Meditations before Mass

by Romano Guardini

Publisher:

Ave Maria Press

, 2014

Overview

A treasury of spiritual wisdom on how to prepare your mind, body, and heart for Mass from one of the twentieth century’s great theologians, Meditations before Mass is Romano Guardini’s smart and beautiful guide to spiritual preparation for the source and summit of Christian worship.

Meditations before Mass is a wise, pastoral, and timeless classic on preparing for Mass—it is an example of twentieth-century theologian Romano Guardini at his very best. Meditations before Mass was written before Vatican II, but its relevance has endured over the past sixty years. Not a “how to” book for either the old or the new Roman Rite, it is instead a spiritual feast for the mind and heart, and a guide for modern people who wish to make sense of the Church’s feasts and liturgies. Meditations before Mass has helped thousands of readers participate more fully in Christian liturgy and continues to do so today.

Key Features

• Invites readers to explore the spiritual and life-giving powers of meditation
• Contains an essential reading for those who wish to better understand how the new Mass came about
• Provides an accessible and pastoral work that can be appreciated by specialists and non-specialists alike

Contents

Part One: Sacred Bearing

• Stillness
• Silence and the Word
• Silence and Hearing
• Composure
• Composure and Action
• Composure and Participation
• The Holy Place
• The Altar: Threshold
• The Altar: Table
• Holy Day
• Holy Day and Holy Hour
• The Sacred Act
• The Revelatory Word
• The Executory Word
• The Word of Praise
• The Word of Entreaty
• The Congregation and Injustice Rectified
• The Congregation and the Church
• Hindrance: Habit
• Hindrance: Sentimentality
• Hindrance: Human Nature

Part Two: The Essence of the Mass

• The Institution
• The Memorial
• The Memorial of the New Covenant
• Reality
• Hour and Eternity
• Mimicry or Liturgical Form
• Christ’s Offering of Self
• Encounter and Feast
• Truth and the Eucharist
• The Mass and the New Covenant
• The Mass and Christ’s Return

Top Highlights

“Now I am here. I have only one thing to do: participate with my whole being in the only thing that counts—the sacred celebration. I am entirely ready.’” (Pages 19–20)

“Silence overcomes noise and talk; composure is the victory over distractions and unrest” (Page 16)

“like silence, composure does not create itself; it must be willed and practiced.^{3” (Page 19)}

“Absolute rest and composure is eternity. Time is unrest and dispersion; eternity is rest and unity, not inactivity or boredom—only fools connect these with it.” (Pages 20–21)

“heart and mind concentrated on the here and now, not off on daydreams; it is being ‘all here.’” (Page 23)

Praise for the Print Edition

Like fine wines, some books get better as they age. Placed alongside the reformed Eucharistic liturgy of Vatican II this veritable classic will continue to instruct, inspire, and enrich the present and future generations of Catholics for whom the liturgy is the summit and source of our lives.

—Msgr. Kevin Irwin, Walter J. Schmitz Chair of Liturgical Studies, The Catholic University of America

With these meditations you can sense the active participation of the people already coming to birth in the 1950s. Guardini promotes not just a renewed liturgy, but a renewed people.

—Rev. Paul Turner author of At the Supper of the Lamb

Product Details

• Title: Meditations before Mass
• Author: Romano Guardini
• Publisher: Ave Maria Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Pages: 224
• Christian Group: Catholic
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Theology

About Romano Guardini

Romano Guardini (1885–1968) was ordained a priest in 1910. He was a professor at the University of Berlin until the Nazis expelled him in 1939. His sermons, books, popular classes, and his involvement in the post-war German Catholic Youth Movement won him worldwide acclaim. His works combine a keen thirst for God with a profound depth of thought and a delightful perfection of expression.

Sample Pages from Meditations before Mass