"Nihil Operi Dei praeponatur": Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI New Preface on Liturgy

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"The renewal of the liturgy is the foundation for the renewal of the Church"

Preface, Nihil operi dei praeponatur of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, to the Russian edition of Volume XI of the "Opera Omnia", published by the publishing house of the Patriarch of Moscow.

Nothing should be put before divine Worship. With these world Saint Benedict, in his Rule (43:3), establishes the absolute priority of divine Worship with regard to every other task of monastic life. Even in the monastic life this was not to be presumed because agricultural and scientific work were also essential for the monks.  In agriculture, in guilds or in formation there might be temporal emergencies which might seem more important than the liturgy. In the face of all of this Benedict, with the priority given to the liturgy, emphasizes the priority of God himself in our life: "As soon as the signal for the Divine Office has been heard, let them abandon what they have in hand and assemble with the greatest speed." (43:1). LaStampa.it

BENEDICT XVI

In the mind of men today, the things of God, including the liturgy, do not appear urgent at all. There is urgency for every possible thing. God's thing does not seem urgent. Now, it could be said that the monastic life is, in any case, something different from the life of men in the world, and that is right of course. Nevertheless, the priority of God which we have forgotten, applies to all. If God is no longer important, the criteria to establish what is important are removed. Man, putting God to the side, subjects himself to demands which make him a slave to material forces and which are thus opposed to his dignity. 

In the years following the Second Vatican Council I again became conscious of the priority of God and of the divine liturgy. The widespread misunderstanding of the liturgical reform in the Catholic Church led to the placing of instruction and of one's own activity and creativity ever more in first place. The doing of men rendered the presence of God almost forgotten. In such a circumstance it becomes always more clear that the existence of the Church lives from the right celebration of the liturgy and that the Church is in danger when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy and therefore in life.

The deepest cause of the crisis which has upset the Church consists in the darkening of the priority of God in the liturgy. All of this led me to dedicate myself to the theme of the liturgy more than the past because I know that the true renewal of the liturgy is a fundamental condition for the renewal of the Chruch. The studies which are collected in the present volume 11 of the Opera omnia were born on the basis of this conviction. But, at bottom, even with all the differences, the essence of the liturgy in East and West is one and the same. And thus I hope that this book may also help the Christians of Russia to understand, in a new and better way, the great gift which is given us in the Holy Liturgy.

Vatican City, on the Feast of Saint Benedict, 11 July 2015 (plinthos translation from Pierluca Azzaro Italian version of Libreria Editrice Vaticana)