Liturgy and Personality

Review ------ Scott Hahn – Founder and President of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, Professor of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and author of forty books. “Dietrich von Hildebrand spent a life rich in wonder, and he invites us here to marvel with him as he considers the ways that liturgy shapes us as persons. Liturgy is our key to understanding God, ourselves, and the whole world. It uniquely prepares us to approach life with a workable hierarchy of values — true to creation because it is true to the Creator. Liturgy makes us fully human, reconciled with the past and with eternity. Liturgy leads us to our true selves. Here is truth and wisdom, profound and practical.” Peter Kreeft – Proessor of Philosophy at Boston College and The King's College, and author of numerous books as well as a popular writer of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics. "This is a life-changing book. It shows, in totally convincing ways, the incomparable power of the Catholic liturgy to form our personalities into those of saints--which is the whole meaning of life--and with a minimum of struggle and a maximum of joy on our part to boot. Reading this book inevitably elicits the ‘value response’ von Hildebrand speaks of more than almost any other, viz. gratitude--gratitude as a thinking as well as a feeling. (Thinking and thanking are as interpenetratingly close to each other as Adam and Eve.) As the liturgy thanks and praises God and von Hildebrand thanks and praises the liturgy, we thank and praise von Hildebrand for this tremendous gift." Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) From the Author --------------- There is a widespread idea that the Liturgy is less affective, less personal than other forms of devotion because of its essentially communal character as prayer. That idea is the contrary of the truth. The Liturgy embodies, rather, the most intense, true affectivity, and is the most personal of prayers, for it is the prayer of the perfect person, the God-man, Jesus Christ. So far is it, indeed, from any impersonal aloofness that it embraces, in fact, all the heights and depths of human life. It is in the Liturgy that man discovers his true metaphysical status and stature, and his ultimate end: he discovers all the elements of our fallen nature, its need of redemption, and the supernatural reality of grace. - Dietrich von Hildebrand | From the Preface Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) About the Author ---------------- Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977) was a seminal philosopher known for his works in ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, and philosophy of religion. He was one of Europe's most outspoken voices against Nazism and Communism. A convert to Catholicism, he had a profound impact on the thought and life of the Church in the twentieth century. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )

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