Blog 3
Playful, Symbolic, and Festive Liturgy
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gertrude the Great of Helfta, and Romano Guardini offer valuable insight into Christian worship and how elements of the liturgy are playful, symbolic, and festive.
Guardini builds off of Gadamer’s definitions of playful, symbolic, and festive in The Spirit of the Liturgy. Guardini describes playfulness as a separation from utilitarian, practical ends that still has its own greater purpose. The Catholic liturgy is playful, as it does not so much intend for a participant to “edify himself [or herself] as to contemplate God’s majesty” (Guardini, Spirit, 67). To Guardini, to be a symbol is “to originate when that which is interior and spiritual finds expression in that which is exterior ad material” (Guardini, Spirit, 57). Symbols are a physical manifestation of higher, contemplative concepts. Gadamer’s definition of festivity is applicable to Guardini’s work, as he details that to be festive is to be “not subject to the abstract calculation of temporal duration,” but to focus solely on connecting with God (Gadamer, 41). Guardini focuses on the festive elements of liturgy in that liturgy must not be rushed; it is “profoundly real and serious,” focusing on “the approach of a real creature to a real God” (Guardini, Spirit, 83). A festive liturgy does not act as an escape from the real world but allows one to be reverent and thoughtful in approaching God, fully present in the moment.
Cyril discusses playfulness in the liturgy, specifically in the mystagogy of the church. In On the Prebaptismal Rites, Cyril explains the origins behind the seemingly unimportant movement in baptism. A catechumen begins by facing the West, which to outsiders may seem insignificant. However, the mystagogy teaches that the West biblically represents darkness and Satan, so in reaching out their hand, the catechumen renounces Satan (Cyril, 87). Additionally, the immersion in the baptismal pool seems to be a childlike ritual but has meaning beyond any utilitarian end. Just as the army of pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea, so too will Satan “disappear in the saving waters” (Cyril, 87). In the context of the mystagogy of the Church, the playful movements in Baptism have serious intention and purpose.
Gertrude the Great of Hefta considers the festive quality of the liturgy and the patient approach to Christ through the sacraments in The Herald of Divine Love. Gertrude contemplates her interactions with Christ in the liturgy, specifically in festive worship. Gertrude writes of a moment when singing Gaude et laetare where she received “the sweetest kiss” from Christ (Hefta, 175). The abstract passage of time during the song did not bother or interfere with her interaction with God, she perfectly received the love and blessings of God. Gerturde also experienced Christ in a revelation during the Eucharist. In the moment after receiving the body of Christ through sacrament, she felt her soul was like a “tree fixing its roots in the wound of the side of Jesus Christ,” and worshiping the life of Jesus through the fruits and branches of her tree (Hefta, 175). Gertrude the Great’s revelations happen in festive worship of Christ during the liturgy and are a testament to the meaning of liturgy to those with an attuned heart.
In Sacred Signs, Guardini examines symbolism through bells, the altar, and the chalice and their role in the liturgy. He describes bells as a symbol for the presence of God in the unenclosed space outside of Church (Guardini, Sacred, 49). Bells remind one of the “world’s immensity and man’s still more immeasurable desires, and that only in the infinite God can we find our peace” (Guardini, Sacred, 50). Additionally, the altar has symbolic meaning as a representation of the “central calm and strength” that lies “in the still depths of man’s being” when a person sacrifices something to God (Guardini, Sacred, 41). To choose to come to Church and worship the Lord is to oppose the human impulses and temptations of Satan and to place the heart “open in the sight of God without proviso or reservation” (Guardini, Sacred, 41). Lastly, the chalice symbolizes the reception of Christ. The vessel “receives and guards in its dimly shining depths the divine drops of the gracious, fruitful blood, which is sheer fire, sheer love” (Guardini, Sacred, 43). Knowledge of the symbols of materials used in the liturgy enhances one’s experience of worship and pushes for a deeper entering into the contemplation of the liturgy and the experience of sacraments.
Works Consulted
- Cyril, and Maxwell E. Johnson. Lectures on the Christian Sacraments: the Procatechesis and the Five Mystagogical Catecheses Ascribed to St Cyril of Jerusalem. Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2017.
- Gadamer, Hans-Georg. The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002.
- Guardini, Romano, and Grace B. Branham. Sacred Signs. St. Louis: Pio Decimo Press, 1956.
- Guardini, Romano. The Spirit of the Liturgy. New York: Crossroad Pub., 1998.
- Helfta, Gertrudis de, and Margaret Winkworth. The Herald of Divine Love. New York: Paulist Press, 1993.
