Vorlage:1936 Rezensionen Vom Geist der Liturgie

• [1936-022] [Englisch] V. M. (vermutlich Virgil Michel: Rezension zu: Guardini, The Church and the Catholic and The Spirit of the Liturgy, in: Orate Fratres (Worship), 10, 1935/36, 5 (März 1936), S. 236-238 [neu aufgenommen] – [Rezension] - https://books.google.de/books?id=PH4TAAAAIAAJ; zu Romano Guardini:
  • S. 236: „This book is not too easy reading. It is also more difficult to review than to read, but ist wealth of profound thought, so characteristic of its author, and its timeliness will well repay not only one reading but several. It consists really of two small books, of which the second is the English translation of the opening volume of the famous Eccclesia Orans series of Maria Laach Abbey in Germany. The very first words of the book illustrate the wide sweep of the author's vision: "A religious process of incalculable importance has begun - the Church is coming to life in the souls of men." Explanation follows at once: "This must be correctly understood. The Church has, of course, been continuously alive in herself, and at all times of decisive importance for her members. They have accepted her teaching, obeyed her commands; her invincible vitality has been their strong support and the ground of their trust. But, with the development of individualism since the end of the Middle Ages, the Church has been thought of as a means to true religious life — as it were a God - designed framework or vessel in which that life is contained — a viaduct of life but not as life itself. It has, in other words, been thought of as a thing exterior from which men might receive life, not a thing into which men must be incorporated that they may live with its life.“ The entire first treatise is devoted to a deeper development and understanding of this striking phenomenon of our day. The reawakening in men which helps to regain for the Church "that cosmic spaciousness which was hers in the early centuries and the Middle Ages“; the concept of the Church as the mystical body of Christ; the vitalizing of theology in our spiritual life; the liberation of many of the faithful from the effects of both subjectivism and rationalism; the life of the member and of the Church as something mutual, as a reciprocal between individual and fellowship; the true relation between individual and community over against the tension in the modern world on this point; the Church and the failing human elements in her membership; the freedom of the truth over against the enslavement to external environment or inner intellectualism; the supranational character of the Church; the new sense of community drawn out of the living liturgy; the solidarity of the communion of saints; the genuine Christian apologetic which consists in supporting proofs by a life that inspires confidence and that strengthens all argumentative proof "by a living proof of power" - such is the procession of inspiring ideas that carry through the entire treatise. There is no element that one can single out above the rest; it is all too precious in its entirety. The second part, entitled The Spirit of the Liturgy, has long been known to many apostles of the liturgical movement. It was one of the original sources of inspiration for many of the sponsors of the movement in this country long before ist appearance in English garb. ORATE FRATRES rejoices in particular at its publication in conjunction with the other treatise, since that eliminates the separate edition under a title that had long ago been used and copyrighted for a pamphlet of the Popular Liturgical Library. Successive chapters deal with the liturgy's prayer, fellowship, style, symbolism, play spirit, and seriousness, while a final one deals with "The Primacy of the Logos over the Ethos." Here, too, the development is philosophical, that is, it reflects a thinking mind, and is nowhere superficial. In contrasting it with the first treatise, the reviewer has the impression that the inspirational atmosphere is not so pronounced here. But he remembers the enthusiasm with which he pored over the original and reread it, so that the difference in impression, which may also reflect the mind of the author himself, is perhaps a difference due to the developments of time, due precisely to the intensification of Catholic life that is mentioned at the beginning of the entire book. It is possible in this light that one or the other statement is to be understood, such as the following: "We cannot directly translate into action that which the liturgy offers us." Perhaps the hitch dies in the word directly; for the entire first part, abstract though it be, is an eloquent example of how that which the liturgy offers should be translated into action. This double book is a valuable addition to English volumes on the liturgical mind of the Church. It deserves the widest sale as well as recurrent reading and study. The work of translation, which must have bristled with difficulties, is very well done.“