September 30th, 1982, Serial No. 00215

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MS-00215

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Talk at Mt. Saviour

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Speaker: FR BURKHARD NEUNHEUSER, OSB
Possible Title: Liturgical Spirituality
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So, for my dear confreres, I try to speak to you again. And the topic of this morning would be spirituality. And to speak about it, it would be necessary to speak first, shortly, about spirituality in general. It's a term which means this, our life, and how do you say in English, in Greek, and primaty. How do you pronounce it? In the ploima, in the ploima. And our entire life must be a life in the ploima, in the Holy Spirit given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. And I like very much to describe this life in the Spirit. the life of the man in spirit with some texts of the letters of St. Paul. For example, 1 Corinthians 2, 6 and 16.

[01:08]

I do speak words of wisdom to those who are ripe for it. Not a wisdom belonging to this passing age. I speak on God's hidden wisdom, his secret purpose, framed from the very beginning to bring us to our full glory. Things beyond our seeing, things beyond our hearing, things beyond our imagining, all prepared by God for those who love him. It is that God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of God's own nature. Only the Spirit of God knows what God is. This is the Spirit that we have received from God, and not the Spirit of the world, so that we may know all that God of His own grace has given us.

[02:15]

And because we are interpreting spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit, we speak of these gifts of God in words found for us, not by our human wisdom, but by the Spirit. A man who is unspiritual refuses what belongs to the Spirit of God. A man gifted with the Spirit can judge the worth of everything. but is not himself subject to judgment." Etcetera. Wonderful vision of the man who lives in the virtue, in the force, in the light of the Spirit. And then again to the Romans, 8, 14. For all who are moved by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The spirit you have received is not the spirit of slavery leading you back into a life of fear, but the spirit that makes us sons, enabling us to cry, Abba, Father, and so on.

[03:18]

And again, in Galatians 5, 16 to 24. 5, 16, 24. If you are guided by the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of your lower nature. not the works of the flesh, but the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law dealing with such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the law of nature with its passions and desires. If the Spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct our course. some texts of the Apostle who shows us the greatness of a Christian life that is a life in the Spirit.

[04:30]

A Christian life authentically exercised through Christ in the Spirit, according to the other word of the Apostle, to Ephesians 1.17 and the following. I never cease to give thanks for you when I mention you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Father, may give us the spiritual powers of wisdom and vision by which there comes the knowledge of Him. I pray that your inward eyes may be illuminated so that you may know what is the hope to which He calls you, what wealth and glory of the share he offers you among his people in their heritage, and how vast the resource of his power open to us who trust in him." In Greek, all this is, I would say, more marvelous. This help us.

[05:33]

We must know in the Spirit what is our hope. How great is the heritage given to us, and how great is the power of God exercised in us who believe the same power which He exercised first in Christ Jesus, resuscitating Him from the death, and the same power is now working in us. And in the Spirit, we must know this reality. And still, the wonderful text to Ephesians 3, 16 until 19, that the Lord of Glory may give us that we may be strengthened powerfully by the Spirit of God in our inner man so that Christ may live in us by faith and we can understand the dimensions of the work of Christ and understand this love which is the source of this work of redemption, which is greater than ever the human chance and so on.

[06:53]

Therefore, so more or less we could describe our life in the Spirit, but now we try to live this life helped or founded in liturgy. And we do this, we see our spirituality, our Christian existence as existence in the spirit. We do it in the atmosphere, in the mentality, in the dimensions of the modern liturgical movement. As it was seen especially by the Benedictine monks, Solemn first, and also Solemn according to Bougier, and his terrible judgment in liturgical piety has some limits. Nevertheless, in a certain way, we are thanking all what we have now to Gironji and the Old Solemn. And Byron, in its way, tried to continue it.

[07:58]

And then, here, Buye perhaps is right. One of the Byronese monks, Monk of Mont César in Louvain, then, has given new vitality to all this tendency, Lombe Bruel, the founder of Chez Vuitton, but the monk of Mont César, therefore of the congregation of Beuron at that time. And what he has seen, especially in his famous Concrete of Malines in 1909, was then explained in a very polemical way, which was nearby a revolution by a monk of Maretsu, again in the congregation of Beuron, Don Maurice Festusier, in his excellent little pamphlet, little booklet, La vie liturgique, Liturgical Life. And this book and his vision of an entire life, entire Christian life, entire spiritual life conducted in the dimension of the liturgy has made nearly a revolution, especially in that people which was until now never living in its spirituality according to the liturgy, the Jesuits of the 19th century.

[09:22]

Therefore, the reaction of the Jesuits has been terrible. so that in a certain moment everyone was feeling that the entire war would be destroyed, would be finished and forbidden by Rome. Only the war in a certain way has finished these struggles. The first war of 1914 But nevertheless Lambert Baudoin has given already a certain synthesis, a peaceful synthesis of all these things in his little, very fine book, La Piété de l'Église, The Piety of the Church. And then in our way, we in Maria Laac tried to continue it, 1913. in the first great liturgical week, the Holy Week, with the academical young people of Germany, under the direction of Abbot Ildefons Herwegen.

[10:26]

And then Kassel, Otto Kassel, in his way, was the monk of my monastery, who then, in a very special way, has shown us the dimension of this liturgical life, or this spiritual life, conducted on the foundaments of liturgy. And now, after this short introduction to show you, to remember you shortly only the dimensions of a Christian life, which is a life in the spirit, and then the historical events in the first 20 years of this century, I wish to So, shortly, the concrete realization of such a spiritual life, founded explicitly on the work of salvation done by Christ our Lord, founded in the work of His entire mystery, His Paschal mystery, realized now, given present to us in the sacraments, in the Word of God,

[11:41]

in a prayer life according to the daily hours. So that finally, after such a foundation on the work of Christ given us presently in the liturgy, our life totally would be a life in Christ Jesus. It's nothing extraordinary. It's a normal Catholic, normal Christian idea Nevertheless, this life in Christ Jesus, this life in the Spirit, this spiritual life, explicitly founded in liturgy, in the Eucharistic celebration, in the daily hours, in the liturgical week, in the Sunday, in the liturgical year. Therefore, we are beginning with our foundation, the foundation of a faithful life in the sacraments of initiation. And these sacraments of initiation has given us in the beginning of our life our foundation in death and resurrection of the Lord so that we are always that with Christ and resuscitated with Him to a new life.

[12:59]

And therefore able, capable, to share actively in the Eucharist, in the sacrifice of our Lord, present in the Eucharistic celebration. And to can eat His flesh and blood so that we are really so every day again, every Sunday again, every year again, in Christ, dying with Him and living with Him in the disposition of the day, the hours, the morning, the evening, and all the other hours. So, that we, having celebrated our entire life founded in this liturgical celebration, initiation, weekly Eucharistic celebration, in the celebration of the liturgical year, and so on,

[14:01]

are able to live really as Christians in active Christian life in virtue, killing our old man with his egoism to come love each another in the hope of the eschatological fulfillment of all that and using to this scope all the other sacraments, penance, because we are so feeble and always are sinning again. the hope of mercy of God, in the sacred action which is helping us when we are sick to suffer together with Christ, in the ordination where we are called to serve the people of God, to live really in Christ, and also in Mother's Age, where people are called to do these human duties, but in Christ, so that men and women together, united, are living in Christ, representing the church.

[15:12]

Or, in the other vocation, in virginity, where we are, in another way, trying to realize the existence of human life in Christ. And the Vatican Council shows the last intention of this life founded in Christ in its constitution, the Vita Christiana in Mundo, Gaudium et Spes. It is not enough to pray, it is not enough to celebrate liturgy, we must also conduct this life in the Spirit, this life in Christ, in the daily life, in our work life, in our political life, so that the entire world would be consecrated, existing always in Christ. More or less. I would say there is nothing new. It's a normal Christian ideal.

[16:15]

And nevertheless, the intention of the modern liturgical movement with Pius X, with Solomon Boydum, with Lambert Brunner, with Maria Larkin, Otto Kassel, finally has shown these Christian ideals founded explicitly in liturgical actions where we are touching Christ. In the liturgical movement, we have seen in a new way the wonderful reality in which the work of Christ to redeem us is present to us, that we can share in it, that we can every day again die with Christ and live with him in the hope of eternal consummation of all. And so, in this way, we gather together as church around the altar.

[17:19]

Therefore, we don't live only as Christian individuals, but in this liturgical spirituality, in this Christian life founded in liturgy, we must stay together, united, every day again or every Sunday again. As church around the altar, being in the body of Christ in this world, ready to realize that in every day, in a communitarian way. Not only theoretically, we are the church when we are gathered together around the altar to celebrate liturgy, to celebrate the Eucharist, but we must also do it really staying together, according to this wonderful word, which was the chapter, at once, in the sixth, every day, Altar, Altarius, honora portate, et sic ademblebitis legium Christi. can be translated, we must bear the burden each another, and so we fulfill the law of Christ.

[18:27]

That is all. And we know how it is difficult. Every day again, together, everyone is an individuality, and everyone must stay together, and overcome the difficulties which are given in us. And so really, being the Church in daily life, It would be the first point, Common Italian, Alta Artaria's honora portata. And again, I could give some citations from St. Paul to Ephesians 2, 11 to 22. There is a moment, two, [...] eleven. or he is too much to read it entirely.

[19:32]

He is telling the mystery of Christ. We, at once pagans, know we are in Christ to live his life. And then, after having exposed all these ideals of our new life given to us in Christ, in the church, being in the church, The consequences of all this wonderful description of the mystery of Christ is, ego vincus in domino, adiuro vosso, digna ambulitis vocatione qua vocati estis. No, he is conjuring us, you must live according to the vocation in which you are called. Zolicitis er vaga unitatem spiritus in vinco do pacis. humbly supporting each another and ready to retain, to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bounds of peace.

[20:42]

That is all. to stay in one faith, in one Lord, in one baptism, in one God and the Father, in the unity, constructing the church, building the church every day again, the unity of all together in Christ, in the virtue of the Spirit. Communitarian, staying together, building this burden, and so realizing the reality of Christian existence. But all that in classical forms, therefore not in any way, but using the means given to us by the church, singing in psalms, hymns, in the orations, in the sacraments. Here are the sources, the fundaments of our Christian existence, of our life in Christ, of our life in the Spirit, of our life as Church, to stay together.

[21:45]

Using these words, therefore, in an objective piety. We, in my monastery in Marianach, we were very much insisting in it about Ildefons Herwegen, and therefore sometimes we have been blamed. You wish to have a cold piety, objective piety. You don't like this devotion in which you are piously living, but that does not mean we can't be very pious, very devoted, but so that we are using the objective reality of the Church given to us to live it personally. Therefore, objective piety is the greatest objective realization of this wonderful objects given to us by the Church, by Christ Jesus in the Spirit.

[22:50]

And so using these objective possibilities, objective means, we are overcoming the limits of our subjectivity. We are not living only to our personal very devoted piety, but we are living in the dimensions of the Spirit, in the dimension of the work of Christ, in the dimension of the Church. In objective piety, which makes it possible that we are not only poor, limited individuals, but members of Christ and living the totality of the work of redemption he has given us. But we are doing it in forms accessible for everyone, therefore normally avoiding certain extremism. trying to have revelations, to speak wonderful words, but we are using normal means, normal words, which also the most modest man, the modest girl could participate with us.

[24:10]

Therefore, in forms accessible for everyone, in humility obeying to the forms given to us by the source, against every extremism on the right. We are not, how do you say, Jurans in Formis, Jurans swearing. We are not obliged to be slaves of certain forms. We have a certain liberty. On the other hand, we don't go to the extremism on the left in which we can do everything we wish, but we follow Humbly, the forms of the Church, the objective forms given to us, that we, living them personally with all our subjectivity, can grow to the wonderful great dimensions of Christ Jesus. And that all, in the liberty of the New Testament, overcoming all legalism, formalism, rubitism,

[25:15]

things which were a little bit the danger of the first beginning of Solem and Boiron and also Maria Lark. And you, perhaps in your monastery, with a certain happiness, could overcome these limits, or certain freedom, certain liberty. And nevertheless, in this liberty, following humbly, obeying the forms of the Church, to gain so the infinite dimensions of the work of Christ. And again, doing so, living in the spirit of Christ, according to the way in which this spirit of Christ is given to us in the spiritual forms of the church, we are living in the, I would say, in the categories of the Holy Spirit. Categories, categories. in a Trinitarian orientation.

[26:18]

Our prayer is to the Father, to Christ, in the Spirit. That does not mean that it would not be possible to speak also to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our brother. He is our friend. In a certain way, it is more easy to speak to him. And nevertheless, when we are gathered together in the church for celebration of the liturgy as the foundament of our spiritual life, we are speaking to the Father. And we have the liberty to come speak to him by our Lord Jesus Christ, through him, in the Spirit. Therefore, our prayer has these wonderful dimensions of the Holy Trinity. to the Father, through Christ, in the Spirit. Therefore, we could speak about a theocentrism, all is directed to the Father, but also a certain Christocentrism, because we are praying always per Christum Dominum, through Christ our Lord.

[27:29]

And we could speak also about a pneumocentrism, because we are doing it always so that we are praying to the Father through Christ in the Spirit, the power of the Spirit. He is our light. He enables us that we are living together with Christ in Him. And then our life is ecclesial, communitarian. According to the doctrine of St. Paul to the Ephesians in chapter 2 and chapter 4, But in the same time, our prayer, our spiritual life, is not only a life of the community, but in this community we are living personally. Therefore, our spiritual life is communitarian and personal. Within authentic possibilities of such a personal life, as the Apostle is describing it,

[28:37]

In the letter to the Philippians, 3, 7 to 15. 3, 17. No, 7 to 15, excuse me. I count everything sheer loss, because all is far outweighed by the gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I did in fact lose everything. I count it so much garbage for the sake of gaining Christ and finding myself incorporating Him with no righteousness of my own. no legal rectitude, but a righteousness which comes from faith in Christ given by God in response to faith. All I care for is to know Christ, to experience the power of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings in growing conformity with his death, if only I may finally arrive at a resurrection from the dead.

[29:52]

It is not to be thought that I have already achieved all this. I have not yet reached perfection. But I press on, hoping to take hold of that for which Christ once took hold of me, and so on. Therefore, also, my union with the Church, my orientation to the Father, through Christ in the Spirit, in the midst of the community is also a very personal realization. Udinvenia in Illu, that I could be found in Christ, sharing in his resurrection, in his death, conformed to his death, that also I may be conformed to his eternal life. And this is my and living in such a liturgical spirituality is totally sacramental, founded in the sacraments, baptism, confirmation, and I try to realize it every day more and more.

[31:00]

And my life is a Eucharistic life because I try to take the forces to conduce so every Sunday, every day again, in celebrating Eucharist, to be conformed to the death of our Lord, to share in His resurrection, to receive His life, to live His life every day again. He is the source of my daily existence. And it's my purée who does not know the scripture, does not know Christ. Therefore, we are men of the Bible. Therefore, again, our life is sacramental, is eucharistic, is biblical, so that we, using these objective means, can live personally, subjectively, in the richest, in the greatest form, conjoined, joined to Christ, receiving from Him, in all these objective means, the Spirit, that our life would be alive in the Spirit.

[32:16]

And by the Spirit, Christ is living in our hearts. And at the same time, this, my spirituality, this, my Christian life, this, my liturgical life, is eschatological, because the reality of the last times is already presently given to me. We are anticipating this last reality in the sacraments, in our Eucharistic celebration, in our reading of the Holy Scripture. And we can touch this reality, we can receive it in us, but nevertheless, in the hope that this reality, given to us already now, may be fulfilled, finally, in our last day, in our last hour, in the glory of God. And again, this is my liturgical spirituality, founded in the sacraments. So I am joined to the reality of the walk of redemption of Christ is a life which I try to describe in

[33:27]

or do we say in German, in ganzheit, in the English perhaps, in wholeness. Therefore, we are not only living in our heart, but also with our body. In body, in spirit. The entire man stays in God, in Christ, before God. This is a life of both objectivity and subjectivity. Objectivity, because we are using these objective means, sacraments, forms given by the Church, that we can find in it the source of our personal, subjective life, that we can subjectively fulfill these objective dimensions, infinite dimensions of the work of Christ. And again, our life must be a life of which is communitarian and personal.

[34:29]

We stay together, but each one with its entire personality. And so far we are really a community. We become more and more real persons. And when we become real, more and more real persons, individual persons, we can grow also in the same way to a wonderful community, staying together. And we are living again in the church, where we have the greatest reality in the sacraments, in the Eucharist, in the Holy Communion, in our daily prayer, in the hours we are touching the reality of Christ. But it is in no way enough to stay in the Church and to touch our Lord in the Church. We must bring Him out in our daily life, therefore in the Church and in the daily life, in our working life. And again, We are poor sinners, and therefore our life must be a life of penance, where we are always lamenting that we are not able to do as we must do, and at the same time joyfully, because the mercy of God takes away our sins.

[35:40]

And therefore we can join with the pain of penance, also the joy of redemption, in hopeful joy that the Lord is with us. And finally, I would say with a wonderful word of Romano Guardini, which more than 60 years ago was also for me in my young years when I contacted him also personally, Romano Guardini was so great. He has said it in his first book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, the first volume of our collection in Maria Lake, Ecclesia Orans. The liturgical life is flexible but sinful, purposeless. We have no intention. We go to the church only to stay before God, to lose us in God, to give him glory. In the first moment, we don't pray for nothing, only to stay in the presence of God.

[36:46]

Purposeless. but filled with meaning. It is wonderful to do so. It is, for me, very difficult to translate. It's recluse, aber sinnvoll, purposeless. We don't try to gain money. We spend away all our time. It would be better, perhaps, to work, to gain, to stay outside, to be active. No, we lose as forgotten. We don't have any intention. And nevertheless, to do so is the most wonderful thing we can do, filled with real internal meaning, meaningful. And so, again, in this liturgical piety, I would say we can fulfill The ideal given by the Apostle in the letter to the Ephesians 3, 14-19.

[37:53]

The Apostle kneels in prayer to the Father. Out of the tears of His glory, He may grant you strength and power through His Spirit in your inner being, that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love. Christum habitate perfidem in cordibus vestis. And the Lord may give us the Lord of glory by His Spirit, and then again in the wonderful Greek terminology, ...dynamically be strengthened by the Spirit in our inner man. And this, our being strengthened by the Lord of Glory, by the Spirit in our inner man, signifies that Christ is dwelling by the faith in our hearts.

[39:11]

And now, so we must be, and we can be, have deep roots and firm foundations in the English translation or the translations just don't give the real meaning of these wonderful words. So we are really founded in the tragedy of Christ, the tragedy in which he left us first, in which he was dying for us, and this tragedy we are founded. but not only founded in this charity of Christ, but we are staying in this charity com omnibus sanctis, together with all the saints, therefore in the Church, never alone, as individuals alone, but in the unity of the Church. And so, meanwhile, Christ is dwelling in our hearts by the faith, and we are joined with all the saints in charity, together.

[40:19]

We can understand the highness and the deepness and the breadth and the length and the height, the height and the depth. Therefore, as one of our exegetes has said, we can know the cruciform dimensions of the work of Christ. in this theological, but very pious, very profound knowledge of the work of redemption. And not only theological, no, this work of redemption, the wonderful dimensions of this work in which Christ, the Son of God, must die for us and resuscitate to eternal life. But no, then, what is more than every theological dimension, theological science. the Agape to the U. No, this love which is greater than ever the theological science.

[41:24]

Love, Agape, the wonderful word of Father Damasus too. Agape, Agape of God, who loved us first, manifested in the death of Christ, given to us in the sacraments, that we stay in this love as Church, loving each another. It may be a lot to tell. I remember in 31, Fr. Damasus came to Herstelle. Father Otto. Then he came back and said, oh, we are stupid in Maria Lark. We are studying, always still, liturgy, daily office, a little bit Mysterion. Meanwhile, in Herstelis they have discovered a new dimension, the dimension of Agape. And one of our confreres then has made from this word of Agape,

[42:35]

brought by Damasus to Maria Lark, content of his entire scientific work, Victor Varnach, with his big book about agape as the fundament of Christian existence. Therefore, again, this agape, you must know not only theological dimensions, but this love of Christ which surpasses every in theological science, et ita in pliameni, in omnem plenitudinem Dei. So may you attain the fullness of being, the fullness of God himself, ut ita in pliameni, in omnem plenitudinem. I spanto pleroma to you. Pleroma, the fullness of God. Therefore again, living the work of Christ, in the celebration of liturgy, according to the rules of the church, is the fountain for our wonderful, personal, subjective existence in the infinite dimensions of Christ, to know his love, to realize it in daily life, in our life as brothers, that so we finally could be introduced in the infinite dimensions of the divine life itself.

[43:59]

to the fullness of God Himself. And finally, and so I wish to finish my two words, know to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive by the power which is at work among us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus from generation to generation evermore. Objection raised by some people that if Catholics attend only the Mass on Sunday,

[45:08]

since we live in such a secular culture with very many non-christian values particularly for young people the mass simply does not make any sense even if it is celebrated well, even if it is liturgically well done by the priest but I would answer to it if you are celebrating liturgy as it must be celebrated then you are to do it in the world, to do your deed, to continue. Therefore, in the Mass you are celebrating the work of redemption. You are sharing in the death and resurrection of our Lord. You are dead to sin, to egoism, to the old man. You are a new man and you have the power of Christ eating his body and drinking his blood. And then you go on to stay in love. to be married alongside, to be in the virginity, to stay alone for God, to do your work every day.

[46:15]

Therefore, Gaudium et Spes, to do your duty in the world itself, that was the meaning of what I said, holiness, not only in the Church, not only in the Mass of Sunday, but the Sunday Mass must be celebrated so powerfully that you are every day working as Christ in the middle of the world, doing your duty as an advocate, a lawyer, as a doctor, as a teacher, as a soldier, but in Christ. And then going back to the church, saying, I was not able to do it. I was a sinner. I did not succeed in all that I must do. Have mercy on me. And then again, help me to do it, to do my duty. Liturgy, really celebrated, is passion for now, as monks, to live in charity, to alter others on a rapportate, to bear the burden each of another.

[47:20]

And we know how difficult it is. But if we don't do it, if we are finishing with the Sunday Mass our liturgical life, there is nothing. But we must do, as is said in the apostolic tradition of Hippolyte in the beginning of the third century, after the Mass go and do a good work, a good work of the daily life. But you can do it, you need also during the day, from time to time, to pray. But not pray the entire day, because you must go to the kitchen, you must go to the field, you must go to the sheep, you must go to your writing table, to your study, and so on. A real liturgical life is a life which wishes to fulfill the duties given to us in the world.

[48:24]

So, I see it. I don't know if it's the answer to your question. Therefore, it's not enough to say the Sunday Mass. The Sunday Mass must give me the incitation to do what is necessary in everyday life. And if we in my monastery in the 2030 sometimes have had too much in relations with the political world, with some political restoration, for a monarchy. In the beginning of Hitler, we believed that he could bring us to this Christian restoration. In the spring of 1933, we had been converted in the autumn already. In the winter of 1933-1934, it was only because we wished to bring the powerful reality of our liturgical life to the world. And in a certain way, these ideas have found their greatest coronation in the Hochschulwochen, in the academical weeks of Salzburg in 31, 32.

[49:43]

Therefore, in the last years of liberty, before Hitler destroyed everything, We must bring this wonderful world of Christian liturgical life and celebration to the entire world. the relations given have been Christ and the doctor, Christ and the teacher, Christ and the politician, Christ and the... Every profession seen in the light of Christ could realize the Kingdom of God in this world. Pax Christi in Regno Christi. It was also the idea of Pius XI. But everything has been destroyed by Hitler. The totality we wish to have Christ and his church in the midst of the life has been falsified by the totality of the National Socialism.

[50:56]

against the church. Also, all is nation, all is people, all is race, all is blood. And we said all is Christ, all is church, all is the Spirit. In a certain way, our ideals to realize The kingdom of God in Christ in the middle of the world has been destroyed by Hitler. But also it was good so, because it was too quick. The realization of our spiritual life in the daily life is not possible by political means. Immediately we must do it in every situation and so on. In a lot of cities, a lot of people want to at least receive the Eucharist every day as they go to work or something.

[51:58]

And in many churches they have these like five or ten minute masses, you know, really like, you know. It's not right. It's not right. Do you see a place for just a communion service or do you think it should be the whole mass or nothing? Evidently, if you, in a certain situation, have not the possibility to assist to a mass, the communion would help you. But it's not right. The Eucharistic sacrament is not only a communion service. The Eucharistic service is, first of all, a combination of the service of the Word of God and the sacramental service. And the sacramental service itself is not only communion, but it's the Eucharistic prayer. Therefore, a prayer in which you are singing, in which you are giving thanks to God. And this Eucharistic prayer is set on elements of a meal, and you must eat and drink it. Therefore, here you have a totality, a wholeness.

[53:00]

And only if you are preserving this wholeness, this totality, then it is the source of power to do the same then after this good, convenient, liturgical celebration in the daily life. That all your meals may be a continuation of the Eucharistic meal. Or your daily work could be a witness for Christ. a service of love, a realization of agape, of this supernatural love. And you can do it from time to time. You need also to come back to our Lord, pray. You cannot, in human, normal human existence, you cannot go to sixth and non and so on. But at least you must have, according to the Reformation, after the council, or with the council, a morning office and an evening office. So for normally, for Christians outside of the monasteries, a morning prayer and an evening prayer, and a real morning prayer, the entire family together, father, mother, children.

[54:11]

And if families are doing so, really praying together in the morning, But who is doing it still? I don't wish to be injured, unjust. Some short prayer, privately, is all. But no, pray together, not an entire half hour, but at least two minutes. And aloud, with the tendency to do it really. If you don't respond in your activity to the prayer of the one, there's nothing, nothing. Therefore, Sunday, solemn Eucharist. Perhaps also every day, a good Eucharistic celebration. Prayer in the morning and the evening. And also during the day. Did we not hear yesterday about Jesus' prayer?

[55:13]

A little bit during the day, but doing your duty. Do you think that this was due to an abuser in the church to put a lot of emphasis on quantity, the quantity of praise, the quantity of this, that, and then the idea of the quality of prayer? The council changed that, not quantity. We have much, no more so much as before, but we must do it really, singing, allowed, therefore in a family life at least allowed, in communities singing, with a certain dignity. And then also with the tendency, not only prayer, but to do your duty. And this duty is love, therefore patience. And always again in these wonderful words of Paul to the Ephesians, it's better to...

[56:18]

lives up to your calling. Be humble always and gentle and patient too, by forbearing with one another and charitable. Spare no effort to make fast this bond of peace, the unity which the Spirit gives." And so on. Do this every day, patiently, concretely, in your situation. But to do it, you need authentic celebration. Therefore, a certain quantity or two. You cannot say only, I take, in a certain way we are fighting against this possibility. You take a little pill of grace. Excuse me. The host only. No. Two can eat the host. Really, you need prayer, preparation. for the entire celebration. So, the body of Lord is really in the house, but it's not enough to take the house.

[57:28]

The entire Eucharist is a celebration. And for all what is necessary, and to stay together, stay, and not only kneeling, and with certain rites, and bodily expression, and so on. Therefore, you need also a certain time, but not too much. You cannot pray the entire day. You must ora et labora. As Saint Benedict says it, Nikil opere dir per bonato, certis foris in lectione, certis iterum voris in labora mano. Therefore, prayer, lecture, reading, and manual work, all together, so the totality of an entire life. But in the power of the work of redemption, and I would say in this vision of Otto Kassel, in our liturgical celebration, we share in the work of Christ himself.

[58:38]

And as the consul said, in a certain way the consul has given in the first constitution these wonderful ideas. The wonders wrought by God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of Christ. He achieved his task principally by the paschal mystery of his blessed passion, resurrection from the dead, in Glorious Ascension. And then he sent the apostles to preach it, and not only to preach it, but to actualize it. They may proclaim that the Son of God has freed us from power. Its purpose was also that they might exercise the work of salvation by means of sacrifice and sacraments.

[59:47]

Therefore, every sacred action of the liturgy is a sacred action which could not be greater in other ways. But you must correspond to this sacred action of the liturgy in which the entire work of Christ is present in your daily life. How do you say in English? The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the church. You need faith before it, and after that you must stay in your duty. Nevertheless, in 10, the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed. At the same time, it is the fountain from which all her power flowers. Wonderful description. And these numbers of five to ten, eleven, are the most marvelous realization of all the ideas of the liturgical movement.

[60:51]

Of Solem, of Maritzu, of Baudon, of Maria Lark, and Father Damasus, and so on. The greatness of this liturgical celebration is the fountain from which all our activity comes. As is said here, The liturgy inspires the faithful to become of one heart in love when they have tasted to their full of the paschal mysteries. It prays that they may grasp by deed what they hold by creed. The renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and men draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them afire. from the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a fountain, grace is channeled into us. And the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed, as toward their goal, are most powerfully achieved. Celebrating authentically liturgy is the fountain of real Christian life.

[61:57]

At a practical level, from your experience, do you find that in the monastery, you know, in the living of the daily life, objecting and subjecting to human prayer, that the means for doing this, especially in the daily monastic mission, which is real art, that this actually meets the situation as it exists today. In the sense that we have people come to the monastery, oftentimes they are not familiar with this approach to prayer and to the life of the spirit. Therefore, it has to do with other forms, other expressions. There's both the badam and the shantipukko type of prayer, or nowadays zen or mantra. It's very interesting. And we found it possible to orientate these people, these people to this approach to prayer.

[63:15]

In a certain way, I would say our way, if it is done really,

[63:24]

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