Louis Bouyer on the Liturgy

Louis Bouyer was a founder of the modern Liturgical Movement, and was summarily booted from the group because he did not agree with the, ah, wackos who had taken over the asylum.

Some excerpts from his last book are being translated and posted by Cosmos-Liturgy.

Here's a bite:

“There is no opposition therefore,” Bouyer tells us, “between this interiority – of which the most Catholic mystics such as Saint John of the Cross have emphasized not only the importance but the necessity for all authentic religious life and cult of God – and the expression of the realization of the cult in a liturgical tradition where the cosmos itself is utilized in order to proclaim the praise of God and to serve at the same time as the organ of communication between all men in order that they be a single heart and a single soul in gratitude and praise of God”

..which tends to re-inforce the language in this post, which is controversial to good Billiam (who left RC for another...)

Bouyer happens to have gone the other way: from Lutheranism to Catholicism. Cosmos-Liturgy comments:

Interestingly, Bouyer does not deny his Protestant influence. Nor does he deny the true insight of Protestantism – its emphasis on interiority and individual personality. Yet, as we shall see in future posts, Bouyer strongly opposed the liturgical reforms that took place after the Council. This is perhaps at first sight contradictory because it is a standard refrain among those who reject post-Conciliar liturgical reforms that they are essentially “Protestant.” That Bouyer did not reject outright his Protestant heritage would no doubt lead some to see him as part of the problem rather than the solution. Bouyer, as we have seen, argues that the a-cosmic and a-social dimension of Protestantism is harmful to an integral understanding of man, the liturgical subject. But the positive emphasis on the individual spiritual dimension that Protestantism inculcates is an undisputed good, in his opinion. After all, the faith must become the individual’s own possession, even though it must be at the same time shared and lived communally.

More to follow from B's book. We look forward to it.