Wlodzimierz Redzioch: – What does the collaboration between Benedict XVI and his Master of Ceremonies look like? Does the Pope decide about everything?http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2011/04/beauty-in-liturgy-interview-with-msgr.html
Msgr. Guido Marini: – At first, I would like to stress that the celebrations the Holy Father presides over are to be the points of reference for the whole Church. The Pope is the highest priest, the one who offers the sacrifice of the Church, the one who shows the liturgical teaching through celebrations – the point of reference for all. Considering this explanation it is easier to understand what the style of collaboration between the Papal Master of Ceremonies and the Holy Father should be. One should act in the way to make the papal liturgies the expressions of his authentic liturgical orientation. Therefore, the Papal Master of Ceremonies must be a humble and faithful servant of the liturgy of the Church. I have understood my work in the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations in this way since the very beginning.
– We all can see the changes introduced to the liturgical celebrations by Benedict XVI. How can we synthesize these changes?
– I think that these changes can be synthesized in the following way: first of all, these are changes made in accordance with the logic of development of continuity with the past. So we do not deal with breaking with the past and juxtaposing with the former pontificates. Secondly, the introduced changes serve to evoke the true spirit of liturgy like the Second Vatican Council wanted, ‘The "subject" of the liturgy's intrinsic beauty is Christ himself, risen and glorified in the Holy Spirit, who includes the Church in his work.’
– Celebrations directed towards the cross, Holy Communion received directly by mouth and while keeling, longer moments of silence and meditation – these are the most visible liturgical changes introduced by Benedict XVI. Unfortunately, many people do not understand the theological and historical meanings of these changes and what is worse, they can see them as ‘return to the past.’ Can you briefly explain the meanings of these changes?
– To tell you the truth our office has received many testimonies of the faithful who have favourably received the changes introduced by the Pope because they see them as the authentic renewal of the liturgy. As for the significance of some changes I will say a few synthetic reflections. Celebrating towards the cross stresses the correct direction of liturgical prayer, i.e. towards God; during prayers the faithful are not to look at themselves but should direct their eyes towards the Saviour. Giving hosts to people kneeling aims to giving value to the aspect of adoration both as the fundamental element of celebration and the necessary attitude while facing the mystery of God’s real presence in the Eucharist. During the liturgical celebration prayer assumes various forms: words, songs, music, gestures and silence. Furthermore, moments of silence let us participate truly in the act of worship, and what’s more, from the inside evoke every other form of prayer.
– The Pope attaches importance to the liturgical vestments. Is it a matter of pure aestheticism?
– In order to understand better the Pope’s ideas concerning the meaning of the beauty as an important element of liturgical celebrations I would like to quote the apostolic exhortation ‘Sacramentum caritatis, ’This relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. Like the rest of Christian Revelation, the liturgy is inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor. […] This is no mere aestheticism, but the concrete way in which the truth of God's love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us to emerge from ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love. The truest beauty is the love of God, who definitively revealed himself to us in the paschal mystery. […] The beauty of the liturgy is part of this mystery; it is a sublime expression of God's glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth. Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation.’
– Benedict XVI has changed his pastoral staff – currently he is using the cross-shaped staff. Why?
– I would like to remind you that till the pontificate of Pope Paul VI popes did not use crosiers at all; on special occasions they carried a ferula (cross-shaped staff). Pope Montini, Paul VI, introduced a cross-shaped crosier. And so did Benedict XVI till the Pentecost Sunday of 2008. Since then he has been using ferula because he thinks that it is more suitable for the papal liturgy.
– Why is it so important that the Church preserves using Latin in the liturgy?
– Although the Second Vatican Council introduced national languages it recommended using Latin in the liturgy. I think it is for two reasons that we should not give up Latin. Above all, we have a great liturgical legacy of Latin: from the Gregorian chant to polyphony as well as ‘testi venerandi’ (sacred texts) that Christians have used for ages. Besides, Latin allows us to show catholicity and universality of the Church. We can experience this universality in a unique way in St Peter’s Basilica and during other international gatherings when men and women from all continents, nationalities, languages, sing and pray in the same language. Who will not feel at home when being at church abroad can join his/her brothers in the faith at least in some parts by using Latin?
– Do you agree that the faith of priest is expressed in the liturgy in a special way?
– I have no doubts about it. Since the liturgy is the celebration of Christ’s mystery here and now the priest is called to express his faith in a twofold way. Firstly, he should celebrate with eyes of the one that looks beyond the visible reality to ‘touch’ what is invisible, i.e. God’s presence and work. It is ‘ars celebrandi’ (art of celebration) that lets the faithful check whether the liturgy is only a performance, spectacle for the priest or whether it is a vivid and attractive relation with Christ’s mystery. Secondly, after the celebration the priest is renewed and ready to follow what he has experienced, i.e. make his life a celebration of Christ’s mystery.
"Niedziela" 14/2011
"The very first reaction was great surprise and great fear. Then I felt a certain trepidation the night before beginning my service, and I also very much felt the separation from my diocese and my city, my sister and her family, from so many friends, from the places where I have exercised my priesthood in a special way: the [Genoese] curia, the seminary, the cathedral. At the same time, however, I felt much honoured to be called by the Holy Father to perform the service of Master of Liturgical Celebrations. The possibility I have been given to be near the Holy Father I have felt immediately to be a true grace for my priesthood."
Monsignor Guido Marini, Genoese, 42 years old, thus describes to the "Riformista" his arrival, last October, at the Vatican to assume the post of Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope. An appointment which allows him to work in close contact with Benedict XVI. "That which I have perceived at the beginning of my new assignment - he tells - I have found confirmed exactly every time I have had the grace to encounter the Holy Father. These encounters have been and are always for me a cause of great joy and great emotion. I would never have thought, having been an attentive reader and appreciator of Cardinal Ratzinger, that one day I would have the grace to be as close to him as I am now. And then, every time, together with the profound reverence which inspires in me the figure of the Pope, I experience his serene, gentle, fine and delicate manner of dealing with people which fills my heart with joy and which invites me to exert myself with all my energy to collaborate with generosity, humility and fidelity in the exercise of his Magisterium in the liturgical sphere, as far as pertains to my competences."
Lex orandi lex credendi
The office of Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope is important because, if it is true that lex orandi lex credendi (the Church believes in that which She prays [Rodari's translation]), then to direct the papal ceremonies with rigour and faithfulness to the norms is a help to the Faith of the entire Church. "The liturgy of the Church - explains Marini -, with its words, gestures, silences, chants and music causes us to live with singular efficacy the different moments of the history of Salvation in such a way that we become really participant in them and transform ourselves ever more into authentic disciples of the Lord, walking again in our lives along the traces of Him who has died and risen for our salvation. The liturgical celebration, if it is truly participated in, induces to this transformation which is the history of holiness."
And a help in this "transformation" can be that "repositioning" of the Cross in the centre of the altar, which has been carried out in the papal liturgies, as a residue [Rodari's word] of the old "orientation towards orient" of churches:towards the rising Sun, Him who is coming. "The position of the Cross at the centre of the altar - says Marini - indicates the centrality of the Crucified in the eucharistic celebration and the precise interior orientation which the entire congregation is called to have during the eucharistic liturgy: one does not look at each other, but one looks to Him who has been born, has died and is risen for us, the Saviour. From the Lord comes the salvation, He is the Orient, the Sun which rises to whom we all must turn our gaze, from Whom we all must receive the gift of grace. The question of liturgical orientation, and also the practical manner in which it takes shape, is of great importance, because through it is conveyed a fundamental fact, at once theological and anthropological, ecclesiological and relevant for the personal spirituality."
Continuity
A "repositioning", that of the Cross, which exposes how the liturgical practices of the past must also live today. "The liturgy of the Church - says Marini -, as incidentally all her life, is made of continuity: I would speak of development in continuity. This means that the Church proceeds on her way through history without losing sight of her own roots and her own living tradition: this can require, in some cases, also the recovering of precious and important elements which have been lost, forgotten along the way and which the passing of time has rendered less shining in their authentic significance. When that happens it is not a return to the past, but a true and enlightened progress in the liturgical field."
And in this progress it is impossible not to mention the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum: "Considering attentively the Motu proprio, as well as the letter addressed by the Pope to the bishops of all the world to present it, a twofold precise understanding emerges. First of all, that of facilitating the accomplishing of "a reconciliation in the bosom of the Church"; and in this sense, as has been said, the Motu proprio is a most beautiful act of love towards the unity of the Church. In second place, and this is a fact which must not be forgotten, that [sc. understanding] of favouring a reciprocal enrichment between the two forms of the Roman rite: in such a way, for instance, that in the celebration according to the Missal of Paul VI (ordinary form of the Roman rite) 'can become manifest, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the ancient usage'."
These are important days for the Church. Days in which she relives the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord. The days of Lent, of Holy Week and then of Easter: "Lent - he says - is a time of sincere conversion in a spiritual climate of austerity. An austerity which is not an end in itself, but directed at facilitating the recovering of what is truly essential in human life. And that which is truly essential, beyond everything, is God. That is why Lent is a privileged time of returning to God with all one's heart, by means of the threefold way of prayer, fast and almsgiving, as the page of the Gospel of Ash Wednesday recalls. It is the time in which we are called to relive interiorly, in the arch of the forty days, the experience of the ancient people of God wandering in the desert and the experience of temptation undergone by Jesus. Fundamentally, both these experiences take us back to a battle lived in order to find God and remain in intimate communion with Him, to preserve the primacy of His will in our life, not to allow that something else than Him have the capacity to annex the human heart. With Easter, on the other hand, new spiritual sceneries open themselves, coloured by exultant joy, by overabundant life, by luminous hope: because with the risen Christ, death is vanquished, sin and evil do not have the last word anymore on the life of man, the blessed eternity is a real prospect, life finds a fulfilled meaning, it is discovered that the Truth of the face of God is merciful Love without end."
fonte:new liturgical movement
Monsenhor Marini, qual é o significado do Advento?
O Advento é o tempo da espera. Da espera que faz referência a uma vinda, que é a vinda do Senhor Jesus, o Filho de Deus, o único Salvador do mundo. O povo cristão, neste tempo forte do ano litúrgico, vive a própria fé renovando a feliz consciência de uma tríplice vinda do Senhor, como falaram os Padres da Igreja.
Isto é?
Uma primeira vinda, da qual fazemos memória, é aquela do Filho de Deus na história dos homens, no momento da Encarnação. Uma segunda vinda se realiza no hoje da vida, e é incessante. Esta se realiza de diversos modos, a começar pela Eucaristia, presença real do Senhor em meio aos seus, e também nos sacramentos, na palavra das Sagradas Escrituras, nos irmãos, especialmente os pequenos e necessitados. Uma terceira vinda, atenderá nossa esperança, é aquele que se realizará no fim dos tempos, quando o Senhor retornará na glória e tudo será recapitulado nEle.
O advento também possui uma dimensão mariana?
No tempo do advento o povo cristão é chamado a renovar a consciência que a sua vida é toda contida no mistério de Cristo, aquele que era, que é e que vem. Também por isto o Advento é um tempo marcadamente “Mariano”. A Santíssima Virgem é aquela que num modo único e irrepetível viveu a espera do Filho de Deus, é aquela que de modo singular é toda contida no mistério de Cristo.
De que modo os simples fiéis e as comunidades cristãs podem ajudar-se para viverem melhor este momento forte do tempo da Igreja?
Entrando neste tempo com uma atitude interior de quem se prepara para viver um período de conversão e de renovamento, orientando decididamente a própria vida ao Senhor. A Igreja, com o ano litúrgico, nos oferece periodicamente a graça de viver momentos espirituais fortes, ocasiões propícias para retornar com ímpeto ao caminho até a santidade. No advento este ímpeto possui um sentido singular, que é aquele da alegria. A alegria ao pensar que o Senhor já se mostrou no seu rosto de amor misericordioso e inimaginável. A alegria ao pensar que o Senhor é nosso contemporâneo e está hoje próximo a nós, no presente da nossa existência, no cotidiano simples da nossas jornadas. A alegria ao pensar que o futuro não está escondido na obscuridade, mas resplandece na luz do Céu, de Deus em Cristo. Todo isto transforma a experiência de vida também em uma virtude de conversão pessoal e comunitária, realizada através de uma oração mais intensa e prolongada, do distanciamento de uma mentalidade secularizada e de uma caridade mais generosa e autenticamente cristã.
Quais são as características das celebrações neste período?
A liturgia, através dos ritos e das orações, conduz à uma participação ativa do mistério celebrado. Portanto, nas celebrações do tempo do Advento, deve transmitir o sendo da espera típico do Advento. Deve fazer isto com suas próprias orações, com os cantos, com o silêncio, com as suas cores. E com as suas luzes. Em tudo deve fazer-se presente o mistério do Senhor que vem, Ele que é o Princípio e o Fim da história; em tudo deve-se perceber de algum modo tocável a alegria verdadeira e sóbria da fé; em tudo deve-se transparecer o empenho pela mudança do coração e da mente para uma pertença mais radical a Deus.
E quais as particularidades da liturgia pontifícia?
Embora estando em um contexto específico, devido à presença do Santo Padre, as liturgias papais não podem deixar de apresentar as características típicas deste tempo litúrgico. Com uma nota a mais: a exemplaridade. Porque não se pode esquecer que as celebrações presidida pelo Papa são chamadas a serem ponto de referência para toda a Igreja. É o Papa, o Sumo Pontífice, o grande litúrgo da Igreja, aquele que, também nas celebrações, exercita um verdadeiro e próprio magistério litúrgico ao qual todos devem convergir.
Este ano em particular a liturgia das Primeiras Vésperas inseriu uma “Vigília pela vida nascente”. Qual é o significado desta particular “combinação”?
Se trata de uma combinação que está se revelando feliz. A iniciativa de uma “Vigília pela vida nascente” proposta pelo Pontifício Conselho pela Famíla, vem de tal modo a inserir-se na celebração do início do Advento, um tempo muito propício para abordar o tema da vida. O Advento é o tempo da espera de Maria, que trazia no seio o Verbo de Deus feito carne.
O Advento é esperar a Verdadeira Vida, aquela que se manifestou no Filho de Deus feito homem, plenitude e cumprimento do desígnio de Deus sobre a humanidade. Naquela Vida, surgida em Belém, a dignidade de cada vida humana encontrou significado novo e definitivo. Assim, verdadeiramente, rezar pela vida nascente, no contexto das Primeiras Vésperas do início ano litúrgico, resulta significativo e providencial.
 |
1. La situazione nel post-Concilio
La più antica prassi di distribuzione della Comunione è stata, con tutta probabilità, quella di dare la Comunione ai fedeli sul palmo della mano. La storia della liturgia evidenzia, tuttavia, anche il processo, iniziato abbastanza presto, di trasformazione di tale prassi. Sin dall’epoca dei Padri, nasce e si consolida una tendenza a restringere sempre più la distribuzione della Comunione sulla mano e a favorire quella sulla lingua. Il motivo di questa preferenza è duplice: da una parte, evitare al massimo la dispersione dei frammenti eucaristici; dall’altra, favorire la crescita della devozione dei fedeli verso la presenza reale di Cristo nel sacramento.
