Romano Guardini - Preparing Yourself for Mass

Preparing Yourself
for Mass

Other books by Romano Guardini
available from Sophia Institute Press:

Eternal Life
The Living God
The Inner Life of Jesus
Learning the Virtues that Lead You to God
And the Word Dwelt Among Us
The Rosary of Our Lady
The Lords Prayer
The Art of Praying

Romano Guardini

Formerly entitled:
Meditations Before Mass

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Preparing Yourself for Mass was first published in Germany in 1939 as Besinnung vor der Feier der Heiligen Messe by Matthias Grnewald Verlag, Mainz. An English translation entitled Meditations, Before Mass was published in 1956 by Newman Press. In 1993, Sophia Institute Press published an edition under the same name. This 1997 Sophia Institute Press edition duplicates the 1993 edition except that the title of the book has been changed to Preparing Yourself for Mass. It is published with the permission of Matthias Griinewald Verlag, Mainz.

All quotations from the New Testament are taken from the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine edition, 1947; quotations from the Old Testament are from the Douay-Rheims version. The Psalms have been cross-referenced with the enumeration in the Revised Standard Version.

Copyright 1939 Matthias Griinewald Verlag
English translation Copyright 1993 Sophia Institute
Alle Autorenrechte liegen bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher, except by
a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344

Nihil obstat: Edward A. Cerny, S.S., D.D.
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: Francis P. Keough, D.D.
November 14, 1955

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Guardini, Romano, 1885-1968.

[Besinnung vor der Feier der Heiligen Messe. English]

Preparing yourself for Mass / Romano Guardini.

p. cm.

Originally published: Meditations before Mass. Westminster, Md. :

Newman Press, 1955.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 0-918477-50-6

1. Mass Meditations. I. Title.

[BX2169.G8313 1997]

264.02036dc21 96-40445 CIP

DURING MY SEMINARY YEARS and throughout the university years that followed, Romano Guardini was without a doubt the writer who most influenced my spiritual life. His book The Lord, as well as his many reflections on the great spiritual figures in history such as Augustine and Pascal, and his meditations on the Liturgy and the life of prayer, were daily food for me and for many of my friends.

Without the writings of Romano Guardini, I would probably never have developed such a deep interest in the spiritual life, nor have had the courage and the freedom to write about it myself. Romano Guardini was certainly one of my main spiritual directors leading me to the priesthood and supporting me in the years following my ordination.

Much has changed in the Church and society since the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the writings of Romano Guardini definitely carry the imprint of the pre-Vatican II Church and therefore will evoke in the present-day reader feelings of melancholy, memories of the good old days, or even glimpses of an unknown spiritual climate. But the profound reverence for the sacred, the deep love for the Church, and the life-giving communion with Jesus under-girding all of Guardinis works are today as important as when he originally wrote his books.

I am glad that his reflections on the Mass are available again to present-day readers. They will encounter in these reflections one of the most important spiritual writers of this century and realize that although the Liturgy of the Eucharist went through major changes during the last decades, the real grace of Christs presence among us in the Mass continues to be Gods great gift to us a gift Romano Guardini beautifully describes.

I pray that this precious book will bring many people to a new love of the Eucharist, not only as it was celebrated many years ago, but also as it is celebrated today.

March 15, 1993

THESE CHAPTERS were originally separate talks which the late Msgr. Guardini, over a number of months, gave to his parishioners just before Mass. He asked them to meditate prayerfully on the theme of each talk as a means of preparing them for the Mass which was to follow.

You too might want, as it were, to sit in the pews with Msgr. Guardinis fortunate congregation, reading and meditating upon just one chapter at a time before you attend Mass, letting it deepen your understanding and prayer in the Liturgy for that day. Then, before the next Mass you attend, read and meditate on the next chapter. If you persist in prayerful reading of these meditations before Mass, youll be delightfully surprised at how profound a change will be brought about in you and in the depth of your experience of the Mass.

A second point should be noted before you begin reading: it will soon become obvious that Msgr. Guardini wrote these pages just before the Second Vatican Council brought about numerous changes in the way the Mass is celebrated. This need not trouble you, for, as Msgr. Guardini indicates in his Introduction, his purpose is not to consider particular elements in the structure of the Liturgy, but to reveal what the Mass any Mass in any age and in any rite demands of you and me spiritually and to help us prepare to worship God properly in the Mass and to receive the Eucharist worthily.

Therefore, although these meditations sometimes allude to acts or prayers that are no longer found in the post-Vatican II Mass, they nonetheless remain like the pages of every great classic timely for us today and at all times, for they speak of the essence of the Mass which Christ Himself instituted; and they show us the role that we are called to play in this most sublime of all acts of worship.

Preparing Yourself
for Mass

THE CHAPTERS of this book originated as discourses held before Holy Mass in order to prepare for its celebration. They made no attempt to interpret the essence of the Lords memorial or to narrate His life; their purpose was simply to reveal what the Mass demands of us and how those demands may be properly met.

For many a believer the Mass has assumed the character of a sacred spectacle or of some mysterious proceeding before which he says his prayers. Its reality consequently is buried, and something irreplaceable is lost. The reasons for this are many and go so far back that criticism is pointless. But it is time that the Mass become again for the faithful what it is and was instituted to be: the sacred action of Christs community, which, though under the care of the priestly office, is meant to live and act as a true community, as the Acts of the Apostles point out.

That is where this book is meant to help. It does not try to show how the Mass should be celebrated or how, within the prescribed limits of ecclesiastical law (or perhaps through a more perfect fulfillment of the lex orandi), the organic structure of the sacred ceremony could be brought out more clearly or even how closer participation of the faithful is to be achieved. That is the task of a religious manual.