Saturday 16 May 2009

Old yet knew The Paschal Mystery

Note how the words of Gueranger seem so contemporary, this was because he was rooted in the writings of the ancient Fathers of the Church and so acquired that "timeless knowledge". He himself said if only preachers would imitate the Fathers of the Church and preach about the Lord and the truth of the gospel, the faithful would recieve sound doctrine. It has been said that preaching today sometimes seems to lack a deep theological underpining. 

THE MYSTERY OF PASCHAL TIME by Abbot Prosper Gueranger

Of all the seasons of the liturgical year Eastertide is by far the  richest in mystery. We might even say that Easter is the summit of  the Mystery of the sacred Liturgy. The Christian who is happy  enough to enter, with his whole mind and heart, into the knowledge  and love of the Paschal Mystery, has reached the very centre of  the supernatural life. Hence it is that the Church uses every  effort in order to effect this: what she has hitherto done was all  intended as a preparation for Easter. The holy longings of Advent,  the sweet joys of Christmas, the contrition and penance of Lent, the heartrending sight of the  Passion-all were given us as preliminaries, as paths, to the  sublime and glorious Pasch, which is now ours.
During these days, then, we have brought before us the two great  manifestations of God's goodness towards mankind-the Pasch of  Israel, and the Christian Pasch, the Pentecost of Sinai, and the  Pentecost of the Church. We shall have occasion to show how the  ancient figures were fulfilled in the realities of the new Easter  and Pentecost, and how the twilight of the Mosaic Law made way for  the full daylight of the Gospel; but we cannot resist the feeling  of holy reverence, at the bare thought that the solemnities we  have now to celebrate are more than three thousand years old, and  that they are to be renewed every year from this till the voice of  the angel shall be heard proclaiming: 'Time shall be no more!'1  The gates of eternity will then be thrown open. 
Eternity in heaven is the true Pasch: hence, our Pasch here on  earth is the feast of feasts, the solemnity of solemnities. The  human race was dead; it was the victim of that sentence, whereby  it was condemned to lie mere dust in the tomb; the gates of life  were shut against it. But see! the Son of God rises from his grave  and takes possession of eternal life. Nor is he the only one that  is to die no more, for, as the Apostle teaches us, 'He is the  first-born from the dead.' (Coloss. i 18) The Church would, therefore, have us  consider ourselves as having already risen with Jesus, and as  having already taken possession of eternal life. The holy Fathers of the Church would have us look on these fifty days of Easter as the image of our  eternal happiness. They are days devoted exclusively to joy; every  sort of sadness is forbidden; and the Church cannot speak to her  divine Spouse without joining to her words that glorious cry of  heaven, the Alleluia, wherewith, as the holy Liturgy says, the  streets and squares of the heavenly Jerusalem resound without  ceasing.
The providence of God, who has established harmony between the  visible world and the supernatural work of grace, willed that the  Resurrection of our Lord should take place at that particular  season of the year when even Nature herself seems to rise from the  grave. The meadows give forth their verdure, the trees resume  their foliage, the birds fill the air with their songs, and the  sun, the type of our triumphant Jesus, pours out his floods of  light on our earth made new by lovely spring. At Christmas the sun  had little power, and his stay with us was short; it harmonized  with the humble birth of our Emmanuel, who came among us in the  midst of night, and shrouded in swaddling clothes, but now he is  'as a giant that runs his way, and there is no one that can hide  himself from his heat.'  Speaking, in the Canticle, to the  faithful soul, and inviting her to take her part in this new life  which he is now imparting to every creature, our Lord himself  says: 'Arise, my dove, and come! Winter is now past, the rain is  over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land. The voice of  the turtle is heard. The fig-tree hath put forth her green figs.  The vines, in flower, yield their sweet smell. Arise thou, and  come!'
The Lord our  Saviour chose the  Sunday for his Resurrection, on this day he conquered death and  proclaimed life to the world. It was on this favoured day of the  week that he had created the  light, by selecting it now for the commencement of the new life  which he graciously imparts to man, he would show us that Easter  is the renewal of the entire creation. Not only is the anniversary  of his glorious Resurrection to be, henceforward, the greatest of  days, but every Sunday throughout the year is to be a sort of  Easter, a holy and sacred day. 

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Prosper Guéranger

From Prosper Guéranger, A Liturgical Theologian by Cuthbert Johnson (Presentation)

Dom Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger, the first Abbot of Solesmes, died on the thirtieth of January 1875. Just over a month later Pope Pius IX issued a Brief in which he paid tribute to the life and work of Guéranger, declaring that the Abbot of Solesmes was worthy to be considered among the most distinguished ecclesiastical figures of his time. Prosper Guéranger had been involved in many of the important issues which had affected the history of the Church, both in France and further afield, for over forty years. His contemporaries were obliged to listen to him and subsequent Church historians have been unable to ignore him. Some have praised him, many have criticised him; but no one has yet provided an adequate evaluation of his work.
To restore a painting is a delicate task but it is basically a work of one dimension. To restore the portrait of a person by recounting his life and work is a much more complex undertaking. This study is a contribution to this work of restoration. It is concerned with only one dimension of the life and work of Prosper Guéranger, namely, his understanding of the Liturgy. An understanding which finds expression in his literary work and in his life as Abbot of a monastery which both in his own day and subsequently has played a significant role in the Liturgical movement. It was Guéranger himself who first used the expression «liturgical movement» to describe the revival of liturgical studies and the general interest in understanding and improving liturgical practice. In a tribute to Guéranger on the occasion of the one hundreth anniversary of his death, Pope Paul VI, designated him as the Author of the liturgical movement,
Auctor illius spiritalis motus.
It is almost with some reluctance that this study is published in its present form. It is substantially in the form of a thesis and therefore has some of the limitations inherent in this form. This work should be seen as a kind of documented introduction to the liturgical writings of Prosper Guéranger. The thesis form lends itself to documentation. As an introduction it is a contribution towards an evaluation of Gueranger's liturgical writings and will help to determine the place that they should be given in the history of the liturgical movement.
Guéranger's role in the liturgical movement has been recognised but there is a division of opinion as to its value and significance. It was Gueranger's belief that if his work had enabled some of his readers to appreciate the depths and riches of the Liturgy, then his time had been well spent. He himself had no pretensions as to being a scholar, on one occasion he wrote to one of his monks and told him that he was only writing for those who knew less than himself the meaning of the Liturgy. Father Louis Bouyer, however, seems to think that Guéranger did not spend his time all too profitably and described Guéranger's principal liturgical works as the product of «sham scholarship». Edmond Bishop considered that Guéranger's work was no more than a «heap of ruins «and that those who had followed Guéranger had been led «into an arid desert where the oases are only mirages». While recognising Guéranger's merit as a scholar, Lord Acton described him as one of the most outspoken of the «systematic adversaries of modern knowledge».
A work in which several pertinent observations are made concerning Guéranger's work is Henri Brémond's Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France. The title of this work should be noted carefully, it is an Histoire littéraire and not a liturgical study. Brémond himself recognised his limited competency in assessing the liturgical aspect of Guéranger's work. Brémond's often well founded criticisms, if sometimes a little too subjective, do not hide his genuine appreciation for Guéranger and his work. Brémond's style is always lively and stimulating but: it is recognised that his material is not always well or reliably handled. While it is something of an exageration to say that Guéranger positively misunderstood the true spirit of the liturgical innovations that took place in France, Brémond is correct in his observation that Guéranger did not give sufficient credit to the genuine spiritual basis which lay at the heart of those innovations and he is equally correct in attributing this to Guéranger's obsessive hatred of Jansenism. The importance of Brémond's work lies in the fact he has shown that the liturgical renewal was not an isolated phenomenon and that it was fostered by the wealth of spiritual writings upon the Mass and the Liturgical Year. He has also made clear that the increase of emphasis upon the interior life, asceticism and contemplation did not diminish the role of liturgical worship in the spiritual life of the individual Christian but on the contrary helped to foster its development and reveal its importance for true spiritual growth.
Those, on the other hand, who have written in a tone favourable to Guéranger and his work, have, in the majority of cases, been dependent upon secondary sources. In order to qualify or correct the opinions, favourable and unfavourable, concerning the work of the Abbot of Solesmes, this study is almost exclusively based upon the primary sources.
The Second Vatican Council not only opened a new period in the history of the Church but also represented the climax of the theological, biblical and liturgical research which has its roots in the scholarship of the nineteenth century. An attempt has been made in this study to show that despite the limitations both of his own personality and of the time in which he lived, Guéranger initiated an approach to liturgical studies which was to develop into an exact theological science.
Guéranger wrote that he had always studied the Liturgy from both an historical and theological point of view. While the historical aspect has been considered to be of little value by some, many have almost completely overlooked the theological aspect of his work.
Prosper Guéranger was very much a man of his time and was imbued with the spirit of Romanticism and with a love of the Middle Ages which was characteristic of that period. Without analysing in detail the spirit of the age, an attempt has been made to put this matter into a just perspective.
Among the persons and events which influenced Prosper Guéranger's development a special place has been assigned to the person and the teaching of the Abbé de Lamennais. Of the many streams of thought in the Church of the nineteenth century, there are but a few which are not in some way a tributory of his thought and teaching. He has never been associated, however, with the liturgical movement, yet through Guéranger, a link, even if somewhat tenuous, can be established.
The centrality of the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Church to Guéranger's thought underlies also all of his liturgical writings. His methodology, both in theory and practice, had as its primary object of study the texts of the Liturgy. It is principally upon these two considerations that this study tries to show that Prosper Guéranger can be described as a liturgical theologian.
It is not uncommon today to hear of scholars and writers of the last one hundred and fifty years being described as prophets or as pioneers of one movement or another. This examination of the liturgical work of Prosper Guéranger is not an attempt either to vindicate his work or to resurrect a prophet. It is concerned primarily with a monk and a priest who sought to live out the mystery of Christ through the celebration of the Liturgy and whose desire was to communicate to all God's people the riches of the mystery of Christ.
There are indeed elements in Guéranger's work which can be considered both pioneering and prophetic and at the period in which he wrote much of his work appeared to be quite original.
Guéranger published his first works in 1830 and from that date until his death forty five years later, he published a considerable number of articles and books on a wide variety of subjects. Since this study is concerned with Guéranger's liturgical writings it does not claim to give a complete picture of any single facet of Guéranger's thought. At the same time it has not seemed wise to ignore completely Guéranger's non-liturgical writings but such few works as have been cited have been examined only in so far as they contribute to a further clarification of his liturgical thought.
While Prosper Guéranger was the principal agent in bringing about the return of the dioceses of France to the unity of the Roman Liturgy, this study is not concerned as such with the history of that movement, which belongs more specifically to the history of the Church in France. Only such information as contributes to an understanding of the setting in which Guéranger wrote and the influence which this situation had upon him is given. Similarly, the circumstances which led up to the diversity of liturgical books used in the dioceses of France are described only in so far as they provide the background to Guéranger's writings.
A question which is neither without importance nor interest is whether Guéranger's criticisms of the diocesan liturgical books were justified or not. The criticisms which Guéranger made can only be verified by means of a complete study of the diocesan liturgical books, such a study is obviously beyond the scope of this study. Indications have been given to show that Guéranger's criticisms did have some foundation even if subject to some modification.
It is recognised that the revival of interest in liturgical matters which Guéranger initiated in France was not an isolated phenomenon. In England and Germany there was a similar reawakening in the appreciation of the values of the role of the Liturgy in the life of the Church and the individual Christian. The seeds of the Oxford movement were sown in 1833, the same year in which Guéranger restored monastic life in the priory of Solesmes, while in the previous year J. A. Möhler had published his controversial work Symbolik which was to have a far reaching influence in promoting liturgical studies. The history of these complementary movements does not fall within the limits of this present study but their significance has not been ignored.
Obviously this study does not to pretend to be a biography but it has been necessary to give some information on Guéranger's life. Those details which have been given are designed to show the influences which had a direct bearing upon his intellectual development with a special view to his liturgical work.
There are three elements which characterise the liturgical writings of Prosper Guéranger: the historical, theological and polemical. It is unfortunate that the least important of these aspects, the polemical, has been largely responsible for the neglect not to say the indifference into which Guéranger's work has fallen. No attempt has been made either to ignore, diminish or justify this element which is regarded with distaste today. At the same time it should be remembered that the nineteenth century was given to polemic as is witnessed by a series of pamphlet wars on a variety of subjects both religious and secular. It is also fair to point out that Guéranger received more abuse than he gave and while he could be intransigent and aggressive in opposing the views of others he avoided abusive language. Guéranger's literary style is characteristic of the age in which he lived, a style which emphasised the poetical and colourful in language and imagery. In general French writers in the nineteenth century never erred on the side of brevity and unfortunately Guéranger was no exception.
The name of Prosper Guéranger is well known; his role in the life of the Church in the nineteenth century and in particular his role in the liturgical movement is recognised but his writings are no longer so widely read. The Institutions liturgiques would not be recommended to anyone looking for an introduction to the study of the liturgy and the recent changes in the liturgy have made the Année liturgique less accessible It would be a pity, however, if these and other liturgical works of Guéranger were to be considered simply monuments or still worse curiosities of a past age. The principal concern of this study has been to present the works of Guéranger in themselves, in their historical context and to highlight their fundamental theological character. In this respect this study is offered merely as an Introduction to the liturgical work of the abbot of Solesmes. For this reason it has been divided into three parts. In the first of which an examination is made of the formative influences upon Guéranger. The account of Guéranger's accademic formation shows that apart from the normal curriculum of studies, both secular and ecclesiastical, he read both wisely and widely. At the age of twenty-five he had acquired a knowledge of Church history and the writings of the Fathers that was quite exceptional. Guéranger was a man who valued friendship and was fortunate in his personal relationships, both at the level of frienship and with those from whom he sought help and direction. Among those who had a significant influence upon Guéranger was the Abbé de Lamennais. Prosper Guéranger was an ardent admirer of de Lamennais and asked his advice not only about his studies but also concerning his project for the restoration of Benedictine life in France. Guéranger's motives for founding Solesmes are not without significance in evaluationg his liturgical work. For Guéranger, the Abbey of Solesmes was the concrete expression of his understanding of the nature of the Church and its life of prayer in its monastic expression.
It should be remembered that in founding Solesmes, Prosper Guéranger not only restored Benedictine life in France but was instrumental in setting in motion a general renewal of monastic life. His influence upon the Wolter brothers and Abbot Cassaretto was to have far reaching consequences. It is true to say that the liturgical movement was concurrent with the movement of monastic renewal. In the nineteenth century the liturgical movement was monastic in colour. Guéranger was far more pastorally minded than his successors and it was not until the second decade of the twentieth century that the movement achieved a degree of independence from its monastic progenitors.
The second part presents the historical background, both the antecedent and contemporary background, against which Guéranger's liturgical writings should be set: the history of the diocesan liturgies and the liturgical controversy.
A description of the state of the liturgy in the French Church and the causes of this unique situation are given as a form of introduction to problems which Guéranger faced when he undertook to write the Institutions liturgiques. The largest single factor that emerged from Guéranger's writings from an historical viewpoint was the controversy concerning the legitimacy of the diverse liturgical books used in the dioceses of France. An examination of Guéranger's correspondence has been made in order to give some insight into his attitude to this issue which proved to be one of the most difficult periods in his life. It was a period of suffering which bore very positive fruit in that it deepened his insight into the theological dimension of the Liturgy.
The third part is an analysis of the liturgical writings of Guéranger. It can be more correctly described as a synthesis of the main concepts which have emerged from that analysis rather than an evaluation. Guéranger placed all of his study in the context of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity and the eternal plan for man's salvation in Christ Jesus. His deep awareness of the relationship between the mystery of the Incarnation and the mystery of the Church enabled him to see the Church as a visible divinely constituted society which is the sacramental manifestation of God's saving mercy. This insight enabled him to develop his understanding of the dogmatic character of the Liturgy. It was his insistence upon the dogmatic character of the Liturgy which led him to see the importance of the Liturgy as a witness to Tradition and as the living voice of Tradition.