WHAT IS LITURGY?
§ Liturgy is something we DESCRIBE not define.
§ Liturgy is a LIVING MYSTERY-- always more than we can say—cannot be fully understood—eludes definition;
VATICAN II describes rather than defines liturgy when it says “SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE” (CSL #10)
§ The Greek Word leitourgia, means the work of the people.
§ LITURGY IS ABOUT WHAT GOD ACCOMPLISHES IN ALL OFUS IN COMMUNION WITH EACH OTHER!
§ Liturgy is what the baptized and assembled people do on the Lord ’s Day!
§ Liturgy is Worship!
§ “The liturgy is not an extra” something nice that may give us good feelings;
IT IS OUR LIFE, OUR VERY SPIRIT.
§ “Liturgy is the source of our identity and renewal as church”
“Good liturgy makes us a people whose hearts are set on deeds of justice and giving witness to the truth, for feeding the hungry and visiting prisoners.
Liturgy i sour communion, our strength, our nourishment, our song, our peace, our reminder, our promise.
§ LITURGY IS FOR ME THE BEDROCK OF ALL MY PRAYER AND THE MEASURE OF ALL MY DEEDS” (Bernadine, p.4 Guide for the Assembly)
§ The more we worship the more we become the Christians we are called to be. “Be what you see. Become what you are” (Augustine-4-5th c.)
§ Liturgy is a symbol of what we are and it is calling us to be that Body of Christ more fully. LITURGY IS THE CHURCH DOING WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO TO BE CHURCH. The Body of Christi s proclaiming itself to be the Body of Christ.
§ SYMBOLS convey a message and are open to new meanings, and insights. Symbols transcend and make reality present.
§ RITUAL is the community’s experience of its belief. Ritual is the community’s familiar commonly accepted inherited pattern of interaction with others as that community stand before God. Ritual rehearses the story of the community’s origins and thus it helps us to know who we are. (Fleming p.23)
WHY DO WE CELEBRATE LITURGY?
§ “God does not need liturgy. People do. (EAW #4)
“It is not an option, nor merely an obligation, not a bonus but a need—like food and drink, like sleep and work, like friends. (Bernadine p.5 Guide for the Assembly)
§ WHETHER WE FEEL IT OR NOT; WHETHER WE FEEL LIKE IT OR NOT.
“It is NOT important that the liturgy makes us FEEL good—but it IS essential, that liturgy prepares us to DO good.” (Huck)
§ “God has done a lot for us and we are in debt to God up to our ears” (Fleming p.10)
§ We GO TO LITURGY BECAUSE IT IS A MEANS AND EXPRESSSION OF THAT UNITY.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LITURGY?
The purpose is to turn you and me into the reality celebrated.
§ TO CHANGE YOU AND ME INTO CHRIST.
§ We don’t celebrate liturgy to REMEMBER Jesus, but to become Him.
§ The purpose of liturgy is to “reproduce in our lives what the church exemplifies for us in its public worship. In other words to reproduce in our lives the life of Jesus. (Taft)
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MASS AND LITURGY
§ MASS from the Latin MISSA= dismissal
§ “ITE, MISSA EST” (before Vat.II) “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” LITERALLY—GO, YOU ARE SENT OUT!
§ We come here so God can send us back out there to be Church for the World!
LITURGY—Greek word LIETOURGIA
§ Literally means “the work of the people”
§ LITURGY—Sacraments—Mass—Liturgy of the Hours—ANY ACT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP
§ To say a service is liturgical is to indicate ALL worshippers take an active part. It is to pray with ritual and symbol as COMMUNITY!
§ LITURGICAL MEANS CELEBRATED BY ALL THE PEOPLE
MEANING OF RITUAL
§ When we talk about the Mass or Liturgy we are talking about RITUAL
§ “REGULARLY” is why liturgy is the sort of human activity we call RITUAL
§ If we are going to understand what liturgy is, we are going to have to give ritual a GOOD name (things of our heart)
§ RITUALS do a wonderful task
§ LITTLE BY LITTLE THEY TELL US WHO WE ARE
§ When a group takes care of their rituals, handles them carefully, gives them room to thrive then RITUALS DO THEIR WORK
RITUALS ARE THE SHAPING AND MEASURING OF OUR LIVES
§ Mass is a RITUAL
RITUAL’S work is:
Through the measures of time—day by day, week by week, season by season, year by year—people may find their own self, their own soul.
SIGN OF THE CROSS
FAST BEFORE COMMUNION
…
OUR RITUALS ARE THE NECESSARILY SLOW WAYS OF BECOMING OURSELVES, BECOMING THIS PEOPLE!
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