Liturgy and Personality: The Healing Power of Formal Prayer

Rating:
Summary: Paradox in Prayer
Review: It might seem that "formal" prayer would result in a stifling intellectualism that could not really bring about a radical healing and wholeness to the human person, or would neglect the dimension of the healing of emotions. Hildebrand, philosopher-theologian extraordinaire, author of Transformation in Christ, The New Tower of Babel, The Art of Living, In Defense of Purity, The Heart: Source of Christian Affectivity, etcetera, leads the reader into the art of ancient worship in the Liturgy, and into the Heart of God where He can transform one's heart unto a willingness and conformity to the will of God, unto a knowing of oneself via relationship with God, and toward a joy linked to the Beatific vision. The man whose prayer life is "formal" is drawn by God through the prayer of the Church, and could only come to be softened and changed at his center, to desire the Gospel life, to gain a new personalized compassion for all the people of God, whose transformed heart makes him a new creation in Christ; the worshipper unfamiliar with "formal" prayer, through learning to be in conformity with the Church, will enter and experience the deepest awe and reverence of the Sacrifice of the Mass as the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and come to experience the very holiness of God.