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AuthorDietrich von Hildebrand BookLiturgy and Personality
With his work Liturgy and Personality (1933), Dietrich von Hildebrand a philosopher of the phenomenological current who converted to Catholicism in the last century, offers an acute reflection on how the liturgy is capable of forming the heart of the Christian. A formation that makes him capable of enriching his moral life, with a serene approach, neither rigorist nor lax.
Through concrete examples-especially of the Eucharist, the Liturgy of the Hours and the Liturgical Year-the author helps us to understand the liturgical language and the spiritual atmosphere it creates, thus facilitating in the reader a prayerful and conscious participation in the celebrations. Although Hildebrand has other works of enormous interest for the formation of the affective [1]. and spiritual life [2] that complement it, we find here some interesting analyses.
As a guide for the reading, I would like to highlight the first two chapters that explain the two terms of the title: the liturgy and its capacity to praise God (chapter 1) and the personality understood as the "classical man" who has spiritual sensitivity and is called to be a "saint" (chapter 2).
The argument of the book begins to be intuited: how is the inner transformation of the individual who lives from the spirit objectified in the liturgy. It is not a new theme, but Hildebrand puts it in a simple language that can be understood by the man of today. And he does so by connecting well the human and spiritual promotion of the person, and the relationship between worshipping God and attaining one's own sanctification.
The edition we use is somewhat old [3].In 2013, the Centro de Pastoral Litúrgica (Barcelona) has partially published this work in its collection Phase Notebooks. There we find the eight long sections that make up the third chapter, which is entitled: Essential features of liturgy and fundamental attitudes of the personality. Of all its pages we encourage the reader to pay attention to two in particular: The spirit of respect y The spirit of "vigilance" in the liturgy.
NOTES: [1] The heartPalabra, Madrid 1996. [2] Our transformation in ChristEncuentro, Madrid 1996. [3] D. v. Hildebrand, Liturgy and PersonalityFax, Madrid 1966.
