Liturgical Preludes

By Luis M. Martínez The liturgical year and the individual sanctification of each Catholic are intimately connected. As Archbishop Luis M. Martínez writes, “The liturgical year is a mystical reproduction of the life of Jesus and a type of the interior life of souls.” This is not some lofty ideal or poetic fancy; it is a summary of the power and purpose of the sacred liturgy as the school of the spiritual life; the glorification of Christ; and the prelude to beatitude in God’s heavenly kingdom. In Liturgical Preludes, Martínez offers a series of reflections on the ecclesiastical year, based on solid dogma, Scripture, and the lives and writings of saints. Moving season by season through the Church calendar, Martínez meditates on purity, the power which lifts the soul from the earthly and into the heavenly (“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”), and on particular features of the seasons and feasts, such as “The Mystery of Weakness” at Christmas; “Sorrow and Joy” in Lent and “Alleluia” at Easter; and “Sources of Joy” at Pentecost. The liturgical year, devotedly fostered and accompanied by the Church, is not a cold and lifeless representation of the events of the past, or a simple and bare record of a former age. It is Christ Himself who is ever living in His Church. (Pope Pius XII) Like Martínez’s other works, Liturgical Preludes exemplifies the Thomistic maxim “to contemplate and give to others the fruit of that contemplation,” proving the deep union between the contemplative and active lives of man, which find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, to whom belongs glory in the Church.    Luis M. Martínez (1881–1956) was Archbishop of Mexico City and a distinguished poet and scholar. In 1951, he was named the first official Primate of Mexico. In addition to Liturgical Preludes, his works in English include Only Jesus, The Priest: Mystery of Love, and Secrets of the Interior Life—all available from Cluny. * * * Paperback: 198pp. ISBN: 978-1685954178