Cardinal Ratzinger on Liturgy - 2

“For fostering a true consciousness in liturgical matters, it is also important that the proscription against the form of liturgy in valid use up to 1970 should be lifted. Anyone who nowadays advocates the continuing existence of this liturgy or takes part in it is treated like a leper; all tolerance ends here. There has never been anything like this in history; in doing this we are despising and proscribing the Church’s whole past. How can one trust her present if things are that way? I must say, quite openly, that I don’t understand why so any of my episcopal brethren have to a great extent submitted to this rule of intolerance, which for no apparent reason is opposed to making the necessary inner reconciliations within the Church.”

God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002, p. 416.

Prayers of St. Anthony of Padua to Our Lady

 

We beg you, our Lady and our hope, you, who are the star of the sea, illumine your children, engulfed in the turbulent sea of sin; guide us to the safe harbor of forgiveness, so we may successfully complete the journey of our life with your protection. With his help whom you carried in your womb, and nourished at your holy breasts. To him be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

We ask you, Our Lady, you who are called the morning star, dispel with your light the thick fog of allurements to evil which fills our souls. Like the light of the moon, replenish our emptiness, and dissipate the darkness of our sins, so that we may attain the fullness of eternal life and the light of never diminishing glory. With his help, who made you our light, and although born from you, gave you life. To him be honor and glory from age to age. Amen.

Our Lady, our only hope, we are asking you to illumine our souls with the brilliance of your grace, to cleanse us with the splendor of your purity, to cheer us with the warmth of your presence, and to reconcile us to your Son, that we may be worthy of his glory. With his help who assumed his glorious flesh from you and who wished to live in your womb for nine months. To him be honor and glory through all eternity. Amen.

Lady and Mother of God, your name is like a fortified tower in which every sinner finds refuge and salvation. O sweet name, a name which comforts sinners. O name of blessed hope. You, O Virgin, are in the recesses of the soul. Your name is like a shining light, like a sweet taste in the mouth, like a delightful song in the ears of your children. Amen.

O Mary, you are a throne in which is located the glory of the Father. On this throne Jesus Christ, true Wisdom, took his place, Glory Itself, greater than any of the angels, who lived on earth in our flesh. You, blessed Mary, became the seat of that Glory, Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and praise from age to age. Amen.

Benedict XVI on Charismatic Renewal

"Young ecclesial communities are a gift from God and their contributions should be valued and welcomed with trust.…The ecclesial communities which bloomed after the Second Vatican Council, are a unique gift of the Lord and a precious resource for the life of the Church.…The movements and new communities are like an inrush of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in contemporary society. One of the positive elements and aspects of the communities of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is precisely the importance given by them to the charisms and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and their merit lies in having reminded the Church of the actuality (of these gifts)."

Benedict XVI, on the occasion of the 13th international conference of the Catholic Fraternity of Covenant Charismatic Communities and Fellowships, October 2008).

Ratzinger on Silence in Liturgy

"We are realizing more and more clearly that silence is part of the liturgy. We respond, by singing and praying, to the God who addresses us, but the greater mystery, surpassing all words, summons us to silence. It must, of course, be a silence with content, not just the absence of speech and action. We should expect the liturgy to give us a positive stillness that will restore us. Such stillness will not be just a pause, in which a thousand thoughts and desires assault us, but a time of recollection, giving us an inward peace, allowing us to draw breath and rediscover the one thing necessary, which we have forgotten. That is why silence cannot be simply “made”, organized as if it were one activity among many. It is no accident that on all sides people are seeking techniques of meditation, a spirituality for emptying the mind. One of man’s deepest needs is making its presence felt, a need that is manifestly not being met in our present form of the liturgy. For silence to be fruitful, as we have already said, it must not be just a pause in the action of the liturgy. No, it must be an integral part of the liturgical event." 

Josef Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), p. 209.