Notes on the General Preface, pt. vi

Poetry in the Sacred Liturgy

"Poetry is the only language adequate to the sublime thouht which is to be expressed....."

"....it sings on earth the mysteries of heaven, and prepares us for the canticles of eternity."

Where and what is this poety?

1. In the songs of David and the Prophets which are the foundation of a great part of the Litugy

2. In the Church's own song which she contributes as the seasons turn and turn again.

3. In the diversity of contribution from many different languages

4. From Sedulius and Prudentius to Adam of St.Victor in the west and from St Ephraem to the latest Orthodox hymnologists in the East

5. In the prose which bears the characteristic measure and rhythm of Poetry

Dom Guéranger concludes his General Preface first by commending his task to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and begging that his readers do the same. His final paragraph submits 'L'Anée Liturgique' to "soverign and infallible judgement of the Holy Roman Church, "which alone is the guardian both of the Words of eternal life, and of the secret of Prayer".

Notes on the General Preface, pt. v

Liturgy as Divinely inspired Drama

'Liturgy produces a drama, the sublimest that has ever been offered to the admiiration of man.'

1. It is a constant re-showing of God's unfolding plan for our salvation.

2. Of himself man could never have devised the Liturgy.

3. It repeatedly recognises eternal realities; it is vigourous and endlesss

4. It tirelessly repeats its 'yes' to God.

5. Each year it remembers in sequence every Act of God from the Creation to the sending of the Holy Spirit.

6. It returns us to the beginnings of the Faith, including as it does, chosen Writings of the Apostolic age, Acts of the Martyrs, Decrees of Ancient Councils, Writings of the Fathers.

7. The repetion of this annual Divine Drama does not pall. On the contrary, with every succeeding year, it is ever-new, forceful, enlightening and impressive.

8. This power of renewal is a mystery of the Holy Spirit who constantly breathes life into Liturgy He has inspired.

9. Through this divinely inspired Liturgical drama, man makes holy the hours spent in worship of God, During the year every doctrine, every truth of the Faith is presented with the following results in the soul:

a) knowledge of the Faith increases and with that spiritual life increases and is deepened.
b) faith is illumined; theological understanding begins
c) Contemplation of the Mysteries, whilst they remain as such, become increasing attractive
d) Year by year, the soul makes progress in faith, hope and charity
e) 'the formation of Christ within us' is the result of our uniting with His mysteries.
f) It endows a special grace and 'and the new man gradually grows up'.

10) Human beings need examples and these are given in the lives and writings of the saints.

Notes on the General Preface, pt. iv

DG's stated purpose is to open up the Spirit of the Church to a faithful who have largely lost touch with it. To this end:

1. While noting that there had been, in his own time, an increased devotion both to Our Lord and Our Blessed Lady, he will include the Saints of the Roman Calendar who deserve our respect and reliance.

2. Aside from the Roman liturgy however, judicious reference and quotation will appear from the following liturgies: Ambrosian, Gallican, Mozarabic, Greek, Armenian and Syriac.

3. The plan of each volume will to a cerain extent be dictated by the liturgical content of the season in question. Minute rubrical detail will not be included. The essence of this will be explained by means of a commentary directed specifically at the enlightenment of lay understanding..

4. The volumes will conform to the wishes of the Holy See and refrain from a literal translation of the Ordinary and Canon of the Mass, but will for the laity who have no Latin, make comprehensible the priest's words and actions at the Altar.

Notes on the General Preface, pt. iii

Outline, Nature and purpose of the liturgical calendar

1. The Liturgy has Jesus Christ both as its source and object.

2. It is the Epiphany of Jesus and His mysteries both in the Church at large and in the individual soul.

3. It begins with the Creation, continues in progression with the law of the Patriarchs, from thence to the 'Written Law and is completed under Christ's new Law of love.

4. It will disappear in eternity just as the earlier Law submitted to the power of Christ.

5. The faithful need to understand the great glory that the annual repetiion of the Liturgy, gives to the Blessed Trinity, Mary, the Angels and Saints.

The effects of this annual Liturgical cycle:

1. The Church is repeatedly renewed in youthfulness

2. She is visited constantly by Jesus her Lord who furnishes all her needs

3 Annually she follows the mysteries of His life, the institution of the Sacraments, his Passion, death, resurrection, Ascension and his sending of the Holy Spirit.

4. Every year she receives a renewal of graces, the fruits of which she constantly offers to her Lord, who has through his Holy Spirit, so inspired her.

5. Each year God repossesses His Church and repeats His illumining and loving gifts to her.

3. In each unfolding season, the Church benefits from the motherly concern of the Blessed Virgin

4. Each year she is consoled and strengthened by Angels and the Communion of Saints.

5. All this is done for the individuals within her, as well as for the Church as a whole.

6. The cyclic nature of the Liturgy gives supernatural life, without which the individuali soul begins to see that human existence without it, is in fact death.

Warning to the Faithful:

Do not be influenced by the spirit of coldness in faith or love which has resulted in the Sacred Liturgy being treated with indifference, when it should truly be a treasure for all the faithful, whether they be erudite or lowly in learning.

Dom Gueranger's objectives in writing 'The Liturgical year:

He wishes to 'serve as interpreter within the Church' and therefore to facilitate access to the Sacred Liturgy, by all the faithful. By no means does he intend to put his own thoughts on a par with those of Jesus Christ. All he intends is to demonstrate the varying influences on the Liturgy by the Holy Spirit as the yearly cycle unfolds. To these ends he will employ study of the Fathers and the most ancient liturgists.

Notes on the General Preface, pt. ii

Role of the Monasteries up to the Reformation

In spite of the decline in lay participation the Monasteries kept up an unbroken offering of the Church's prayer and the faithful Catholic regarded them as their honoured delegates before God, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. The Liturgy belonged to all and the laity were still united in spirit, even if their actual presencewas occasional. All understood the Liturgy at least generally if not intimately.

From the Reformation to the 19th Century (D.G.'s own age)

1. The deleterious effects of the Reformation on the Monasteries included a weakening of the voice of prayer, and therefore of faith itself.

2. After the Reformation several still Catholic countries were "infected with that spirit of Pride which is the enemy of prayer.

3. By DG's time social order was threatened with subversion.

4. The attitude had taken hold that Prayer is not action. DG maintains that all action is a 'two-fold gift' which indicates two prayers, one that the action may be done and another of thanksgiving when it is done.

5. He suggests that the prayer of the remnant who had continued the Divine liturgy up to his own time, is being rewarded by an increase in conversions and new religious orders.

6. He prays that the Cathedrals may restore the full liturgy and a return to belief in the power of prayer, even by secular authorities.

7. The faithful are exhorted to engage with the Sacred Liturgy either in practice or spirit and to seek the spirit of prayer from the Church, its natural source.

8. The many prayer manuals produced during the two centuries prior to DG's time tended to isolate the practitioner rather than drawing him into the Prayer of the Church.

9. DG counters the objection that to reduce pious books to commentary on the Liturgy and its proper conduct, runs the risk of quenching the Holy Spirit's contemplative gifts to the individual. What else, he asks, other than constant nourishment with the food of the Divine Offices, enabled the Doctors and Fathers to leave us their own wonderful treasury.

10. The Sacred Liturgy refreshes and inspires a thirst for prayer. There is no danger of the contemplatively inspired being distracted by the 'pomp anhd harmony of the Chants of liturgical prayer. David himself had recouse to his harp.

"....for contemplative souls, Liturgical Prayer is both the principle and the consequence of the visits they have received from God."

11. The post-Reformation lack of deep religious fervour and grace is rooted in the Protestant denial of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Prayer of the Church is centred around the Eucharistic Presence of Christ. When faith in that Real Presence is lost, the Sacred Liturgy ceases, in fact it could not be otherwise.

Notes on the General Preface

(we now present some notes on the General Preface to Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year)

Preparatory to his magnum opus Dom Guéranger starts from the first principle that prayer is our greatest blessing and gives us the historical, biblical, Messianic roots of the Liturgy, the Prayer of the Church.

1. Of ourselves we cannot pray.

2. Following the example of the Apostles, we ask the Lord to teach us how to pray.

3. He taught them through giving the Lord's prayer but ever after that sent the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. The Spirit dwells in the Church and prompts her uninterruped prayer which is always in the ear of Jesu and 'welcome in His heart'.

4. The Spirit leads her to frame her prayer in three ways:
a) through the prophets and psalmist of the Old Testament
b) through her close relation to the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament
c) sonetimes through inspiring her to sing her own new song

5. From these three main sources comes the Sacred Liturgy of the Church.

Next Dom Guéranger (hereinafter cited as DG) stresses the efficacy of praying with the Churchand then traces the history of her Prayer from the earliest centuries down to his own times (i.e. mid-19th century):

For nearly a millennium, DG states, the laity assisted at the Sacred Liturgy and were thus initiated into the mysteries of her annual cycle. Prayer with the Church enlightened their understanding and showed God's love. The souls who prayed in this way were in company with and therefore a part of the Spouse of Christ who speaks and sings to God as David did. The Church's prayer blends with that of the Angels.

(Then DG quotes the first verse of Psalm 137 from which the title of our present endeavour is taken:

"I will praise thee O Lord, with my whole heart: for thous hast heard the words of my mouth. I will sing praise to thee in the sight of the angels." (Douay/Rheims translation from the Latin Vulgate 1582)

Even before the 16th century people had gegun to be more material things and the solemnity of the Liturgy had been diluted, and the number of days on which the people united with it reduced to Sundays and Festivals. Successive generations drifted furhter away from the source of spititual food that had sustained their ancestors and prayer in communion with the Church was increasingly replace by solitary devotion. Moreover encounter with the Chant was reduced to Solemn Feasts. This represented the first 'sad revolution'.