sacred table, became a pompous structure with glitter, lights and angels. The action was surrounded by ceremonies that were supposed to touch the imagination, the attire of the altar boy was often dainty and doll-like. He describes the lyrics and melodies of the songs with the word sweet. In the place of the missal with its magnificent texts, self-made mass devotions and litanies full of artificial ideas and feebly untrue feelings crowded together . ”The memory of the Lord became an edifying display. The incomprehensible church Latin did the rest.
silence
The silence before God marks the actual beginning of the liturgy , from which the holy celebration is formed. This silence should come in on the way to church and in the time before the beginning of mass. During the silence of Holy Mass, the thoughts and feelings of the congregation come to rest.
The word
The silence is related to speaking, to the word. The word comes from within a person, as a sound from the organs of his body, as an expression from his mind and heart. Man did not create the word, he finds it, learns and then uses it. Several related words form a higher unit, language. The liturgy consists largely of words that are spoken from God and towards God and come from the inner source of silence.
Listen
Christ said that he who has ears to hear should hear ( Mt 11.15 EU ). It is a hearing of which Paul says that faith comes from it ( Rom. 10.14 EU ). Here too, hearing the words requires silence. Christ, the Word made flesh that came to us redeeming, is to be heard as the Word of God.
Collection, action and co-execution
The silence overcomes the noise and talk. The collection overcomes the inner distraction and restlessness. Collection cannot be without silence and vice versa. It is from this collection that liturgy becomes possible. The doing, the service before God, follows from the gathering. During the liturgy God is present, which distinguishes it from private prayer in nature or with other people. Do this in memory of me are the words that the Lord has given us. They are not speak this or consider, proclaim, praise what has happened, separate do it! The event of the first church was the group of disciples gathered around the table ( Acts 2.46 EU ). A similar picture emerges in the first letter to the Corinthians ( 1 Cor 11:21 EU ).
The place
The bishop consecrates the church by virtue of his office . This removes this space from the general connection between nature and the human world. There is a separation from the purposes and uses of everyday existence. The church becomes a house of God. The church only becomes holy through the celebration of Holy Mass. During the change , the Lord himself comes into the assembled community, gives himself food in communion and then goes away again. In this way the Lord's passing in the church takes place again and again, which is the place of his coming, staying and going and thus becomes holy. In the Christian imagination, God created everything and continues to rule among people in his infinite love and grace and thus everything is his property. In his speech to the philosophers of Athens Paul says: In him, in God we live and we move and we are. ( Acts 17.28 EU ).
Based on the scriptures that say where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst of them ( Mt 18.20 EU ), it is stated that one can also serve one's God in any place or experience him. God is especially close to man in nature. The Catholic Church, so the allegation, distrusts the piety of the people and even declares nature to be evil. The hostility to life of the priests had led to the fact that an artificial church space had to be created and a celebration took place in it, which only barely concealed a hidden pagan guilt cult. Guardini replies that the Church takes the world very seriously, but that it is important for people that there is a special space that “should belong to God, detached from all other purposes and uses” so that something can be there Awareness could come, "what is different from nature and human work: the sacred".
altar
The Christian communities grow in the first centuries after the death of Jesus. The table becomes an altar . The large number of people involuntarily adopts the attitude of watching. The holy place is further structured. The essence of the liturgy does not leave its most important acts to chance or arbitrariness. The act, the doing of the holy mass, takes place in a certain place, the altar. The altar as a religious original can be found in every religion. In the Old Testament , precise laws determine its shape and actions at the altar. In the New Testament is written by him less. He is the table and very soon the image of the threshold is added.
The threshold means limit and crossing. It separates the space of the world from the space of God. The altar foreshadows the experience of Moses, who, while shepherding the sheep on Horeb, saw the burning bush that could not be consumed by the fire. The altar shows the believer the way from the distance of our finite form of creature over to God's eternity.
table
The altar is not only a threshold, but also a table. This idea of a deity sitting on a table can be found in almost all religions. The pious lays gifts on the altar that she may accept the deity. The gifts are withdrawn from human use, the sacrificial animals slaughtered and burned. The drink is poured out. The destruction of the gifts also means the passage into the divine space. God and man feed on the same sacred food. Augustine writes that receiving the Eucharist does not mean so much that we eat the divine living that is offered to us, but rather that this living draws us into him .
The day
Guardini is of the opinion that there is no act, experience, consecration or whatever of man that is holy in God's eyes. God does not live in time, he is eternal. It does not grow, it does not decrease, it does not develop and it does not change. The seventh day is sanctified by God because he rested on that day after he had created the world. The holiness of this day does not come from the fact that man rests on this day after having fulfilled worldly duties for six days and cultivates a free existence on the seventh. The day of rest does not arise from any natural rhythm of life. According to Christian beliefs, the holiness of the day does not come from man's doing something, but from God. He was resting that day. God is not only an eternal spirit dwelling in the eternal id, but an agent, even if God is at rest on this day. ( Gen 2.2 EU )
Precisely because Sunday does not come from a natural rhythm, according to Guardini, its existence is always in danger. Economic or social aspects are considered and put aside. Rest is only kept out of coercion and a boredom develops that is worse than if the work went on. The Christian Sunday does not start in the morning of the day, but on the evening before with the vigil or arming.
The hour
On the evening before his death at the foundation of the Eucharist, Christ spoke in divine simplicity of the new covenant in his blood:
And he took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and handed it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in memory of me! Likewise, after the meal he took the cup and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. ( Lk 22.19-20 EU )
Christians believe that God really became carnal man in Jesus Christ in that year of the reign of Emperor Augustus, and he really did die under Pontius Pilate , no sooner and no later. When the priest speaks the words about bread and wine from the authority given him, Christ comes alive and bodily among the church. According to Guardini, part of the proper celebration of Mass is to be aware of these moments of the Lord's passage.
The plot
After describing the space and time, Guardini describes the act of the mass itself. The immediate foundation of the act goes back to the exodus of the Israeli people from Egypt . In this celebration Christ established a second celebration: the memory of his death. He did not say, however, come together on a certain day and have a meal in harmony. Then let the elder bless bread and wine while remembering me. He does not say please do this, but simply, do this for my memory. Man acts, but in man acts God acts.
The church and the redress of injustice
The nature of the church is described in the word of Christ about the two or three persons who are gathered. ( Mt 18.20 EU ) Church is where a number of people are gathered in the order of faith, in the awareness of belonging to Christ, for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. Congregation does not come by itself. Congregation must also be possible without a solemn room, with poor organ playing, with inadequately preached word and a worship service to which all the defects of human inadequacy are attached. In the Sermon on the Mount ( Mt 5: 23–24 EU ) the Lord says that one should first be reconciled with one's brother before one brings one's gift to the altar. The believer cannot simply enter the church and pretend that nothing has happened and that everything is in order. In the event of serious disagreements among parishioners, this usually cannot happen immediately. But you should take yourself up and not let the injustice stand, but make amends as soon as you can. The church is a sacred connection like a bond that goes from one person to another and that otherwise tears.
Parish and church
When the believer comes into the sacred space, he first says with his whole attitude I - not you . He excludes his families and the circle of friends with which he is more closely associated with this attitude of distrust , strangeness , arrogance, aversion , indifference , hostility and hardening, which the struggle for daily existence brings with it. That too is just an expanded form of self-esteem. Instead of an individual ego, there is a natural group ego, which, however, has little in common with the word community.
Guardini now emphasizes that the word "I" appears very little in the prayers of the congregation. Only in the confession of sins and the creed , where the individual confesses to the revelation of God incarnate, is it the focus of prayer. As a rule, the prayers say “We praise you”, “We praise you” and “We adore you”. This “we” is the church and not the individual.
expenditure
- Reflection before the celebration of Holy Mass. Matthias Grünewald Publishing House, Mainz 1939.
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Reflection before the celebration of Holy Mass. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 7th expanded edition 1961.
- First part: the posture. (173 p.)
- Second part: the fair as a whole. (138 p.)
Web links
- Karl Baier : Celebrating in the time-space of the collection , Vienna 2013, 23 pages online on the website of the University of Vienna, pdf
Individual evidence
- ↑ Notation according to the catalog of the German National Library from the 4th revised edition (1949): the holy mass ( [1] ).
- ^ Romano Guardini: Reflection before the celebration of the Holy Mass. First part. P. 153.
- ↑ Frederic Debuyst: Romano Guardini. Introduction to his liturgical thinking . Regensburg 2009. p. 55
- ↑ Vol. I p. 11.
- ↑ Vol. I p. 162.
- ↑ Vol. IS 63f.
- ↑ Vol. IS 70f.