9781644135945

Introduction
through the Church. In her Christ continues to live visibly in the world. In fact, the life of the
Church and the life of Christ are one, and there can be no supernatural life that is not in some
sense a participation in the life of the Church.
All life, even spiritual life, is organic rather than mechanical; a tree must develop roots before
it can grow a trunk. As in nature life is measured in terms of years, so in the providence of God
the life of the Church here on earth, the Christian life, is fashioned on this same pattern, a holy
year, or year of grace.
In the course of a year Christ relives His liturgical life in the Church. Through His sacramental
presence His life begins, develops, and draws to a close in that period of time. He who
wishes to live with Christ and in Christ must participate in His liturgical life by means of the
liturgical year. Each year we begin anew. Each year we seek to attain perfection but we do not
reach it. Then God gives us a new year of salvation. We attempt it again, and each year by our
union with Christ in His Church we endeavor to perfect the seed that was planted in our soul
at baptism. Thus our human will, which by itself would fail, is borne along by the power of
Christ’s spirit and life.
In our continual search for holiness we discover an unfailing source of inspiration in the
life of Christ and His saints as reviewed in the Church year. We enter into the spirit and piety
of the Church, which is pervaded with the life and spirit of Christ. We let ourselves be guided
through the ecclesiastical year by her prayers, her feelings, and her spirit. In Christ, our glorified
Master, we have infallible guidance. As members of Christ’s mystical body we submit ourselves,
in the course of the Church year, with faith and confidence to the power of the Master. Thus the
ecclesiastical year accomplishes its work in us and leads us on to Christian perfection.
We persuade ourselves too readily that by our own intelligence, judgment, and effort, we can
master the life which God alone can give, and that we can of ourselves fulfill the commandments
He has ordained for us. We cannot go astray if we adopt as a guide the axiom which St. Benedict
in his Rule laid down as the guiding principle for the recitation of the Divine Office: “Let our
mind be in harmony with our voice” (chap. 19). This same sentiment is expressed by St. Paul,
writing to the Corinthians: “But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are
transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18).
The devout contemplation of the Lord, whose glory vivifies the sacred liturgy, gives us a new
character and gradually transforms us into the likeness of Christ. But we must be transformed
through the Spirit of the Lord, not through our own judgment and effort.
Liturgical Meditation
Liturgical meditation, like liturgical piety, is based on the objective facts of the operation of
God’s grace on humanity, on the Church, and on the individual soul. It concerns itself first of all
with what God has become for our sake, what He has done for us, and what He continues to do
for us. In liturgical meditation our minds are occupied with the sublime truths which God has
revealed to His Church and its members. The model of the soul engaged in liturgical meditation
is the Blessed Virgin, who, being overshadowed by the Spirit of God, sings: “My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. . . . Because He that is mighty hath
done great things to me; . . . and His mercy is from generation unto generations” (Lk 1:46 ff.).
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