By: Jeff Rice, Pastoral Associate for Liturgy & Music

"Preparing Yourself for Mass" is a collection of thirty-two meditations prepared by Msgr. Romano Guardini, an influential teacher and writer in Germany in the mid 20th century. He composed these meditations in the 1930s to deliver to his parishioners just before Mass. In the one entitled "The Congregation and the Church," he writes:

Someday, perhaps on some special occasion, we will realize what walls of indifference, disregard, enmity loom between us and the other man, and before Mass or during the Introit we will make a real effort to break through them. We will remind ourselves: together we face God; together we are a congregation. Not only I and others in general, but this man, that woman over there, and the believer next to me. In God's sight they are all as important as I am - perhaps much more so: purer, braver, less selfish, nobler, more loving and fervent. Among these people whom I know only by their features, by their gestures, are perhaps great and holy souls with whom I am fortunate to find myself associated, because the surge of their prayers sweeps me along it to God! Then we will let the other believers into the inner circle of our lives, present ourselves to God with them, linking our intentions to their. We will consciously, earnestly pray the we of the Liturgy, for from such things congregation is formed.

Some make the claim that spending too much effort focused on those who gather alongside us when we come to Mass is distracting and takes our focus off of God. Guardini would disagree. Instead, he argues that we need to understand how "deeply immersed in self we are and - for all our talk of community - what thorough egoists." He suggests working to overcome our selfish tendencies when it comes to worship so that we can "see others as they really are: to acknowledge and accept them; to make their desires and anxieties our own; to restrain ourselves for their sakes..."

Two customs we have adopted here at St. Raphael are aimed to help us accomplish this, Prayer Partners and Name Tag Sunday (the latter of which we will hold again at Masses next weekend). These are NOT trivial ways for us to make us feel good or, as Guardini puts it, simply "the experience of self-extension." A church is not a social club, and in everything we do, we should be seeking a deeper purpose.

Rather, both Prayer Partners and Name Tag Sunday are attempts at first steps in helping us to remember and appreciate that the people around us are more than just their features and gestures, while giving us the opportunity to make another's burden our own.

So, if you're someone who loves Prayer Partners and Name Tag Sunday because it gives you the warm fuzzies inside, that is a fine thing, but challenge yourself to go deeper past just that desire to connect for a moment with another person, to really look to encounter God. And, if you're someone who might be uncomfortable with one or both of these customs, perhaps think about giving them another try with this larger purpose in mind.

Guardini goes even further in his meditation. He suggests that whichever congregation we are a part of in a particular place and time is but a small piece of the great congregation that is the church, which spans over location and time. He says, "Our task is to find our place in the enormous whole. This is not easy. Man has a tendency to spiritual intimacy and exclusiveness, which causes him to shrink from such magnitude and grandeur." When we gather together at St. Raphael for Mass, let us try to avoid letting our egos limit our focus on our own smallness, and instead work to see ourselves and those around us as part of God's marvelous plan.

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