Episodes
Tuesday Nov 12, 2019
Schola Christi - Congregation as "New Creation"
Tuesday Nov 12, 2019
Tuesday Nov 12, 2019
On the second Saturday of November, Members of the Secular Oratory gathered with Fr. David for a discussion on 'Congregation as 'New Creation'' The group read and reflected upon a brief selection from 'Meditations Before Mass' by Msgr. Romano Guardini.
In this reflection Guardini issues a challenge to us to go deeper and further than we have in understanding the nature of and participation in “Congregation” as New Creation. He shows us how we must patiently allow our vision of Church to be transformed and to become what Christ has made it through the Paschal Mystery. The Ego - the Self - must be let go with its trappings as well as our familiar ways of understanding group psychology and identity. We must open ourselves to that without marked and clear boundaries as we know them and be drawn into the richness and expansiveness that is God. Guardini writes: “What sustains the Mass is not only an endless legion of hearts and spirits, the faith and love of all creation, but also a supernatural society endowed with authority and bearing responsibilities. Our task is to find our place in the enormous whole. This is not easy. Man has a leaning to spiritual intimacy and exclusiveness, which causes him to shrink from such magnitude and grandeur.”
In the end we must abandon ourselves to the grace of God which alone gives us the courage and faith to embrace such a reality.
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Schola Christi - Oremus: The Word of Entreaty
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
On the second Saturday of August, Members of the Secular Oratory gathered with Fr. David for a discussion on 'Oremus: The Word of Entreaty.' The group read and reflected upon a brief selection from 'Meditations Before Mass' by Msgr. Romano Guardini.
Guardini continues to guide us through the Mass - focusing now on the prayers of entreaty and the gestures preceding them. The Collect, the Secret and the Postcommunion all begin with the invitation "Oremus" - Let us pray. He notes that in all of these prayers we find a kind of clear, terse collectedness and focus. Their brevity is a mark of the Church's desire for clarity and reverence for the tradition from which these prayers arise. Though profound and powerful, they are not the subjective prayer of the individual but of the Church before her God. They are precise in their expression - the fruit of deep concentration and seizing upon the essential truths they seek to articulate. Thus we must take the invitation "Let us pray" seriously - we must move into silent reflection. The priest must truly pause in order to allow the words that follow to arise with a vitality as they are lifted up to God as vehicles of the intentions of the Church. Therefore we do well to study them beforehand in order these are the intentions of our hearts as well.
The direction the prayers take us is significant. Guardini writes: "The goal is the Father; prayer is a seeking of His face. “The Way” is Christ. The power is the Holy Spirit." This is the law of liturgical prayer. It is trinitarian - directed to the Father, made "through", "with", and "in" Christ, and in the strength of the Spirit. It is the very principle of Christian existence and forms and shapes our consciousness. It is the very truth and love in which God himself lives, creates and redeems. It is to this reality He calls us and in and through which we participate by our prayer.
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Schola Christi - Congregation: Injustice Rectified
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
On the second Saturday of October, Members of the Secular Oratory gathered with Fr. David for a discussion on 'Congregation - Injustice Rectified.' The group read and reflected upon a brief selection from 'Meditations Before Mass' by Msgr. Romano Guardini.
Guardini now shifts his focus to the Congregation itself and specifically the interior disposition of all those present, priest and laity alike. A Congregation is not simply a gathering of many people together and not even a gathering of the pious and reverent. More specifically, Guardini tells us they are people "disciplined by faith and conscious of their membership in Christ gathered to celebrated the sacred mysteries." This does not simply happen spontaneously: rather, the congregation must "will it." Many things aid in the creation of this reality, but one element is absolutely necessary. Guardini describes it thus: "Be this as it may, anyone who knows that somewhere someone has something against him certainly can do one thing: he can promise himself to remove the injustice by correcting it as soon as possible. The honest intention suffices to bring down the wall between himself and his “brother.” Immediately the unifying element is free again to contact all parts. As soon as the injustice that isolates has been overcome, the congregation is restored." A radical unity must exist between members of the congregation. Any wall that divides must be removed if they are to stand before God. Sacred unity must be maintained at all costs. Forgiveness must be sought and at least established in one's heart. There can be no indifference towards another within us or false friendliness. Divine love must find its footing within us who have been made sons and daughters of God.