Central mural in the triumphal arch above the apse of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westerville, OH by EverGreene Architectural Arts. (photo by Meleca Architecture)
A handful of friends and colleagues have requested a very basic survey of concepts on Catholic worship and liturgical catechesis – that is, teaching on liturgy. I find the progression in the following outline very helpful when explaining what liturgy is and why it’s important in the big picture of the Catholic faith, as well as how each of the details of what we see and do in worship relates to that belief. For a wonderful video clip series outlining these concepts in a slightly different format:Elements of the Catholic Mass. The majority of the content below can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), “Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,” in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), and in Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) (SC). All of these writings are well worth the read.
WHAT IS WORSHIP
“Worship is the rendering to God what is owed God by intelligent beings” (Virgil Michel, OSB). Human beings are made for love and communion with God. “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength” (CCC 1). Because we know that the greatest act of love is a sacrifice – to lay down one’s life (John 15:13) – in worship we offer a sacrifice of praise and give everything we have to God. Worship can be both public (liturgy) and private (devotional, both individual and communal). Both are integral to a healthy and vibrant spiritual life.
WHAT IS LITURGY
Liturgy is public worship – the work of Christ and that of the Church, the Body of Christ. By virtue of our participation in Christ’s work as members of the Body, we also participate in the divine life of the Trinity, an eternal exchange of love between the Father and Son that is the Holy Spirit. This action – liturgical participation – is our right and duty by baptism (SC 14). As with any sacrament, the action or “doing” is all God’s, but as a good parent, he invites us to join in it, both as the worship for which we are made and for the sanctification of the world. Liturgy is an “action” of the whole Christ” (CCC 1136).
PARTICIPATION IN THE DIVINE LIFE OF THE TRINITY
The Trinity is a constant dialogue of love between three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Citing the Compendium to the CCC which draws on the writings of Augustine, Archbishop William Lori writes that “the living, eternal bond of love between the Father and Son is the Person of the Holy Spirit.” Through the liturgy, we enter the Trinitarian dialogue by sharing in the Paschal mystery of Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father. This is possible because of our being grafted onto Christ by means of his mystical Body. In turn, Christ presents his Body (of which we are a part) to the Father in sacrifice on our behalf. It is through sharing in Christ’s sacrifice to the Father that we participate in the divine life of the Trinity. God’s intention for us is that we become divinized – namely, that we participate in the divine life of God and in so doing are made holy like him: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity” (Roman Missal).
THE MYSTERY OF FAITH
What exactly is the mystery? During the Mass, we profess what we call the Mystery of Faith. In three different forms, we describe the saving action of God through our participation in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, made present in the eucharistic meal. This is our memorial, our observance of his command, and also our making present of the events that followed his last supper. The Holy Spirit makes Christ’s one true sacrifice of Calvary present at every liturgy. Christ is the head – represented in the priest– we are body, and we always present our worship to the Father. TO the Father, IN the Son, THROUGH the Holy Spirit. This is the proper orientation of our liturgical prayer and action.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
PRAY the Mass. Be mindful that every action is part of worship. Sing along when appropriate, listen attentively to the readings and homily (if not read and prepare before Mass), pray along earnestly with the prayers, maintain an engaged and reverent posture. Particularly during the Sorsum Cordiae (“lift up your hearts”) and the Doxology (“through him, with him, in him”), these are crucial moments the faithful are being invited to join our individual and collective sacrifices to that of Christ to present perfectly to the Father. While the eucharist is indeed a heavenly banquet that is a foretaste of the eternal banquet, it is first and foremost Christ’s sacrifice and in turn, that of his Body the Church. Our ritual observance of this sacrifice as a Church demands our attention and participation as individual baptized members of the Body.
GRACE
While we are all members of the Body of Christ in the liturgy, the extent to which we are conformed to his image – the extent to which the liturgy transforms us – depends on our choice to engage and cooperate with God’s grace or tune out. The same power of the Holy Spirit that is responsible for the mystery of each Sacrament – in the Eucharist it is the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and this sacrifice being offered eternally to the Father on our behalf – is the power we are given when we participate in and receive the sacraments that gives us grace in our lives. The post-communion prayer explains the expected fruit of the mystery that is celebrated (GIRM 89). When we pray the Mass, we cooperate with God’s grace, which in turn has an effect on us.
CONVERSION
The effects of grace from the liturgy bring about conversion. Benedict XVI in Sacramentum Caritas explains that authentic liturgical participation presumes conversion from sin. This is why the Church asks of her faithful that they be absolved of mortal sin prior to approaching the altar. The conversion to know the Christ we seek in the breaking of the bread is the transformation that is required for the liturgy to be effective in our lives. Without appreciating the mystery of our sharing in Christ’s sacrifice through the liturgy, it is very difficult to expect fruit to come from our participation. We are called toconstant conversion. If we are not getting anything out of Mass, this might be why – preparation is crucial. First be reconciled… (SC 55) The goal is for the liturgy to give life to the Christian mission.
MISSION
“In the New Testament the word ‘liturgy’ refers not only to the celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and to active charity” (CCC 1069).
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Isn’t all of this in the catechism? It seems so easy to look up nowadays….I am not quite sure of the point of these kind of posts. They seem more like research papers than reflections about faith.
I have been reading ACNM for several years but I am not sure what this site’s purpose is anymore. I really have valued it over the years so I really am more sad than anything. I don’t know you Michael, and I see that you wrote this per request from several people. You write well and clearly and maybe this is what people want nowadays.
God bless and have a great Christmas.
Mark, thanks so much for your feedback. I appreciate your kind words and I’m sorry to hear you didn’t find the post helpful. To answer your question, yes – as stated in the intro, much of the content is indeed found in the Catechism, as well as the other documents that inform it. Unfortunately most of us have not read the CCC cover to cover, and it is sometimes helpful to summarize a teaching and distill the core concepts in a more accessible way.
Kudos to you if this is all old news – that’s wonderful! (I think you may be pretty far ahead of most of us in understanding what Vatican II was all about!) Many people in the pews have not thought about the Mass in this way. While the post is certainly intended to be theological in focus, it is no less personal to me as someone who is working to allow these ideas to permeate our liturgy, music, art, and architecture – as the CCC and the other documents encourage.
I will let the ACNM staff speak to their own goals for the site, but I certainly hope there is a place for teachings (paraphrased, represented, summarized, etc.) to be presented alongside opinion pieces, particularly because many do find them helpful, but also because it’s easy to pass over them in the future if you don’t find them especially new, interesting, or helpful. God bless!
Michael, thank you for your kind response. You actually answered several of my questions here. I am 56, and at this age I don’t think of myself as either “intellectual” or “feeling oriented”. For me, the two are complimentary and needed. But that is at 56. When I was a young man, I wasn’t at all open to the “feelings” stuff nor was it encouraged at all. Men didn’t do that.
I am a therapist in Austin, and my concern is there is starting to be another “generation” gap between young people and older folks like me. Young Catholics sometimes have witness their parents “falling away” or becoming quite “liberal” in their believes. It is only understandable that the younger generation is responding to that, and sometimes reacting to that.
I hope that a fruitful dialogue can take place between younger and older Catholic men and women than can take into account different experiences.
My concern about this site is that it is increasingly geared toward younger Catholics but is sort of not saying that clearly. To be honest, as a male, I don’t see the Catholic Church heading in a “too feely” direction at all….In fact, I still think it is quite intellectual, especially compared to Evangelical denominations. But that is just from my limited perspective (I do see a lot of Catholic clients in my practice though).
Some of the discussion I read (not just on this site), have a tendency towards giving the message that young Catholics are “straightening out” the Church. Or that young males and females don’t change in the course of their lifetime. Not in belief, but in outlook. I think that is great, I really do. But as a person who has made all too many mistakes and for the grace of God has learned from some of them, keep in mind that for older Christians the changes that were made back in the day could seem like the same breath of fresh air. It was a really, really different time. Really different.
We all can learn from each other.
Thanks, Michael. God bless you, too.
Mark, thanks! Your perspective is an important one. Those of us who are younger (whatever that cutoff might be) do indeed have a tendency to think we are fixing the Church when many times we are just pulling the pendulum back the other way. You make an important point that we change as time marches on, as does the Church. Balance is so important, so voices such as yours need to be represented to remind us of what things were like before we were around. Thanks for sharing!
Regarding the emotion comments to Lindsay’s post… I personally don’t think that the Church is heading in that direction; I think we are still pulling back from it in many ways. But I don’t disagree at all with your statement that in certain ways we are still very intellectual. I also agree that we desperately need both. In any case, the generalizations really are a matter of what we are talking about and where our respective experiences lie. I spend a lot of my time with youth ministries and building committees, so that certainly colors my impressions! This is a small percentage of the active life of the Church. Great dialogue!