Call for Assistance from NLM Readers: Benedict on the Liturgy, on Beauty, Etc.

Recently an idea came into my mind that it would be very useful to gather together a running collection of Pope Benedict XVI's comments and teachings on:


a) the sacred liturgy (Mass and the Divine Office)
b) sacred music
c) sacred arts
d) sacred architecture
e) beauty
f) continuity vs. rupture

Such a collection could thereby be more readily used by pastors in their bulletins, by writers in their writing, catechists for catechizing, and generally for information as it pertains to these subjects.

Of course, we have given a number of these quotes ourselves over the years, and they have also appeared within the writings of many others as well. That said, to my knowledge there is no readily accessible archive of Benedict's quotations on these topics.

Now rather than spend the time collecting these together on my own, I thought I would put a call out to our readers to ask for your help in this regard.

To that end I would ask that readers submit such quotes using one of the following three means:

a) write them in the combox of this post
b) write them in a facebook message
c) email them to me

Format: Give the relevant quotation(s), including the source and date if applicable.

For example:

"Our earthly liturgies, entirely ordered to the celebration of this unique act within history, will never fully express its infinite meaning. Certainly, the beauty of our celebrations can never be sufficiently cultivated, fostered and refined, for nothing can be too beautiful for God, Who is Himself infinite Beauty. Yet our earthly liturgies will never be more than a pale reflection of the liturgy celebrated in the Jerusalem on high, the goal of our pilgrimage on earth. May our own celebrations nonetheless resemble that liturgy as closely as possible and grant us a foretaste of it!" (Benedict XVI to priests at Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, September 13, 2008)

Err on the side of giving more of the quotation than less.