West Suburban Catholic Culture Series on "The Liturgy"
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In 1918, the German priest Romano Guardini lamented that “the lack of fruitful and lofty culture causes spiritual life to grow numbed and narrow.” The remedy was that “prayer must be simple, wholesome, and powerful,” while also being “rich in ideas and powerful images, and speak a developed but restrained language.” Guardini concluded that this “is precisely the way in which the prayer of the liturgy has been formed.”
The events of recent months have made us acutely aware of what we lose when the Church’s rites, ceremonies, and corporate worship (the liturgy) are taken from us. Guardini wrote The Spirit of the Liturgy as the First World War ravaged Europe in order to remind his readers how the Church’s worship meets the deep, complex and paradoxical yearnings of man, centers a people in the Lord, and gives them new language and insight into the central mysteries of the faith. He called the liturgy “nothing else but truth expressed in terms of prayer.” Perhaps we could use a similar reminder now.
Resuming in March 2021, the Lumen Christi Institute will host a monthly series on the Liturgy at the Ruth Lake Country Club in Hinsdale. Topics for the spring include liturgical music, the theology of sacred vestments, and the Liturgy of the Hours. Heavy hors d'oeuvres and drinks will be served before a lecture and Q&A.
SPRING SEMESTER SCHEDULE
Wednesday, March 10
Liturgical Music with Fr. Peter Funk (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
Wednesday, April 21
The Liturgy of Sacred Vestments with Br. Mark Visconti (St. John Cantius)
Wednesday, May 12
Liturgy of the Hours with Abbot Austin Murphy (St. Procopius Abbey)
FALL SEMESTER SCHEDULE
September 24
Guardini’s The Spirit of the Liturgy with Christopher Carstens
October 14
Post-Vatican II Reform and Benedict XVI’s Reform with Kevin Magas
November 11
Sacred Architecture with Denis McNamara
