The World's Benefactors - Raymond Mitchell

Raymond Mitchell, director of liturgy and Sunday experience at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Edina, Minnesota investigates Newman’s sermon, “The World’s Benefactors.” With Newman, Raymond sees that the beauty of the liturgy helps us rehearse for eternal life. It is in the liturgy where we find the living Christ; in the Eucharist, The Word, preaching, each other, music, and architecture. Newman uses St. Andrew to highlight that it is in the personal that we find and share Christ. Our purpose in the world is to share what we receive in the liturgy. Silence in liturgy appeals to Newman’s understanding that God speaks to us behind a veil. Part of what it means to be a human person is to rest in the silence of the invisible world. In the Psalms, with all its various forms, we identify ourselves as a people whose God desires to be in relationship with us. The Psalms and many of the books in the Bible are offered to us by unseen authors. Likewise, it is the unseen Author that shapes each of our lives. Raymond draws parallels with Romano Guardini in that the liturgy moves beyond performance and esthetics. Both Newman and Guardini call us back to a school of humility and hiddenness where we find God in the liturgy. We need to enter liturgy with a disposition of stillness in order to find our often-quiet God. Since our words come from within, they are an expression of heart and spirit. This expression needs to be intertwined into the fabric of our lives so that we orient our day to forms of worship. The world is sanctified and upheld by this hidden, life-giving worship.  Since the liturgy is where heaven and earth meet it is our goal to unveil the hidden realities of this meeting place. So, like St. Andrew, we are called to propagate the Kingdom of God by the hidden life of worship with in us.

To approach Newman's majestic thought it is highly recommended to download the formatted sermon at www.newmanontap.com. Comments and suggestions are appreciated on the same site.