Reverence for the Sacred

by Martin K. Barrack
Originally published in The Catholic Faith, July-Aug 1997

Preparing Yourself for Mass
by Romano Guardini
Sophia Institute Press
204 pp., $14.95 retail, $11.21 donors
1-800-888-9344

Our fast-paced ways betray us. We bring the world with us when we sit in our pew, blurring Mass and world together. Wordsworth put it, “The world is too much with us, late and soon. Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in Nature that is ours.”

Msgr. Romano Guardini (1885-1968), a German priest and professor, 60 years ago helped his congregation to concentrate by giving a talk each Sunday before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In 1939, Msgr. Guardini’s texts were gathered for a book, Besinnung vor der Feier der Heiligen Messe. In 1956 these texts were translated into English and called Meditations Before Mass. Sophia Institute Press in 1993 published an edition under the same name, and in 1997 renamed it Preparing Yourself for Mass.

A serious Catholic by middle age has come to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass perhaps two thousand times. A subtle pride creeps in, a sense that we are on familiar turf. We enter the church, go to our customary pew, kneel before Christ in the tabernacle, and pray for a time. When a book offers to teach us what we know so well, our pride intervenes.

Preparing Yourself for Mass calls us to holiness. Its weakness is our weakness as fallen man. A great priest can rivet our attention and carry us along, but a book is passive. Beautiful jacket art can appeal to the reader’s interest, but the reader has to approach the book humbly, prepared to work. Msgr. Guardini explained, “Faith can, of course, be kindled from the written text, but the Gospel, the glad tidings, gains its full power only when it is heard. … The whole word is not the printed, but the spoken, in which alone truth stands free. Only words formed by the human voice have the delicacy and power which is necessary to stir the depths of emotion, the seat of the spirit, the full sensitiveness of the conscience.”

This is a book to approach as we would a great cathedral. In its pages we can imagine stained glass windows and a barely audible Gregorian chant. It calls us to the faith of the martyrs, to empty ourselves so that Christ may enter. There were 32 talks in all, 21 addressing sacred bearing and 11 more on the essence of the Mass.

Sacred bearing! The phrase reminds us what prodigal sons we are. No pagan would have approached Caesar as casually as we approach the King of Kings. Msgr. Guardini begins with stillness, “…the tranquility of the inner life, the quiet at depths of its hidden stream. It is a collected, total presence, a being all there, receptive, alert, ready.”

When we arrive at the climax of the Mass, the words of institution, Msgr. Guardini reminds us that they are far more than words. “Therefore when the priest utters these words, they are not merely reported; they rise and create. … The priest pronounces the words, certainly; but they are not his. … The true speaker remains Christ. He alone can speak thus.”

Msgr. Guardini’s second section, on the essence of the Mass, offers striking insights, but there is more in it than even its author intended. Msgr. Guardini prepared these texts in late 1930s Germany, in the early Nazi years. In that light his chapter, “The Mass and the New Covenant,” with its emphasis on our Hebrew heritage, takes on a heroic dimension. On the theme of sacrifice, Msgr. Guardini writes, “Deep in the consciousness of all races lies a knowledge of the power of blood.” When we reflect on the ancient Jewish blood sacrifices, and then on our Savior’s Final Sacrifice, we recognize that the Nazis committed sacrilege as well as murder.

Moreover, Msgr. Guardini evidently sensed that the venerable Tridentine Mass would soon be replaced. “Let us imagine for a moment a Dialogue Mass. Epistle and Gospel, indeed, a substantial part of the Mass is read aloud in English.” From his perspective, the Nazi insurgence and the “Dialogue Mass” added up to, “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” In that context, Msgr. Guardini’s unwavering devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass inspires the perceptive reader: How magnificent is the Mass, that this devoted priest holds fast to it even while the world seems to be falling apart. Few authors inspire their readers more by what they did not intend to communicate than by what they did.

Even the clouds here have silver linings. Preparing Yourself for Mass occasionally demands more background than most readers have. For instance, Msgr. Guardini observes, “The relation of the believer to his Lord is a pure I-Thou relation…” Only a reader familiar with Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, and particularly with his treatise I and Thou, will fully understand, but even the reader who has never heard of Buber will come away with the main point. Also, Msgr. Guardini’s pre-Vatican II perspective will bring some readers a sense of lost glory. But the glory of the Mass is Christ whole and entire. Christ is still there; our work is to be there as well. Msgr. Guardini’s lessons address the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Novus Ordo Missae is the same Mass as the Tridentine was, the same as the Last Supper was, the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. We approach the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as we have for two thousand years, with the highest reverence.

The translation from German to English deserves comment. Our English language was born of West Germanic wordstock and Latin grammar. English translations from German can bring us very close to the original sense. Texts such as this, focused on God and man reaching towards one another, are so deep that their translations either faithfully reproduce the author’s sense or substitute the translator’s. Here, gratefully, we find Msgr. Guardini’s reflections in our own language.

Jesus Himself was once incarnate among us. Most Catholics have imagined living back then, hearing Jesus speak, inviting Him home for dinner. He built us a Church that calls us to Sunday Mass so that we can hear living human voices proclaim Him. Perhaps some Catholic religious order will institute a Preparing Yourself for Mass movement encouraging priests to give these readings before Mass, as Msgr. Guardini did, to present them at missions and retreats, and to teach priests the pastoral techniques that will prepare us for Mass.

Marty Barrack is a Jewish convert and Catholic evangelist. He lives with his wife, Irene, at Star of the Sea, a community of faithful Catholics near Hardy, Arkansas.