A treasury of spiritual wisdom on how to prepare your mind, body, and heart for Mass from one of the twentieth century’s great theologians, Meditations before Mass is Romano Guardini’s smart and beautiful guide to spiritual preparation for the source and summit of Christian worship.
Meditations before Mass is a wise, pastoral, and timeless classic on preparing for Mass—it is an example of twentieth-century theologian Romano Guardini at his very best. Meditations before Mass was written before Vatican II, but its relevance has endured over the past sixty years. Not a “how to” book for either the old or the new Roman Rite, it is instead a spiritual feast for the mind and heart, and a guide for modern people who wish to make sense of the Church’s feasts and liturgies. Meditations before Mass has helped thousands of readers participate more fully in Christian liturgy and continues to do so today.
“Now I am here. I have only one thing to do: participate with my whole being in the only thing that counts—the sacred celebration. I am entirely ready.’” (Pages 19–20)
“Silence overcomes noise and talk; composure is the victory over distractions and unrest” (Page 16)
“like silence, composure does not create itself; it must be willed and practiced.3” (Page 19)
“Absolute rest and composure is eternity. Time is unrest and dispersion; eternity is rest and unity, not inactivity or boredom—only fools connect these with it.” (Pages 20–21)
“heart and mind concentrated on the here and now, not off on daydreams; it is being ‘all here.’” (Page 23)
Like fine wines, some books get better as they age. Placed alongside the reformed Eucharistic liturgy of Vatican II this veritable classic will continue to instruct, inspire, and enrich the present and future generations of Catholics for whom the liturgy is the summit and source of our lives.
—Msgr. Kevin Irwin, Walter J. Schmitz Chair of Liturgical Studies, The Catholic University of America
With these meditations you can sense the active participation of the people already coming to birth in the 1950s. Guardini promotes not just a renewed liturgy, but a renewed people.
—Rev. Paul Turner author of At the Supper of the Lamb
Romano Guardini (1885–1968) is regarded as one of the most important Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century. He lived in Germany most of his life and was ordained a priest in Mainz in 1910. The focus of Guardini’s academic work was philosophy of religion and he is best known for such works as The Lord, The End of the Modern World, and The Spirit of the Liturgy. Guardini taught at the University of Berlin until he was forced to resign for criticizing Nazi mythologizing of Jesus and for emphasizing Christ’s Jewishness. After World War II, he taught at the University of Tubingen and the University of Munich. While Guardini declined Pope Paul VI’s offer to make him a cardinal in 1965, his prolific status as a scholar and teacher heavily influenced the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, especially liturgical reforms. His intellectual disciples are many, including Josef Pieper and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.