Off the Shelves 5

In a break from our philosophical ponderings, we present an extract from Fr. Romano Guardini's Prayer in Practice (London: Burns & Oates, 1957), which gives an insight into the relationship between personal prayer, liturgical prayer and popular devotion.

Liturgical and personal prayer do not completely exhuast the possibilities of religious life. There is a third form which, for want of a better term, we shall call popular devotion. To it belongs Matins and Vespers, family prayers, saying of the Rosary and the majority of religious folk customs.

This kind of devotion cannot easily be defined. It is best described by saying that it lies between liturgical and personal prayer, but it is distinct from both. Compared with personal prayer it has a communal character because in it the attitude and necessity, not of the individual but of the group, comes to the fore. It is ordered by custom and rules and thereby commands a certain authority. On the other hand, it is much more private than the Liturgy because the various forms of popular devotion are not the same for the whole Church nor even for a whole country, but may hold good only for a particular diocese. They may even vary from parish to parish. Thus they reflect the change of time, the local peculiarities, the diversities of daily life and general variety of conditions much more directly than does the Liturgy, which changes much more slowly and whose scope is much more wide.

Popular devotion is less strict than liturgical. Its phrasing is looser and more expansive; imagination plays a greater part in it and the whole atmosphere is one of warmth and immediacy. On the other hand, it lacks the wide sweep of the Liturgy, its austerity and power. It tends towards the emotional and occasionally lapses into the sentimental or the bizarre.

It is fond of repetition. In liturgical prayer the principle that the identical thing should never be done twice holds good. In popular devotion, however, the same words re-occur continually. The object of popular devotion is, of course, to abide in the presence of God; however, conditions in many of the smaller parishes are such that the proper liturgical prayers- for instance, the Psalms- cannot be used to much purpose. Their place is taken by certain simple texts such as the Lord's Prayer or the Hail Mary, in which anyone can take part but which are, of course, open to the dangers of monotony and of being recited without much feeling or thought.

Restricted in its range, popular devotiuon has a strong local or parochial flavour. The Christian 'we' is more vivid and more reassuring to the individual than in liturgical prayer. The local and intimate atmosphere which one feels in its devotion does, in fact, come not only from the more emotional character of the texts and songs, but from the much closer communal bonds hich carry it. The form of these songs or hymns is popular rather than liturgical. They express with greater directness the religious impulses of the people at the expense, however, of a certain lowering of musical value and spiritual meaning ...

The same could be said for popular devotion hich, whenever the liturgical life is not properly understood and cherished, undergoes a peculiar deterioration. The pitfalls of poular devotion are poverty of intellect, unchecked fantasy, the lack fo proportion and disorder of sentiment. If popular devotion is left to the free play of direct religious impulse, the contents of its faith tends to become inadequate and its affirmations unreliable, while the repetitions accumulate and the feeling becomes spurious and sentimental. The religous life of a parish in which the Liturgy does not play its proper role and which therefore draws its nourishment mainly from popular devotion must inevitably be impoverished.

All this should not make us forget the other side of the picture. There is a form of liturgical zeal which looks upon all popular devotion as inferior or at least superfluous. It springs from the same attitude which regards personal prayer as a mere encroachment upon the Liturgy. This ia a wrong and dangerous point of view. In its own way, it resembles the attitude of the person who says: 'All that is necessary is humanity as a whole. There is no need for a people. I am content with the world, I do not need a homelan.' Popular devotion is to religious life what the link with people and family, country and home, is to the natural life. A good afternoon service worthily and piously performed, a rosary in the evening said in the proper spirit, are beautiful, profound and intimate- something which the Christian mind needs to remain healthy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Romano Guardini (1885-1968) was one of the most important Catholic intellectuals of the 20th century, whose writings on contemporary problems in both the Church and society continue to influence Catholic thought. After his ordination in 1910 he was assistant priest in several parishes and during this period continued studying at the University of Freiburg, receiving his habilitation. [1] It was also during this period he first encountered authentic liturgy at the Abbey of Beuron, which became one of his life long interests and led to the publication of his work The Spirit of the Liturgy.

Following two years of millitary service as a hospital orderly he was appointed to the chair of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Berlin, where his ability to relate Christian truths to contemporary life and culture gained him a considerable following. At this time he also became director of the Catholic youth movement, Quickborn, to which he dedicated his spare time instilling in its members a deep appreciation for Western culture and traditions.

In 1935 he wrote an essay critical of the Nazis portrayal of Jesus and emphasising his distinct Jewishness. Four years later they dismissed him from the university and dissolved Quickborn, but he remained in Berlin in the parish of a priest-friend. There he would write such works as The Church and the Catholic, Meditations Before Mass and his spiritual classic, The Lord. After the war he resumed lecturing in Philosophy of Religion first at the University of Tubingen and then at the University of Munich, from which he retired in 1963 because of ill health. Despite this, he continued lecturing, writing and even found time to coach the German Olympic polo team.

[1] Habilitation is a post-doctoral qualification in certain European countries, without which one cannot attain to a professorship at university. Like a doctorate, its requirements are several years of research and publication of a dissertation, which must be reviewed and defended before an academic committee. It is interesting to note that both Romano Guardini and Pope Benedict received their habilitation for dissertations on St. Bonaventure, the former on his theology of salvation, the latter his theology of history.