Liturgical Cogitations

Details: 22 January 2010

Guido Marini

Last January 6th, Monsignor Guido Marini, the current Pope’s Master of Liturgical Ceremonies and Head of the College of Masters of Pontifical Ceremonies, delivered a discourse in the Vatican to a large group of English speaking priests from the United States and Australia. Monsignor Guido Marini, from Genoa, Italy, succeeded in that office Archbishop Piero Marini (same last name but no relation), who had been the Master of Ceremonies for Pope John Paul II for many years, but now has been promoted by Pope Benedict XVI to be the President of the Papal Commission for International Eucharistic Congresses. The discourse of Monsignor Guido Marini is entitled “Introduction to the Spirit of the Liturgy”, the “Spirit of the Liturgy”, of course, being the English title of the Holy Father’s famous book on that subject, written when he still was Cardinal Josef Ratzinger.

The Marini discourse touched many themes, but two of the most prominent were “continuity” and “reverence” in regard to liturgical issues. He says, “There is an urgent need to reaffirm the authentic spirit of the liturgy, such as it is present in the uninterrupted tradition of the Church, and attested, in continuity with the past, in the most recent magisterial teachings, starting with the Second Vatican Council up to the present pontificate. I purposefully used the word “continuity”, a word very dear to our present Holy Father. He has made it the only authentic criterion whereby one can correctly interpret the life of the Church, and, more specifically, the conciliar documents, including all the proposed reforms contained in them. How could it be any different? Can one truly speak of a Church of the past and a Church of the future as if some Neumannhistorical break in the body of the Church had occurred? Could anyone say that the Bride of Christ had lived without the assistance of the Holy Spirit in a particular period of the past, so that its memory should be erased and purposely forgotten? Nevertheless, at times it seems that some individuals are truly partial to that way of thinking, which is justly and properly defined as an ideology, or rather a preconceived notion applied to the history of the Church which has nothing to do with the true faith.”

Continuity

Monsignor Marini goes on to say, “An example of the fruit produced by that misleading ideology is the recurrent distinction between the pre-conciliar and post-conciliar Church. Such a manner of speaking can be legitimate, but only on condition that two Churches are not understood by it, the preconciliar Church that has nothing more to say or to give because it has been surpassed, and a second Church, the post conciliar Church, a new reality born from the Council and, by its presumed spirit, not in continuity with its past. This manner of speaking and more so of thinking must not be our own. Apart from being incorrect, it is already superseded and outdated, perhaps understandable from a historical point of view, but nonetheless connected to a season in the Church’s life that is by now concluded, over with.”

Monsignor Marini then shows how “continuity” is involved in the true spirit of the liturgy. “The authentic spirit of the liturgy does not abide when it is not approached with serenity, leaving aside all polemics with respect to the recent or remote past. The liturgy cannot and must not be an opportunity for conflict between those who find good only in that which came before us and those who, on the contrary, almost always find wrong in what came before. The only disposition which permits us to attain the authentic spirit of the liturgy, with joy and true spiritual relish, is to regard both the past and the present liturgy of the Church as one patrimony in continuous development. A spirit, accordingly, which we must receive from the Church and that is not a fruit of our own making, a spirit, I add, which leads to what is essential in the liturgy, precisely to prayer inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, in Whom Christ continues to become present for us today to burst forth into our lives, truly the spirit of the liturgy is the liturgy of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26-27).”

Reverence

It is the vitally important “adoration aspect” of the sacred liturgy that, Monsignor Marini explains, should condition the absolutely necessary reverence which ought to characterize always all liturgical actions. “My Lord and my God, we have been taught to say from childhood at the moment of the consecration in Mass. In such a way, borrowing the words of the Apostle Saint Thomas (John 20:28), we are led to adore the Lord, made present and living in the species of the Holy Eucharist, uniting ourselves to Him and recognizing Him as our all. From there it becomes possible to resume our daily way, having found the correct order of life, the fundamental criterion by which to live and to die.”

“Here is the reason why everything is the liturgical act, through the nobility, the beauty, and the harmony of the exterior sign, must be conducive to adoration, to union with God. This includes the music, the singing, the periods of silence, the manner of proclaiming the Word of the Lord, and the manner of praying, the gestures employed, the liturgical vestments and the sacred vessels and other furnishings, as well as the sacred edifice in its entirety.” Pope Benedict XVI says, “The Eucharistic celebration is itself the Church’s supreme act of worship. For this reason, everything in the liturgy, and more specifically in the Eucharistic liturgy, must lead to adoration, everything in the unfolding of the rite must help one enter into the Church’s adoration of her Lord.”

Adore First

Pope Benedict XVI, cited by Monsignor Marini, says, “During the early phases of the reform, the inherent relationship between Mass and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was not always perceived with sufficient clarity.” However, “as Saint Augustine put it: ‘No one eats that Flesh without first adoring It. Were we to eat without first adoring, we would be committing sin’. In the Eucharist the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us. Eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the Eucharistic celebration.... Receiving the Eucharist means adoring Him Whom we receive. Only in this way do we become one with Him and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy. Everything in the Eucharistic liturgy must lead to adoration. Everything in the unfolding of the rite must help one enter into the Church’s adoration of her Lord.”

“Adoration is recognition filled with wonder, the recognition of the infinite might of God, of His incomprehensible majesty, of His love without limit which He offers us absolutely gratuitously, of His omnipotent and provident Lordship.”