Cardinal Sarah Describes Josef Ratzinger’s Path to His Ever Deeper Understanding of the Liturgy of The Church
“We do not create [the Liturgy]; we celebrate It as It is given to us with reverence and humility, always seeking to give of our best in the worship of Almighty God.”
Few, it seems, have been as close to then-Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope Benedict XVI, and are able to pass along his comprehensive views on the Liturgy and Ritual of the the Church, as is Cardinal Sarah. One would think, because of what (the Real) Vatican II said (in a nutshell: “Everyone needs to get more invovled in The Mass and Liturgy; we will begin this process through deeper education for everyone (except the bishops, who needed it most of all); then, people will be trained…”), that such persons and education and authentic catechetical initiatives would be very common by now.
However, as we all know, they are not. Instead, just about everything that is “out there” today has all the earmarks of in-authentic liturgy and ritual: everything is about “the community” and “the people,” and virtually nothing about receptivity, about receiving what The Holy Spirit has brought about over thousands and thousands of years as He worked with and through God’s People and the one authentic priesthood (which, these days, needs to be affirmed, was, is, and always will be male, male only). And our bishops, the teachers of The One True Faith, and whose first responsibility is always the Sacred Mysteries of the Church (cf. Can. 835 ff), are, sadly, the most ignorant, silent, and permissive of all the members of the Church in these matters.
Below is an essay written by Cardinal Sarah on Cardinal Ratzinger’s growth in understanding of the Liturgy and Ritual of the Church. As with everything Cardinal Sarah says and writes, it is packed beyond full of dense truth, albeit very clearly communicated. Any person seeking the rich fare of authentic Christian thought, produced from a heart, mind and soul desiring nothing but God and His life and truth and teaching, will find in this too-brief essay evidence of one who has truly received and obeyed “the sure charism of truth.”
Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! However, how can we communicate?