Liturgical Aesthetics

Romano Guardini and the beauty of the liturgy

When you think of the liturgy, you probably don't instantly think of it as art. Sure, the liturgy is reverent and perhaps contains pieces of art such as the music or the Scripture, but is the liturgy itself art? I think Romano Guardini in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy would argue that it is. And the liturgy is not just a form of art among other forms of art, but rather, he goes as far as to imply that the liturgy is the fullness of art.

Guardini states that the goal of art is to bring into harmony the body and the soul and that the liturgy does just this in the most efficacious way through the act of worship. The liturgy does this through both the movement and symbolism (play and material objects) and the prayers and style (the seriousness of salvation).

The Body, Play, and Material Objects

To bring the body into harmony with God's design, the liturgy uses material things, namely objects and movement. The church building that orients one to worship is an environment that is meant to evoke reverence. Everything about it points you to something beyond. Think of light filtering through stained glass windows, the smell of incense and burning wax, candles lit, flames wavering in the breeze, the crucifix, the altar, the sound of a choir singing a hymn, the majestic blaring organ, a priest in brightly colored vestments. All of these very material experiences evoke a certain atmosphere, an environment that predisposes you to prayer and contemplation.

Guardini states that all of this is an act of divine play. Just as children use objects to create the environment they mean to evoke when they play pretend (I think of my siblings and I building elaborate cities out of our toys to create other worlds, or changing costume when playing dress-up), so we in the liturgy use objects to create the environment we envision. If you can't see the connection to art just yet, think instead of elaborate stage design and costumes used in plays, musicals, and ballets. Both the theater and children's play make present (albeit in a very dim way) the environment they envision. The liturgy does this in reality. The environment of prayer is present. At the consecration, Heaven really is present in a way no stage dressing can possibly evoke.

Another way the body is brought into harmony with the soul is through movement. Movement, both Gadamer and Guardini argue is a type of play. Movement and expression are linked, just think of dance or children running and playing just because they can. We also move in the liturgy- standing, kneeling, sitting, offering peace and greeting, walking up to receive communion, folding our hands, bowing our heads, and so on. This movement engages the body and brings it into this act of prayer.

The Soul and The Seriousness of Prayer

The soul also needs to come into harmony with the body. The environment evokes a sense of prayer and serious play because the liturgy is not simply aimless movement. It is concerned with the extremely serious subject of salvation. To that end, we pray together during the liturgy in such a way that all are able to enter into it. The prayers and movements, according to Guardini, are solemn and sober so that all people, regardless of time, place, state in life, or state of soul can enter into them. The liturgy is accessible enough so that someone unfamiliar with it can enter into it yet, deep enough that someone who is extremely familiar with it will find some new thing to contemplate each time they enter into it. If it were not open to all in this way, salvation would be exclusive instead of catholic (for all)!

This too, has to do with art. The Scriptures, the texts for the liturgy, are themselves beautiful expressions of humanity's encounter with God (think of the Psalms or St. John's prologue) in addition to being the Sacred and inspired Word of God (Revelation itself, the nearness of God with us as Goizueta describes is beautiful because it is love). The prayers of the liturgy are also aesthetic in this way because they voice the people's needs before the Lord in a thoughtful way, the same kind of thought that is required to produce good art (like in Maritain, the appropriateness for the piece in its particular situation). When you put all of these elements together, the soul and body work together and the person participates in this great act of worship that truly brings about this unity.

Liturgy as the Fullness of Art

Through this two-fold appeal, the liturgy concretely brings about the harmony of body and soul that art strives for. Guardini says that man looks at himself and sees a disparity between the person he wants to be and the person he is. One expression of this is through art. In the act of artistic creation, a person creates out of material that which is inside him. His art is either a physical representation of himself as he is or himself as he wishes to be, the actuality and the ideal. But art cannot fully reconcile the two. It can only go part of the way. That is where the liturgy comes in. Through the playfulness of material objects, environment, and movement, and the seriousness of prayer and the mystery of salvation, the liturgy actually gives man the grace to reconcile the actual and the ideal. The liturgy actually makes us Children of God. Why? Because it is ultimately God's work for us, God's work of shaping us into the masterpieces He made us to be. In the liturgy God is truly present.