The Seven Gifts of the Spirit of the Liturgy: Centennial Perspectives on Romano Guardini’s Landmark Work
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote that liturgical reform and renewal must accord with what they called "the spirit of the liturgy". But what did they mean by this? Popes had written and spoken about this spirit in the decades before the council, but another important source is the 1918 book The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini, which Pope Benedict XVI credits with sparking the liturgical movement in Germany.
The Seven Gifts of The Spirit of the Liturgy is a study of Guardini’s watershed text. With contributions from Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., Michon Matthiesen, David Fagerberg, Daniel Cardó, Bishop James Conley, Emery de Gaál, and Susan Benofy, as well as Christopher Carstens, it analyzes each of the seven core features of the liturgical spirit as Guardini defined it: objective, corporate, universal, symbolic, meaningful, beautiful, and logical.
The Second Vatican Council saw each of these seven characteristics as integral to authentic liturgical reform. Too often they remain absent from liturgical celebrations even today, when subjectivism and individualism take the place of an objective, corporate spirit; when custom-made liturgies neglect the dimension of universality; when frivolous, anemic symbols stand in for a robust symbolism that truly manifests Christ; when beauty and seriousness fade into the background.
We hold back the spirit of the liturgy if we don’t know what it is, if we don’t desire it, and if we don’t work to let it animate liturgical prayer and practice. For this reason, nine experts on the liturgy recall in this book Guardini’s key spiritual insights, showing how these can deepen our liturgical understanding and practice today.
- Analyzes the seven core features of “the spirit of the liturgy” as defined by Romano Guardini
- Examines how these features relate to the Second Vatican Council’s vision for liturgical reform
- Highlights the importance of objective, corporate, and symbolic elements in authentic liturgical celebrations
- Introduction
- I The Prayer of the Liturgy: How the Spirit’s Sober Inebriation Brings Joy to the Praying Soul
- II The Fellowship of the Liturgy: Each for All and All for Christ
- III The Style of the Liturgy: Heaven in a Grain of Incense
- IV The Symbolism of the Liturgy: Together Again for the First Time Everywhere
- V The Playfulness of the Liturgy: At Prayer in the Fields of the Lord
- VI The Seriousness of the Liturgy: Some Good and Weighty Truths about Beauty
- VII The Primacy of the Logos over the Ethos: By Neither Word nor Bread Alone
- Afterword: What Became of the Spirit of the Liturgy?
- Author Bios