Pope Benedict XVI on the Liturgy: What Cardinal Ratzinger Taught About the Mass

Long before he became pope, Joseph Ratzinger was writing about worship with rare depth. For him, the way we pray at Mass was never a matter of taste. It shapes what we believe and who we become.

A Theologian of Worship

Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl, Bavaria. As a young priest and professor he was an adviser at the Second Vatican Council. He later became Archbishop of Munich, then for over twenty years Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was elected pope in 2005, resigned in 2013, and died on December 31, 2022.

He loved the liturgy all his life. In his memoirs he recalled the feast days of his Bavarian childhood, and he returned again and again to the question of what true worship is.

The Spirit of the Liturgy

His best-known book on the subject, The Spirit of the Liturgy (2000), takes its title from a famous work by Romano Guardini. Some of its main ideas:

• Worship is God’s work before it is ours. The liturgy is not something we invent or design. It is received, and through it we are joined to Christ’s own offering to the Father.
• Direction matters. For centuries, priest and people faced east together, toward the rising sun as a sign of the risen Christ. Ratzinger argued that this common direction expresses that the Mass is turned toward God, not closed in on itself. Where turning the altar was not practical, he suggested placing a crucifix at its center so that all could look to the Lord.
• Beauty is not a luxury. Music, art and architecture can lift the heart to God. He wrote warmly of Gregorian chant and of great sacred music.
• Silence and kneeling belong to prayer. He defended kneeling as a deeply biblical gesture of adoration.

Reform in Continuity

In a much-quoted address to the Roman Curia on December 22, 2005, Pope Benedict described two ways of interpreting the Second Vatican Council. One was a “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture,” which treats the Council as a break with the past. The other was a “hermeneutic of reform,” which renews the Church while preserving her identity. He believed that the second was the true path, for the liturgy as for everything else.

Summorum Pontificum

On July 7, 2007, he published Summorum Pontificum, allowing wide use of the 1962 Roman Missal as an “extraordinary form” of the one Roman Rite. In his accompanying letter to the bishops, he wrote that what earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and that it cannot suddenly be entirely forbidden or considered harmful.

He hoped that the two forms would enrich each other: that the older form would gain new saints and prefaces, and that the newer form would be celebrated with greater reverence. Pope Francis changed these rules in 2021, as explained in our guide to the Traditional Latin Mass.

The Art of Celebrating

In Sacramentum Caritatis (2007), Benedict XVI wrote about the ars celebrandi, the art of celebrating the liturgy well. Faithful observance of the liturgical books, attention to beauty, and an atmosphere of prayer, he said, are the best way to help the faithful take part fully. At his own papal Masses he restored the crucifix to the center of the altar and offered Holy Communion to the faithful kneeling, on the tongue.

A Prayer for Reverent Worship (Original Prayer)

Lord, teach me to worship You in spirit and truth. Give me a love for the beauty of Your house, a quiet heart at Mass, and eyes turned always toward You. Amen.

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Read about the Council document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, the history of the Catholic Mass, or our guide to the popes.