AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL AUGUSTIN CARDINAL MAYER, O. S. B. FR. ZUHLSDORF: There is great confusion now about the meaning of "active participation," isn't there? CARDINAL MAYER: I think that arose afterwards from the misunderstandings of the council. Active participation was almost exclusively misunderstood to be singing, speaking, making gestures, and so forth, as well as the distribution of different offices. But it was nearly forgotten that the most necessary active participation is the interior answer to what Our Lord does, what He gives in His Word, and particularly what He gives in rendering present His life-giving paschal mystery and then in our participating interiorly in this mystery. This is the most needed and most active participation.

FR. ZUHLSDORF:  
Would you explain the intention, aspirations, and "spirit," if you will, of 
the council fathers behind the liturgical reform? Does Your Eminence think 
that the council fathers' intentions are well reflected in Sacrosanctum 
Concilium? Where might they diverge?  
 
CARDINAL MAYER:  
The council started with the reform of the sacred liturgy, certainly out of 
interior reasons, since the liturgy belongs to the heart of the Christian 
faith. Moreover, the schema elaborated by the competent preparatory 
commission had attained to a certain maturity, which was without a doubt 
due in considerable measure to the liturgical movement that from the 
beginning of the century had tried to revive the great liturgical tradition 
of the Latin Church. It had, so to say, rediscovered the liturgical year 
and the spiritual treasures contained in the liturgical books, and had 
tried to involve more actively the faithful. There was considerable 
activity, you know, at the Benedictine monasteries of Maria Laach and 
Solesmes and Beuron. Pius Parsch had given us books on the liturgy and 
liturgical year. The Holy Father, Pius XII, had given us the encyclical 
Mediator Dei and had begun a reformation of the liturgical books for the 
Easter vigil and the triduum. It has been over ninety years since Pius X's 
Tra le sollicitudini of November 2, 1903. All of this work has to be 
considered when thinking of the "intentions" of the fathers.  READ MORE...