How the Liturgy makes us into living works of art before God and others

Beautiful comment on the liturgy by Romano Guardini in The Spirit of the Liturgy:

“The practice of the liturgy means that by the help of grace, under the guidance of the Church, we grow into living works of art before God, with no other aim or purpose than that of living and existing in his sight. . . . .

“. . . it means fulfilling God’s Word and “becoming as little children”; it means foregoing maturity with all its purposefulness, and confining oneself to play, as David did when he danced before the Ark.  It may, of course, happen that those extremely clever people, who merely from being grown-up have lost all spiritual youth and spontaneity, will misunderstand this and jibe at it.  David probably had to face the derision of Michal.

It is in this very aspect of the liturgy that its didactic aim is to be found, that of teaching the soul not to see purposes everywhere, not to be too conscious of the end it wishes to attain, not to be desirous of being over-clever and grown-up, but to understand simplicity in life.  The soul must learn to abandon, at least in prayer, the restlessness of purposeful activity; it must learn to waste time for the sake of God, and to be prepared for the sacred game with sayings and thoughts and gestures, without always immediately asking “why?” and “wherefore?”  It must learn not to be continually yearning to do something, to attack something, to accomplish something useful, but to play the divinely ordained game of the liturgy in liberty and beauty and holy joy before God.”

Romano Guardini, cited in Christian Doctrine by Mike Higton, p.312

The Eucharist Table at Ely Cathedral