The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article is a brief summary of “Vom Geist der Liturgie” – the most significant book of the liturgical movement in Germany written by a priest, theologian and philosopher Romano Guardini. The article presents a history of the text, its key ideas, composition and style. While writing a book, which at first was addressed to the educated priests and laity from the circle of Maria Laach’ abbot Ildefons Herwegen, the author sought to describe liturgy not as a set of regulations but rather as of an objective form of prayer coming from the source of Christian tradition, thus encouraging the readers to the conscious participation in the liturgical prayer. In the concluding part it is argued that the questions raised in Guardini’s book are still important: anthropological crisis, awakening of spiritual experience, liturgical education, capability of a modern man to perform a liturgical act.