Mount Saviour Monastery in Elmira, New York. When Adamus was born in Hanover, educated at Göttingen and Munich, entered Maria Lach, and after his profession was sent to the International Benedictine College, St. Anselmo in Rome, where he received his doctorate in philosophy. He then became Professor of Philosophy and Rector of Studies at the Philosophical Academy of Maria Locke. And of course, these were the great years, I think, at Maria Locke under Abbot Wilderfans Herwegen. It was in the study sessions that were conducted there during those days that many of the things which we now enjoy and consider great progress in the modern church got their impetus. During this time, he wrote a two-volume commentary on the sacramental teaching of St.

[01:06]

Thomas Aquinas and was active in the Catholic youth movement among university students in Germany. He came to the United States in 1938 and taught at Immaculate Conception Seminary, Darlington, and at Manhattanville College. and became the first chaplain of the Benedictine nuns of Regina Laudis in Connecticut when they arrived in the United States. He has been an associate editor of worship and a director of a liturgical conference, published books, A Pathway Through Sacred Scripture and Symbols of Christ, but since 1951, when He, with a group of three other monks, founded Mount Saviour, and became prior of this monastery, he has devoted his full time and interest to this good work. He is, happily for us, one of the three advisors of our Catholic Art Association, and for me, he is a friend, and I think I could say it's my joy that

[02:14]

I am able to think some of the same thoughts that he thinks, but I'm only in via, you know, as Sister said yesterday. Father Donna says, I think Sister Bernard will agree, has arrived. He is a normal Montessori person. I think it is my opinion, and I think it's an objective opinion, that our speaker this morning, Reverend Father Damascus, is a man of great stature, a great spiritual leader, a great father of youngs, and I think we can say a great light of the Church in this 20th century. And I would just like to ask you to rise in respect and gratitude to his coming or for his coming to speak to us this morning about the formation of the Christian people through the liturgy. Father David, please. and your reception, I think, fit in well with the topic that we wanted to treat today, the formation of the people through the liturgy.

[04:01]

I think we feel it at this convention. We are not here only as brains. But we are here as human beings with our whole heart and bonds are being established between us, bonds of friendship, bonds that only the Lord of Christ can establish between men and between the members of this mystical body. I launch into the depth of our topic today. I would like to recount an anecdote from the life of St. Anselm, as I feel it would be particularly apt for this occasion. And I, as a Benedictine, have to speak of education, to teach us

[05:05]

He has it in the life of Erdmann. Erdmann wrote about St. Anselm. He says that once an abbot who had a reputation for great sanctity conversed with Anselm about the boys being educated in his monastery. What on earth will become of them, the abbot asked St. Anselm. They are corrupt and incorrigible. And though we keep on beating them day and night, it only makes them worse. Hanson was greatly surprised and answered, won't you beat them constantly? What kind of men will they grow up to be? dull and crude as beasts," the abbot replied.

[06:09]

But how can you waste good food this way, I asked Hansel, to waste beasts instead of human beings? Who, us? asked the abbot. Ah, what can we do about it? We try to constrain them on all sides in order to improve them, and yet they make no progress at all. You constrain them? Now tell me, Father Habert, if you plant a young tree in your garden, and at the same time constrain it on all sides so that its branches cannot spread, and years later set it free, what will the tree look like? Barren, I suppose, with bent and crooked branches. And who would bear the blame for it but you? for having hemmed it in without discretion. And this is precisely what you do to your boys.

[07:12]

By their oblation, their parents planted them into the garden of the church. And there they should grow and bear fruit. But you surround them with scarecrows, threats, and beatings so that they can never grow into freedom. Thus absurdly restricted, they fall victim to poisonous thoughts that are nourished until the hearts of the youth have hardened, and they refuse anything that could lead to their betterment. Never perceiving any love or tenderness in you or mildness in their behalf, they have no confidence in your intentions and consider grudge and hatred your motives. The sad fact is that as their bodies grow, hatred and suspicion grow apace, and they fall more easily victim to evil.

[08:15]

Not having been brought up to love anyone genuinely, they can only regard everyone with jealousy, looking on the world with shifty eyes. But tell me, for the love of God, why do you vent your anger on them in this way? Are they not human beings? Are they not brethren? Would you want to be treated as you are treating them? Put yourself in their place. But let us have no more of this. Are blows and strikes the only means of education? Have you ever seen an artist fashion a beautiful sculpture from an ingot of silver or gold by hammering alone? I doubt it very much. How does the artist go about it? At times he presses and pushes the metal carefully with one tool in order to give it the right shape. Then he smooths and polishes it, yielding gently to the nature of his material.

[09:20]

If you want to bring up well-bred boys, you must give them the hammering of discipline, but also the helpful concession of the loving kindness of a father. Quark shouted the amit, make helpful concessions to them. We wear ourselves out trying to lead them by the bridle to serious and mature conduct. Precisely, said Anselm, but strong food is good for one who can digest. Not, however, rye bread for eaters. Substitute bread. through the infant's milk, and you will soon see that far from making them stronger, it will only kill them. Why? That is evident. I need not tell you. Remember that just as a tender body needs different food than a hardy one, so does the weak soul need different treatment than a strong one. A strong one enjoys heavy food, patience in sufferings,

[10:26]

not to be covetous, turning the other cheek to him who struck one, to pray for one's enemies, to love those who hate us. These things are for the strong, but frail souls still weak in the service of God need milk. That is the kindness of others, favors, mindfulness, cheerful exhortation, loving help, and other things like this. In making this kind of adjustment to the strong and weak among your pupils, you will win all of them for God as far as depends upon you." And when the abbot heard this, he heaved a deep sigh. Has he converted? We hope. Thus the doctoressa had not yet been born in those days. However, you see, even in the dark Middle Ages we have some rays of light.

[11:31]

A man like St. Anselm, a real monk, who had grown up under the mild rule of his spiritual father, St. Benedict, in a life which was feeding on the essential sources of Christian life, Holy Scripture, and the liturgy. And formed in this way, he, first being a good son, then also becomes a good and wise father. So you see this little anecdote leads us right into our topic. Because here we feel and we see that when we speak about formation of the Christian people through the liturgy, we mean not formation through external discipline, but formation from within. Formation from within, as we have heard so beautifully expressed and put to us during this convention, is a matter of love.

[12:40]

I remind you of one of Goethe's tales, where he reports how an old man says to the younger generation, three big factors are ruling the world. Wisdom, fame, and power. And then the young man comes and says, but dear father, you have forgotten love. And then the old man says, love does not rule, love forms. That's a translation of the German bildung, builds. And bildung for education. Love forms. That is therefore the kind of formation that the liturgy gives and it is the formation of the people of God that we should not forget either during this hour.

[13:48]

The object of the liturgy's formation is the people of God. Now who are the people of God? Not many wise according to the flesh not many noble, not many mighty, but the foolish things of the world God has chosen to put to shame the wise. And the weak things of the world has God chosen to put to shame the strong, and the base things of the world and the despised. has God chosen, and the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are, lest any flesh should glory before God. Formation is, as we see here then right away, applied to the people of God, is a matter of salvation, a matter of a rebirth

[14:55]

The material with which we deal in this Christian formation is not human nature in first line, but it is the fallen nature, it's the sinner, it's the poor ones in the sense of the Bible. Therefore it is a formation from above, a spiritual formation. And therefore St. Paul continues in this quotation from the first epistle to the Corinthians, from God you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us God-given wisdom and God-given justice and God-given sanctification and redemption, so that, just as it is written, let him who glories, glory in the Lord.

[16:00]

That is really the aim and purpose of the formation of the people of God. We are, as a people, in Christ Jesus. That is the essence of the church. Not an association, not an ethical society, not only a school, not a law, but the body of Christ. Body of Christ. That does not mean collectivism. C.S. Lewis in his beautiful address on membership, says, a convict has a number instead of a name. That is the collective idea carried to its extreme.

[17:02]

But a man in his own house may also lose his name because he is called simply father. and that is membership in a body. Loss of the name in both cases reminds us that there are two opposite ways of departing from isolation. Now the old testament idea of the people of God is already strictly and clearly opposed to what the Old Testament calls the rabble. Rabble is the lonely crowd, a gathering, getting together of individuals without a law. The people of God is an ordered society, but in the Old Testament, united under the law and

[18:09]

very important and a thing that will never be lost. This law rules every detail of life. The law of the Old Testament is already, you may say, a total law, precluding completely the idea that religion is simply a private affair. But making it absolutely clear that religion penetrates into every detail of our life, takes the whole human being. But of course in the Old Testament with this limitation that the people of God under this law is a nation. The law is given to the sons of Jacob and to them alone. Now, the new Israel is different. The new Israel Christianity is certainly we are not a rabble.

[19:14]

We are not what the Jews call the hollow law, this undefined mass of the Gentiles. We are an order, community, and the very word of a layman. or lay people, means laos, that means members of an ordered society. But naturally we are not children of Abraham physically, but we are brought into being by God who is able to turn stones into children of Abraham. those who were far, he brought near to the cross of his Son, which does away with barriers and walls, and makes us all one in the law, in which the Son of God did not think it lowly to be equal to his Father, but took on flesh, obedient unto death.

[20:29]

and then was exhorted that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father. That is the essence of the people of God. Formation of the people of God. That means of the church. That means of the body of Christ. of members who in this unity of the body glorify the Father. The Church is essentially not a school because it shares the life of God. And she is not only a school because she also has for her last end purpose the glorification of the Father.

[21:34]

She is essentially a cult community born out of the lineage and directed towards the heavenly lineage. It is a cult community. Now then, what is liturgy? It's Christ's work of redemption. Christ's work of redemption was and is the highest act of worship. Redemption and coat are worn already in the earthly life of our Savior. His death on the cross, the highest glorification of the Father. And he wanted this work, this Opus Dei, this divine work, to continue in the church, in his body.

[22:39]

He handed it over to his church in this last solemn moment of the Last Supper where he says to his apostles, do this in memory of me. Now we see clearly what are, let us say, the terms of our topic. It is formation from within, that means through of the people of God, that means who are those who are born again through the love that the Father sends with his Son, who dies for us that we may live in him. And this community, this people of God then, is here on earth as well as in heaven to glorify the Father in the Holy Spirit through the Son.

[23:41]

And then the liturgy is, you see it now clearly, that we are not an association, not a school, that Christ is not a prophet, that he is not a philosopher, that we are therefore not intellectuals, but that we are living, being members of the world incarnate that died and is glorious. And you also realize that the liturgy has the central position, really, in the formation of God's people, born out of the cult act of the Lord's death and resurrection, and continuing this very worship of the Father here on earth. Now then, this One can say the decisive thing in the history of the Christian Church was this problem.

[24:45]

In the early centuries it seemed to appear that the liturgy had and was the central formative power in the building up of the Church. Our Lord said to his apostles, not only teach, But he said, go and teach our nations and baptize them. It is the word and the sacrament, the two together. And he said to his apostles, do this in memory of me. And there was the Last Supper, and this Last Supper should be continued, and it consisted of two things, of words, of the outpouring of the Lord's wisdom to his disciples, and of his breaking the bread, this is my body, and giving them the chalice of his blood, word and sacrament.

[25:48]

And this unity of these two, that is the vital part in the formative hour of the liturgy. Historically, then, unfortunately, things have developed in this way, that on one side the teaching was emancipated and moved away from the liturgy, from the altar, from the sacrament. And on the other side, as a consequence of this, the sacrament itself lost its transparency, its power, really to radiate the divine significance, what do I say, the divine light into the hearts of the people. But you must consider, and you see already from what we have said, that this whole thing, Christianity, is a matter of love. Believe in charity.

[26:50]

That's the foundation of our entire life. That's the heart of it. Therefore, the symbolism or the supplemental, let us say, infallibility of the liturgy, can never work in a magical way. Christianity is not, and the liberty is not magics. But the liberty is the union of the power of God's love drawing us into it. And that, of course, can be done only if somehow our hearts are open, and our hearts are open together with our minds. That is what unity. And therefore, if on one side the teaching is intellectualized, And if on one side the spreading of the teaching of the church or the conveying of the teaching is concentrated only in catechism, in concepts, and if on the other side then the sacramental action is, let us say, performed

[28:12]

in an atmosphere which is not able to penetrate into the minds and the hearts of those who assist at it. then the sacramental spiritual power of the liturgy cannot have its full effect upon the people of God. Therefore we are confronted today with this question. The sacramental power is there. But we cannot possibly say, as long as the liturgy is performed correctly, we get everything we should get. Absolutely not. If only, let us say, the secret of the liturgy would be its validity, what we call the validity, then the inner true character of our bond that unites us through within Christ as persons, in a person, with a person, the person of the Father, is simply not seen.

[29:29]

So we have to ask ourselves today in order to restore in our days the formative power of the liturgy. We have to do two things. One is the celebration of the liturgy in such a way that it becomes transparent, that it can develop all its symbolic, significant power, that it can really reach the hearts and the minds and the bodies of those who participate in it. On the other hand, we have to take care of the real appreciation on the part of the people. We have in some way to prepare, as it were, the way, the general attitude of the people. I think in this whole question of restoring the formative power of the liturgy in our days, I think we have to be aware

[30:35]

of putting the accent too much, and maybe to exaggerate, the importance of the intellectual side, and that means of the actual understanding. With the Christian, what do the people get out of it? Can they really understand? And then, of course, first comes the Latin, and there's that. But then comes... I see I touch on the sensitive. And maybe this is a sensitive moment. I don't want to miss it. I don't want to escape it. But I just want to say this, you know, let us be aware, you see, of one thing, and that is that the liturgy can have its formative power only if it really, let us say, comes from above.

[31:48]

There is always the danger of talking down. There is always the danger of diluting things. And language is a marvellous way of diluting things. Especially... Now don't draw any wrong conclusions too fast. Don't think that, oh my, Vetrum Sapientia changed his mind. It's not. But there is, you know, it's simply a fact that we have to consider. The English, also the present-day English, is not in that which is growing on the, let us say, out of the ground, out of the soil of the civilization, which is essentially determined by its culture. That is, of course, the old concept, the real, let us say, concept of culture is that it is a living which grows out of the center of the culture.

[32:53]

that is culture. So we are not that way. Our language, and the language is always the most sensitive reflector of the life of the people. The language is a living thing and you know how associations, you know, clutter around words, you know, and before we know it The old cult associations are lost, and new, let us say, baseball associations have taken its place. And then you suddenly come around, you know, and work, for example, the crowning of our lady, and you think crowning, and you get all kinds of associations, and you say, no, it's impossible, can't use that word. So we are retreating, you see, as I say before, a secular world. Or we think, you see, now it's really what we give, as I say, for example, to people in the everyday language.

[33:55]

Is it really, in the end, truly the Word of God? For example, the translation of Roderick Knox of the New and even more of the Old Testament. It's very good English, however. We have to ask ourselves, if not here and there, to say the power of the Word of God has to a certain extent been sacrificed to the beauty of the English, to the writer. So I only indicate this In order to tell you that at this moment, let us rather, instead of immediately focusing on this one concept of understanding what is being done. Therefore, for example, the priest has to say everything at the altar aloud, so that all people may understand. Then he has to speak the next thing in a language that everybody understands. But what is the language that everybody understands?

[34:58]

So I mean, there are problems. You understand what I mean. But let us rather see, and I see in that what I will try to convey also in this paper, let us rather see the indication to see the liturgy is a total thing. Therefore, let us be absolutely clear, it's not only a matter of the actual understanding, but it is a matter of attitude. It is a general thing. It's something that goes into the whole, let's say, the whole carpet of our life, and therefore for the understanding and the efficacy of the liturgy. It is so important that not only the words are understood, but that the general actions, for example, the meal, as I say, the fact that we go into the house of God to celebrate, the fact that we have an altar

[36:06]

The fact also that the liturgy is to say and starts from within, from the heart, that it is essentially a matter of love. What does Christian love involve in our everyday life and so on? Those things are, it seems to me, of really great importance, and they are at the same time a thing which in an association like the Catholic Art Association are of great importance. You realize and you realize again from this meeting that we have here. during these days, that art, the understanding of art that we have in the Christian, in the Catholic art association, is a broader one. It's a total one. Art is in some way the expression of the inner soundness and goodness of man, and of Catholic man, that means of the redeemed man.

[37:13]

You saw it in the presentation of icons that Father Faden gave us, that here the accent is on the wholeness of the all-ruler Christ, and we are drawn into this salvation so that the art of making icons is really a part of this whole process of salvation. And there are others. The teaching that occupies us today, and all we heard about Maria Montessori, that is of course again, you see, another way the child is approached, let us say, in its wholeness. from within. And it is therefore done with love. It is done in the spirit of joy. It is not, you know, with a rule and everything has to conform to this rule.

[38:14]

That's an organic thing. And so we can certainly say that also the church really and truly is a kindergarten rather than a prison. And therefore, the way in which we are formed by God is in the way of love, it's in the way of nobleness, it is the respect for the glory of the Christians. It is then also in the liturgy the sense of abundance which is so essential for the understanding of what the New Testament as a time of fulfillment really and truly is for us. So let us just consider, and I wanted to give you a few thoughts, you know, just on the way in which the liturgy as he forms the Christian people so that you yourself may in that way more easily conform, I would say, to the spirit of the liturgy.

[39:30]

So it's a matter, I would say, of the liturgy conveyed to us in the power of its spirit, basic human attitudes of the redeemed Christian. Take, for example, here the first, let us say, stage in which the liturgy forms the Christian people. We have it in the Lenten season. And that's, of course, very important. One can say the liturgy starts with Lent. Lent as preparation for the rebirth. The material of the Lenten season are the pagans and are the sinners. Therefore, there are those stones. But God is able to turn these stones into children of Abraham. God is able, not man. And the church in that way, what does she do? She approaches these stones in what spirit?

[40:32]

Now we let us say, in the spirit of a mother. The first form, let us say, the basic form of saving love, you know, is, one can say, incorporated on a natural level in the mother. but also on the supernatural level. It is the church is really and truly our mother. And how does she approach these, this material, these ignorant pagans and these sinners? Now the old beginning of the Lenten season was the Sunday Litare, the Sunday Rejoice. And on this Sunday, the church gathering them together in Jerusalem, in the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. And you know here already, see how the liturgy draws people into space and a certain sacred space. And here is Jerusalem, and here is Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

[41:37]

There we are gathered together at the feet of the cross, all these sinners. and ignorant people, poor people. And then the church says, Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and celebrate. Nearly I've said celebrate a convention. One very sweet convention. And come together, you know, celebrate an assembly. That's a real liturgical word, you know. Celebrate an assembly. And rejoice with joy all those that love you. You that have been in sorrow, that you may be filled from the breasts of divine consolation. That is the way.

[42:38]

in which we address, you know, those who come, in which we are being addressed. Because for that matter, we are all in the same boat. And the Lenten season, the beauty of the Lenten season is this, that we don't say to pagans and heretics, your fault, your fault, your greatest fault, but that we say our fault. That's the spirit of the liturgy, you see. That's far away, you know, from intellectualism. It's sensuous. So in that way, you know, we deal. The Mother Church deals with the material that has to be formed. And that is the realm. And that are the pagans and the sinners. But what is the power? The power is the divine agape, that descending law, that caritas, which, as Clement of Alexandria says so beautifully, but sometimes through the ears of the intellectual, a little scandalous, that makes God the father and mother.

[43:54]

It's really true. So there we have it. I would just remind you that this kind of attitude is something that should become, and be, general among us. I'm thinking, for example, religious communities. To appreciate the liturgy, that's not only to read the missal every time your sister marries. But that is the whole spirit, for example, of a religious community. I think, and I'm speaking here for a community like Mount Saviour, a monastery, a monastic family. I don't think it is a therapeutic community. It's a community that gets together, people that want to be healed. So our community life is a process of salvation. Therefore it's a process of the formation, not of the perfect.

[44:57]

but of the imperfect. Therefore, for example, just this common penance Also, a certain way of openness. You know all so well how, in our modern society, Alcoholic Anonymous is a success. Why? Because the isolated alcoholic who lives behind the prison bars, let us say, of his wives, which is clear to everybody else, but he thinks he has to hide it, which in itself is an absolute devastation. that certainly breaks out into a community of those who nobody is talking about, because they are or were like him, and then are all eager to hear. And what a tremendous effect that has. And naturally also that would be in religious communities, that living

[46:04]

humility of reliving repentance is something that is of tremendous importance. The ideal of a religious community is not that everything goes according to rule, and with the rule that is absolutely a straight line. In the end our community life exists of straight lines, and all these straight lines lead Straight up into heaven. Straight up into heaven. But to those outside it looks beautiful like a glacier. And the more perfect the community, the more glaciers. And it's this flawless correctness. That is the way you take the last risk.

[47:08]

But that is not realistic. It's not our human life. The church has never considered herself as a group of an elite. We are always here together as sinners, and one of the things, you know, for example, in the celebration of Holy Mass, which is a celebration really for the faithful, let us say, constantly on this day we call it the Lamb of God who carries the sins of the world. Now, are the sins of the world always the other one? And then, you know, in this attitude we go to Holy Communion. Dominant non-sumpti, but not I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. Wonderful word in itself. Then comes after this, you know, I just indicated, but there is the spirit, let us say, of the thin season, there comes another element too, is associated.

[48:16]

I would say the love which meets us in the liturgy is not only the love of the mother, it is also the love of the father. The father, there is another tremendously important concept, which indicates a general attitude, and I would say an attitude which degenerates you know, in our modern civilization. And therefore, this degeneration contributes to the relative, let us say, inefficacy of the liturgy in our days. The father, what is the concept of a father? All through the history of mankind, that he is the teacher. He is the one who is concerned with the raising the raising, not only of the baby, but of the intellectually capable child, the raising. And there, for example, there's the tremendous function

[49:19]

of the Father giving direction, but a direction which comes out. We have that so often. We have beautiful testimonies of that. For example, a last testament of a father to his sons, where he sums up the sum total of his life. In this light, our Lord at the Last Supper, to give it them, hand it over to his sons. ways they're done today. The fathers who really look at their life in this way and try to formulate what God has taught them in their life, those fathers are rare, and therefore real fathers are rare in our time. And a father is not simply a wheel in a business. He's not only the provider. What does that mean, provider? If it only concerns the material needs that my family, my wife, and the children can live as the Joneses live.

[50:31]

And for that, he really has to work hard and make an effort. I always think back, you know, on my own, our own home, you know, when I was a boy. One of the things that stand out in my memory is the fact that nearly every evening the Father was gathering us around, all those who wanted to come, those who didn't want to come. And he was reading, see, to us, reading to us. And in that way, you know, he conveyed something. I still have that in my ears, in my mind today, the various things which he read to us, to mother and the children, and in that way he brought us in contact, you know. He was feeding us, and feeding us through the word of God. Now in the, in the, pedagogy of the liturgy, that of course is reflected in the fact that during the Lenten season, the Church puts emphasis on the catechetical teaching.

[51:44]

But what is catechetical teaching? First of all, it's not all the teaching of Christianity. They're not the only category that the liturgy knows. That is, in all simplicity, the introduction into the elements, first of Christian living and then also of Christian faith. So, but beyond this catechetical teaching, which in the liturgy of the church and during the Lenten season is always bound up, I mean, there is clearly one consideration that the church always had, and that is that of progress and organic growth. And this progress and organic growth were punctured, punctured not only by examinations, accentuated not only by examinations, but it was accentuated also by certain sacramental actions, exorcism, or the conveying of the signing of the bread with the cross, or the conveying of the sacrament of the catechumens, the

[53:05]

And so, so that in this, and thank God, you know, that this possibility has been restored just recently to us again. So that this, all these things were in our days, you know, kind of cluttered together in the one act of baptism and never understood by those who have participated here because it's very difficult for a priest in 20 minutes to recapitulate the whole season of Lent. The catechetical teaching is one element, the other element then of the activity of the father in the church is the homily. The homily is the deeper exchange, that is the sharing in the inner secrets, the secretal rages, that those secrets that the love of God has revealed to his church as his bride, and which give already to us the foretaste in our preparation of the last goal to which this whole

[54:12]

training or this whole formation leads, and that is the wedding feast between the Church and the Lamb. and therefore it is the homily that means the frankly loving deeper exchange. Take the Feast of the Assumption, and the Feast of the Assumption has been considered by the Church in past centuries as one of these inner secrets of the heart, not to be divulged right away to the uninitiated. It is too bad that our way of publicity in our days puts all these things before the crowd, the lonely crowd, and the lonely crowd cannot do anything with the assumption They are very hesitant when it comes to the Mother of God, and speaking about the Mother of God doesn't please an intellectual brain, or the bohemian, and all these things.

[55:20]

But today, all that, you know, is of course immediately thrown to the wild beasts of publicity, and in that way then devoured, and loses its taste. becomes a matter of controversy before it is really tasted in its inner beauty. For example, during the piece of the Assumption, the Octave, the Church always used to read the Canticle of Canticles, kiss me with the kiss of your mouth. That points into that deeper region of exchange, of the harmony which should be between the father and his community. For example, between the pastor and his parish, between the bishop and his church, between the religious superior and of the community that is entrusted to his care. In this whole thing and into this whole field,

[56:23]

fits very well the problem that we face today of the lessons of the reading of Holy Scripture. We simply face the fact today that the official worship of the Church has been, for a long time, frozen in the freezer of the rubrics, as Father Bowie here says. And then, you see, this Therefore, you know, what is, let us say, the whole, the warm, the emotional part of man? We saw it yesterday, it was so beautiful, you see, that this whole trouble, you cannot approach the hillbillies with the whole armor of the present Roman liturgy. You have to give it, read it to them, you see. and with little spoons. But one principle that they insist on is, but we believe without a doubt, the Christian has a right to shout.

[57:32]

Absolutely true. That's a liturgical principle. That means before the Trinity. before the energy was frozen, you see, but now we have to increase. And therefore, all you know that is emotion and warmth and tries to take refuge in devotions. And devotions at the same time, there is absolutely no reading of the Word of God. No. So you see, it is not only what we suffer from today, this absolute separation of intellectual teaching and sacramental celebration, but it's also the separation of sacramental celebration and the emotional life of man. Now therefore this, therefore these, these basic attitudes, these have to be restored and first of all to our understanding. Let us think of the church in the liturgy as a mother.

[58:37]

Let us think of the one who leads the liturgy as a father, feeding his sons, raising them with the power of God's Word. And then we come to the other stage of love, and that is brotherhood, brothers and sisters. That unity that we have, as we say, on the horizontal, between one another, between neighbors, and that is in the Eucharist. The meal, the whole celebration of the Mass of the faithful is geared to this. It is really not only a matter, you know, of a priest pronouncing the words correctly, But it is a matter of everybody really participating in the same body, in the same blood, and by that really becoming brothers and sisters in Christ. And there is another thing. It is very important.

[59:40]

And the liturgy, this, you see, this marvelous thing that we celebrate at the altar, where we become one in the body and the blood of Christ. as again it has to be embedded in our daily way of life. There is nothing more dangerous to the efficacy and the soundness of religion but to have tremendous high words on one side, everything burning with love, and on the other side, in reality, no reaction to it at all. That is tremendously dangerous. If we have a cult, and in this cult we assemble around the altar, the family table, we take the body of the Lord and the blood of the Lord. and that is a superlative of the highest kind, it must have its radiation, it must have its repercussions, its reflections in the whole social life of man.

[60:50]

But I only remind you of a few things there. I remind you, first of all, you can see how things developed in the antiquity. And then all these liturgical concepts that we speak about were formulated. And I think they are eternal human values, and not only values for one civilization, but not for another civilization. These are the things which man lives on. and without which he cannot live. But there we have, for example, the home in history. I can still remember that from our home in Hanover. The greatest sanctuary of that home, and especially I as a dirty little boy, you see, was never allowed in, was the salon. That was the room of ceremony. And what was it for a womb-birth ceremony? For the guests, to receive the guests, to give honor to the guests.

[61:56]

That salon was not to be used by the family. It was for the guests. We lived in the drawing room, but the drawing room, that was all a little kind of cozy little corner, you know, but without formality. And that's a very important distinction. But today, in the home today, first of all, if you think, you see, what does the home today still, for example, observe the same hierarchy of love in the rooms, in the very form in which people live? We live today, I mean, when I came to this country, then the main thing, you see, the glory of the home really was the kitchen, you see. Gloriously, spotlessly stainless steel, you know, that's the kind of, you know, the tone, the general tone for the kitchen. Today I think we have made another progress and we are, let us say, we are becoming fast a kind of bathrooms, if you say so.

[63:03]

But we are, for example, in a modern home, the guest room. the guest rooms. And hospitality, you may read the New Testament, and hospitality was one of the basic virtues of all the people of God that went together and got together every Sunday around the table where Christ himself was the host and we are the guests. And therefore every home had accommodation for guests. It's a slide, where is it? It doesn't exist. Or take, for example, the other thing, friendship, the very nature of friendship, you know. A thing, you know, the apostles were sent out to preach the glad tidings, beanie and beanie, two by two. Not for what? Purpose. Of course for the purpose that these two by two, wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.

[64:13]

And therefore they were all sent out by two by two to face one another, to establish and to have and to cultivate the inner deep personal closeness in Christ. And by that, of course, as preparation, as always, for then in this unity to praise the Father in heaven better, who is more pleased by the glory that he receives from a family than from an individual, because he's Father. And so therefore we see, for example, St. Paul and Silas thrown into a prison, two by two. What do they do? In the middle of the night they get up and they sing the Psalms, two by two, one to the other. What a wonderful picture.

[65:15]

That is the missionary spirit of the old church. Today, it's an individualistic spirit, the missionary spirit, to a great extent. A missionary is sent out and he is prepared to be a self-supporting autarkic individual. That out is so trained that it doesn't need any support from the outside. It has, of course, certain advantages. I regret that. But on the other side, the great danger is that Christianity doesn't really win the hearts of the people of God formed by the Eucharist through the mutual love which is manifest. Look at them, how they love one another, how they are facing in that way one another. There was the delight of Christianity, there was the power of Christianity, there was the joy of Christianity.

[66:19]

And so we have in this whole field of the world. mutual relation of the community. Again, you know, something that is necessary, that liturgy would convey to the Christian people at large this attitude of personal warmth, let us say, the spirit of friendship, maybe in the form of hospitality, maybe in the form of working together for the salvation of people. altar, certainly being and living together in the unity of family. That brings us to the last step in this. In last analysis, the liturgy prepares us for that bond of love which exists between Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the bride. And you, that is the spirit of which with which the liturgy is satiated, of soaked ignorance, really this inner relation of bridegroom and bride.

[67:34]

What does that, for example, imply? I can't give all the various consequences, but one is that this inner relation of love gives a relation of the holy flesh. It has a festive character. It is a celebration. Therefore, the liturgy in our days will not be able to take a hold of the people and to really develop its power if its celebration does not have this character of the feast, this character of a holy place. The characteristic of the play is always, we have spoken here during this convention, and in a very beautiful and very interesting way, for example, about the child and his formation, and then the stage, you know, see? That was one of the marvelous things, you know, that we saw that the child has in his own sphere certain basic forms,

[68:44]

not yet in the, let us say, intellectual clarity of the mature man, but in its own way certain symbolic attitudes and actions which exactly already prepare the future development of the level of the child and anticipation of what comes later, and therefore also in the child the role of play. but the child lives according to his, let us say, state of life, to his structure, in a unity of work and play. And this unity of work and play is really one of the basic things for the children of God that Christ is reborn in Christ, reborn in the wisdom, in that wisdom which plays before the Eternal Father all over the earth in order to make the whole world a mirror of the Father's glory.

[69:50]

That is the spirit of the liturgy, the spirit of this holy play. But this holy play, of course, has the God's goal, the wedding feast of the Lamb. And that, again, is such an enormously important thing. Jean de Clair, as for some time a year ago, saw the English translation of a book of his published, The Desire of God and Learning. in the monastic life of the Middle Ages. And then he brought up very beautifully that certainly the monk and the Christian should look towards the end of his life, towards the last judgment, as a real crisis, and therefore should live in the fear of God. But that cannot be separated, this picture, from the picture of the heavenly Jerusalem of the wedding feast of the Lamb.

[71:01]

It is the heavenly Jerusalem which already throws all its splendor into our world. yesterday, the day before yesterday, you could see in the oriental churches. That is the heavenly Jerusalem. And there is the dome that is the all ruler Christ. And here we are all united under him and we are celebrating in this sacred space. We are celebrating, anticipating already the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. St. Benedict and St. Scholastica is, for example, such a beautiful thing, you see, little story, how they get together. And St. Scholastica knows that she has to die pretty soon. And she knows that this is her last visit with her brother. So they get together, and then they speak all night long, and Saint Benedict of course has great, you know, things, because he's responsible for community, and he's a lawgiver, and all these things.

[72:06]

But then Saint Scholastica gets him around, you know, to do, you know, to speak about the joys of heavenly life. And when we celebrate that feast of St. Scholastica, we always say that here in St. Scholastica, love triumphs over the world. But you know in this time of the heavenly Jerusalem, you know, therefore and they say they share the joys of heavenly life. And if you read this report of St. Gregory, you don't know if St. Gregory means by heavenly life the monastic life here on earth or the eternal life. And that's just the point. The two cannot be separated, you see, monastic life and heavenly life. And therefore that is the same then if we go one step further in this line to, for example, Virginia.

[73:11]

Holy virginity is really this anticipation of the heavenly wedding feast of the Lamb. That is the essence of virginity. And therefore virginity lives, as the church says so beautifully, in the consecration of the virgin. We don't know the act, but we live the mystery. Mysterium actum nescivus, mysterium vivus. We live, as the way Father Phelan reported about the other day, the inner heavenly reality. The heavenly reality. It is so important to know that the heavenly reality of virginity and of Christian marriage is, in last analysis, the same thing. It is the love of Christ of the bridegroom for his bride and he gave his blood for his bride.

[74:18]

That is the eternal love that binds him forever to the church and that lives on in the religious life of the church and in the married life of the church. And what is the essence again of holy virginity as well as of marriage? That they may praise you in greater fullness, O Lord. That is what we say, that said in the prayer, that we say of a bride and bridegroom. We give them together that they may praise you in greater fullness. And this fullness, of course, is the family in Christian marriage, and it is the community in the Christian and what we call the religious life. But the same essence of love and the canticle of canticles, and it's so beautiful, and the canticle of canticles itself, the bridegroom says to his bride, always this way, my sister, my bride.

[75:24]

my sister, my bride. That is the comprehensive character of that love which really and truly is perpetuated for us in the liturgy. And then from there, you see, what I speak about up to now is the inner, let us say, order of the heart. the aura of love, the aura of the mother, the aura of the father, the love of the brethren and sisters, the love of bride and bridegroom. In the end, then, this love, you see, any formation that starts from the heart necessarily also penetrates into every fiber of the living being. When you touch the center, you naturally also change the periphery. And at the same time, too, as we saw that yesterday, and that's also in the Method, a thing which is so completely in harmony with the Liturgy, it is not only a process from within to without,

[76:34]

but it's also a process from the periphery to the heart, provided that the heart is open for the periphery. And then therefore we stop and pause and give us time to, as it was put yesterday by my sister, then we take in what we see, shape or whatever it is. Therefore, I want just to point out that there are two fields, let us say, which the liturgy and information process that the liturgy does with the people of God, that are necessary and which are influenced. And one is the field of time, and the other one is the field of space. They are the two things, the two dimensions in which we live. Time, one can say, just to put it in a very brief way, time loses its face without the feast.

[77:39]

as space loses its face without the whole. Those two things are absolutely necessary in the context of that restored humanity that the risen Savior has brought to us. Time loses its face without the feast, if time is simply and only a succession of working days, you know. Man loses his anger. He becomes absolutely in that way. The effects of that concept of time is soul sadness, pessimism in the heart of man. He loses his impoverished Time is in reality when we look at it with the eyes of the liturgy. It is room for penance.

[78:42]

That's the first, let us say, in our dimension of time. Time is God waiting that we may return. It is God waiting for our conversion. That's the first, let us say, level, spiritual level of time. But then there's another level. Time is, as the New Testament calls it, the kairos, that means the right moment, the right moment, that divine, wonderful today. When you hear your voice, this voice, today, don't harden your heart. on this Elias beautiful word, today I stand before the living God. And it's what we call the sacrament of the moment. And it is the liturgy which trains us in a concrete way to realize the sacrament of the moment in the celebration of Holy Mass.

[79:46]

There is the moment, this is my body, this is my blood. That is the moment of dying and rising. It is the Pascha moment. It is that day of which we sing in the church on Easter. This is the day that the Lord has made. And this day that the Lord has made, that is the time of the wedding feast. That is the time of love. Again, remember the canticle of canticles. The winter is past. The time of spring has come. God's country again brings forth flowers. That is the kairos of God. That is the coming for the wedding feast. And that is the celebration into which we enter on every Sunday, on every great feast day. And therefore how important it is that, for example, in our days and in your lives, that the Sunday has its real place

[80:55]

It's the last oasis which is left to us, you know, from the only destruction and devastation of secularism. And if we don't take care of it, if we don't use it at the wedding feast, just as the Jewish people considers the supper as a bride, and on Friday evening greets the coming day as the bride, and makes the whole house to clean, you know, and sets it, you know, and puts it in order, and then in the order house the feast is celebrated. and the same, therefore, for the space that only leads us to the space. Space has no face without a home. The home gives to man, you see, that space, which really, let us say, has a face, that means makes sense. Without it, we, and especially in this time, what we call the space age,

[81:58]

faster and faster. In five hours you can take your breakfast in Rome and take your lunch in New York and all that, but that only makes you on the long run sick, you see. No, it really makes you homesick, homesick, and it's the meaning of homesick, homesickness. And of course, what is the meaning of homesickness? It's the longing of the soul, of the heart, you know, to have a nest, you know, the bird that found a nest. The time of love has come. Oh, what is the nest? Your altar. Oh, Lord, Savior. That is the beautiful word of the psalmist. The whole meaning of the human life, Christian life. So in these ways, you know, I hope that these words in some way that you understand the general gift of it. What I want to say is don't go too much into technical details.

[83:08]

See that validity is a matter of the heart and then therefore the first thing is give it a chance to work on your heart, the depth of your heart. And then put it, you know, and put it to life in those regions that really are important in human life. And that are the personal relations. Love. It is the love that we receive, and it's the love that we give. The vertical and the horizontal. And the two make the cross. And that is the heavenly reality. And it's our reality. I thought at the beginning of the story about the abbots of St.

[84:19]

Anselm was for me who had been beating people into meetings with them. I think that we have all always felt as an association that whenever God's saviour has come to us in the presence of Fr. Dionysus or Fr. David, that we have then been baptized that somehow our old life has been revitalized, that new vistas have been opened to us. They have come down from the holy mountains, from the heavenly light, to remind us that we suffer from our wounds, and to open our hearts to the possibility of healing. and to teach us that it is in the liturgy where the love of God comes to heal us that there is hope for us and for our world.

[85:20]

I think we must all say that we are as individuals and as the association disciples of our advisor. I think we can say too as his monks, his spiritual children and to express now our really, really basic, deep, heartfelt gratitude to him for having come to us now. His own commitments to his monks, of course, keep him, I think, at Mount Saviour almost completely and absolutely, and of course his own health in recent years have also limited possibilities for his doing things of this sort. But I think that I can say and express your feelings and the feelings of the association that we are deeply grateful and that we attempt to show this gratitude by becoming, in the truest and most complete sense, children of this good father.

[86:28]

Thank you very much. During the past two years, if I may insert this, I myself have been very privileged to work on this committee, the nominations and medal committee. And during these years, we have honored the most outstanding people, all of which we can be very grateful and all of whom I think we can look to with real honor. And today too, this year, we again have decided to give someone this honor of the Catholic Arts Association. Our theme this year is the art of teaching and the teaching of art. And as members of the mythical body of Christ, we all share in the good works that other peoples do.

[87:31]

And as members of this mystical body, therefore, we all share, not only in the things that other people learn, but also share in their work. We are all teachers. We are all helping each other. And as such, therefore, we really and truly share the truth which is given to us by our Divine Savior that's promulgated throughout the world by our teachers, by all of us. And so we all have something in common today, and we all have something in common with our theme. And today we are honoring a man who is an outstanding teacher. One who has done outstanding work, not only for himself, but for the entire world. such amendments today that we wish to bestow the honour, the greatest honour, which the Catholic Art Association can bestow. And to make the presentation of the medals and the citation, I present to you, our President, Father Finkelman.

[88:42]

Father Umbridge's remarks that It's a great honour to ourselves, too, that Mr. Atwater and our other legalists have accepted the Catholic Art Association Medal. I think we feel perhaps more honoured than we consider ourselves of giving to others. We are essentially, I think, as members of the Catholic Art Association, propagators of philosophy, the normal philosophy of art. a practical approach to human doing. We believe that our philosophy is most in accord with the demands of the Christian vocation, which again we feel is the normal vocation. We are therefore, I suppose we might call ourselves, Christian apostles or Christian teachers. Seems fitting to me then that we should honor a man who is a practical philosopher, concerned with the Christian life, and certainly a teacher.

[89:53]

I would like then to read for you the citation with which the medal is presented. Let me say first that Mr. Atwater thought at first he could be with us, found that his teaching work made such a demand upon him and feeling the responsibility for this work, decided it would be much better not to take the time for honors, but to stay at home and do the good work. We feeling that this is by far the best approach one could take to the subject. We're very happy to bestow the medal upon him in absentia. And we're fortunate in having with us his friend and fellow countryman, Peter Watts, the stone carver whose works you have seen in our exhibition, who is to receive it for him and to read his paper, which is entitled The Art of All Teachers. So then the citation. The Catholic Art Association holds to the classical view that art is a virtue of the practical intellect and that therefore all men are potentially artists.

[91:07]

Donald Atwater is an artist whose material is the minds of those sufficiently educated to know that education never ends. His subject is Christendom. As editor of Butler's Lives of the Saints, he describes her in terms of time. In his writings on the Eastern churches, he presents her in her cultural breath. In a Catholic dictionary, he depicts her both temporally and spatially. All his writings demonstrate his greatest gift an unusual power of distinguishing what is essential to the faith from what is inessential, of separating truth from opinion, goodness from what is customary, and beauty from mere pleasantness. He is always outspoken and always charitable, an example to every man and woman seriously concerned with Christian unity.

[92:16]

The members of the Catholic Art Association have asked him to accept this medal as a token of their esteem and gratitude, given at Rosary Hill College, Buffalo, in the state of New York, on the Feast of St. Helen, August 18th, in the year of grace 1962, signed by the President for the Association. We asked Mr. Watson to accept this for Mr. Hotwater, and our hand of this time, I guess we must say, is for Mr. Hotwater, our medalist.

[92:53]

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