PRINCIPLES OF LITURGY
F What is Liturgy?
- General Introduction.
The word
liturgy comes from the Greek word ‘leitonergon’, meaning any work of public
nature. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is a fixed form of public
worship in Churches. Simply put, liturgy is the involvement or participation of
the people in the work of God. In fact, the definition of liturgy is very wide
that it becomes clearer daily and there have not been any particular meaning of
the highly emphasized word. Its full public worship is performed by the mystical
Body of Jesus Christ, i.e., the Head and his members. Hence, it follows that
every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest, and
of his Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No
other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the
same degree. Liturgy in different ways can serve as a source of life, prayer
and teaching.
In
a liturgical celebration, the whole assembly is ‘leitougos’, each member
according to his own function. The baptismal priesthood is that of the whole
Body of Christ. But some of the faithful are ordained through the sacrament of
Holy Orders to represent Christ as head of the Body. The liturgy of the word as
an important part of the celebration is expressed by the Word of God which is
proclaimed and by the response of faith to it.
Sacred
liturgical images in our churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish
our faith in the mystery of Christ. Through the icon of Christ and his works of
salvation, it is he whom we adore. Through sacred images of the holy Mother of
God, of the angels and of the saints, we venerate the persons represented. The
faithful who celebrate the liturgy of the hours are united to Christ our holy
priest, by the prayer of the psalms, meditation on the Word of God, and
canticles and blessings, in order to be joined with his unceasing and universal
prayer that gives glory to the Father and implores the gift of the Holy Spirit
on the whole world.
However,
the liturgical celebration involves signs and symbols relating to creation
(candles, water, fire), human life (washing, anointing breaking bread) and the
history of salvation (the rites of the Passover). Integrated into world of
faith and taken up by the power of the Holy Spirit, these cosmic elements,
human rituals, and gestures of remembrance of God become bearers of the saving
and sanctifying actions of Christ. Songs and music are nicely joined with
liturgical actions.
In
the liturgy of the Church, God the Father is blessed and adored as the source
of all the blessings of creation and salvation with which he has blessed us in
his son, in order to give us the Spirit of filial adoption. Christ’s work in
the liturgy is sacramental because his mystery of salvation is made present
there by the power of his Holy Spirit; because his Body, which is the Church is
like a sacrament in which the Spirit dispenses the mystery of salvation and
because through her liturgical actions, the pilgrim Church already
participates, as by foretaste in the heavenly liturgy. The mission of the Holy
Spirit in the liturgy of the Church is to prepare the assembly to encounter
Christ, to recall and manifest Christ to the faith of the assembly, to make the
saving work of Christ present and active by his transforming power; and to make
the gift of the Eucharist bear fruit in the Church.
Finally,
Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that
full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is
demanded by the very nature of the liturgy and to which the Christian people,
‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people’, have a
right and obligation by reason of their baptism.
F Introduction to Sacred Liturgy.
‘All
have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory’ (Romans 3:23). All mankind without
God’s assistance are heading for ruin and destruction. However, God willed that
all men be saved and come to know the truth (1 Tim 2:4); for God does not wish
the death of a sinner but that he repent of his evils and come to life (Ezekiel
18: 32).
In
trying to realise the divine wish or plan of ‘all men being saved’, god in many
ways and at various times has been sending the prophets and holy men and women
to deliver the saving words to men – cf Hebrew 1:1. He however, at the fullness
of time sent his only son Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh for the salvation
of the entire human race. Our Lord Jesus Christ when he eventually came,
perfectly accomplished his salvific mission through his Paschal Mystery, they
mystery of his sufferings, dying and rising to new life again. This His Paschal
Mystery became the source of power and grace for the redemption of mankind. And
He entrusted it to His Church, his bride through the Apostles. The picture or
the figure of the person of the suffering, dying Jesus hanging on the cross of Calvary , represents what we may call the climax of the
saving action of the divine person of Jesus Christ.
As
recalled in the liturgy of Holy Saturday, it is this very scene that witnessed
the birth of the Church (the bride of Christ) in a symbolic manner, when water
and blood gushed out from the pierced side of Christ. The water has been
explained to represent the saving and sanctifying waters of baptism, while the
blood signifies the saving and renewing blood of the Eucharistic sacrifice.
Both together signifies the rebirth and renewing actions of Jesus Christ
through and within His Church and her members as the saving effect of the
Paschal mystery.
The
Church’s liturgy whose meaning and scope we shall soon look into, through
various visible actions and forms, seeks to perpetuate these salvific actions
and effects of the Paschal Mystery by being a channel through the Church
administers the saving grace and power of the merits of Christ to all mankind
and creation. The liturgy therefore becomes the concrete, physical/sensible
expression of the Church’s fulfilment of the Lord’s command: “As the Father
sent me, so am I sending you… receive the Holy Spirit … (Jn 20: 21-23). “Go
therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptising them and teaching them to
observe all the command I gave you. Whoever believes and is baptised, will be
saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned (Matthew 28: 19-20).
In
summary, the liturgy of the Church seeks to effect and perpetuate the supreme
mission of Christ which is the sanctification/salvation of man and the
glorification of God through the application of the merits of Christ’s Paschal
Mystery to all mankind and creation. Thus, this is what should be understood;
that any liturgical action and even preparations for any of the Church’s
liturgy has that singular view in goal, the sanctification of man and the
glorification of God.
F Definition.
Etymologically,
the word ‘liturgy’ is derived from the Greek word ‘Leitourgia’ meaning public
work, that is, work done for the well-being of the public. In Christian usage,
it came to mean the public worship of the Church i.e., a kind of service
carried out by the Church for the eventual well-being (spiritual and physical)
of her members in the world.
In
Roman Catholic tradition, liturgy could therefore be defined as the official
public worship of the Church. It is considered ‘official’ in the sense that it
has to be approved by the Bishop and the Roman See (Pope). It is public because
it is the activity of Christ’s faithful visibly gathered together. And it is
considered as ‘worship’ because it is prayer.
A
restored sense or understanding of the use of the word ‘liturgy’ is that it
refers to a kind of public work done for the sake of others and not oneself.
This brings out the fact that every member participating in the liturgy has a
role of service to play which is at least and essentially to support others in
the faith.
F The Sense of Liturgy.
By
scope of liturgy, we mean the areas covered by the use of the term ‘liturgy’ in
the Church, or rather, the various actions or celebrations that can properly be
regarded as liturgy in the Church. In Roman the Catholic Church today, the term
‘liturgy’ in its proper usage would include such celebrations as:
·
The
seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Matrimony,
Holy Order and Anointing of the sick.
·
The
liturgy of the hours; i.e., the divine office which is the official prayers of
the Church usually said by priests, deacons and religious. It is made up of the
office of reading (which can be said any time of the day); the Lauds or Morning
Prayer; midday prayer; Vespers or evening prayer and the night prayer or
compline.
·
The
Eucharistic worship outside the Mass such as Benediction, exposition of the
Blessed Sacrament and visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
·
The
rite of religious profession. Usually, we have first profession followed by
annual renewal of vows and then the final profession.
·
The
blessings. This includes various forms of blessings which recently have been
compiled into a book called ‘the book of blessings’. It is divided into two –
one part meant to be used in Christian homes or Christian families, while the
other part is to be part of the priestly ministry.
·
The
rituals of the Order of Christian funerals.
F
Unity in the
Scope of Liturgy.
The
vivid expression of the unity embedded in the liturgy actually came with
Vatican II’s revision of sacred liturgy of the Church which restored the Holy
Eucharist to its place of prominence and primacy as the central expression of
the Church’s worship.
Of
itself, the sacrament of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist expresses the
gathering of the assembly of Christ’s faithful (disciples and apostles) ‘to
memory of Jesus Christ, where the salvific mission of Christ’s glorification of
God in restoring and bringing all mankind, both past, present and future and
all creation into the joyful, peaceful and united family of God’s heavenly
kingdom is realised. It is for this reason that all other liturgical prayers
and actions do not only stand in relation to the Eucharist by way of
anticipation and or extension, but also in fact draws all their powers and
effect from it as from the fountain (Cf -
Sacrosantum Concilium numbers 9 and 10).
·
In
the light of the above, the sacrament of Christian initiation which include
baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist are now viewed as having the Holy
Eucharist as their focus. In other words, they aim at the eventual
incorporation of the Catechumen into the Eucharistic assembly of Christ’s
faithful.
·
Then
for the sacrament of anointing of the sick which often goes with Holy Communion
to the sick, the aged and the dying. It is seen and understood as an act of
extending the Eucharistic assembly to include those unable to be physically
present, bringing to them the physical and spiritual healing and strength which
the saving effect of the Paschal mystery already symbolised and actualised by
the Holy Eucharist.
·
The
sacrament of penance and reconciliation on its part is perceived on the light
of an act of restoring the unity of the Eucharistic assembly that has been
disrupted by sin and alienation of members. The nee for this is even already
expressed within the Eucharist celebration both at the penitential rite and
offering of kiss (sign) of peace at the beginning and just before the reception
of Holy Communion respectively.
·
The
love and self-giving involved in the sacrament of matrimony is on its part
enlightened in the understanding of the union of love and total self-giving
(emptying) of Christ to his bride, the Church and vice versa in surrendering
love i.e., the ecclesiastical mystical union of the Church with its head fully
symbolised in the Eucharistic celebration where Christ gives Himself fully in
the Eucharistic Communion. It is seen as a concrete example and expression of
the kind of love and unity celebrated in the Eucharistic assembly in the Spirit
of Christ where the man is (bridegroom)to the woman what Christ (bridegroom) is
to the Church and vice versa – Cf Ephesians 5:25.
·
For
the rite of ordination, installation and religious profession, they are part of
the Church’s liturgy now seen as being geared towards the ordering of events
and services for the well-being of the ecclesia community that has been essentially
marked and identified prominently as Eucharistic assembly in the new
dispensation of the second Vatican Council. No wonder then that those rites are
also usually celebrated within the Eucharistic celebration.
·
The
Eucharistic worship outside Mass seeks to extend the offering of the worship,
praise and thanks and supplication of the faithful which are due to God
Almighty who is fully and really present in the Holy Eucharist under the
appearance of bread and wine to him. This was formally limited to benediction
alone. But with the reform of Vatican II, it has been broadened to include both
a proclamation of the word and time for silent adoration, praise and
supplication before the reserved Eucharist.
·
‘The
blessings’ which also form part of the Church’s liturgy as we have already seen
in the scope of the liturgy, is now seen properly as aiming at bringing the
prayers of the Eucharistic assembly to all the corners of the life of the
faithful.
·
As
for divine office, bearing in mind the unifying mission of Eucharistic
celebration, the liturgy of the hours seeks too gather the Eucharistic assembly
(faithful) regularly in groups an in communities in order to publicly offer
ceaseless praise, thanksgiving and intercession both at the sunrise and sunset
for the well-being of the restored brotherhood of mankind in the mystical body
of the Eucharistic Jesus.
·
By
the liturgy of funeral rites, the Church seeks to help the deceased person on
his/her journey to God and to assist the bereaved relatives and friends in the
course of the reverential disposal of the dead in order to enable them have
their minds fixed on the eschatological reality (heavenly banquet) of the
Eucharistic assembly that life in death is not ended but changed for the better
in Christ.
From
all the above, what could be seen is the enduring unity in all the Church’s
liturgical actions revolving around the Holy Eucharist and its assembly. The
emphasis and focus on the Eucharistic gathering in all the Church’s liturgy brings
the importance the Church Fathers of Vatican II laid on the vital need of
active participation by the entire assembly of the faithful in the renewed
understanding of the liturgy.
F Brief History of Christian Liturgy.
Talking
about the history and origin of Christian liturgy, two basic things come to
mind:
1.
The liturgical forms or actions
2.
The supernatural powers in them.
In
order words, how did the liturgical form and actions come about and the powers
we experience through them, hat is their source or where did they come from?
A
careful examination and reflection reveals to us that they are firmly rooted in
the pre-Christian religious environment, as their origin. The Jewish religious
environment, where the very first disciples of Jesus gathered in Jewish
synagogues, example temple and households for the celebration of their new
found faith in Christ had a fundamental determining factor in the origin of
Christian liturgy.
This
connection is evident and obvious even when early Christians communities made
conscious efforts to distance themselves from the public worship of the Jews –
Cf the New Dictionary of Theology pg 958: Hebrew 4:14 – 10: 39, 1 Peter 2:1ff).
The Christian cycle of feast and seasons and Eucharistic celebration for
example, all have their ties to the Jewish Passover, Pentecost and Sabbath
observances including aspects of domestic and temple religious meals.
Also
even the Christian reading and interpretation itself of the sacred scripture in
liturgical assembly i.e., ‘the liturgy of the word’ is derived from the
synagogue practice (Recall Jesus and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah which he
read and tried to interpret that the text is being fulfilled in him – Luke 4:
18-19).
As
for the source of the powers and religious meaning of our Christian liturgy as
we have seen in the introduction, they are to be found in ‘the events of the
life, death and resurrection (Paschal Mystery) of Jesus Christ’. This
understanding is derived from the explanation and interpretation given by the
Apostles of the Christ- event in the light of the continuing post-resurrection
experience of Jesus’ saving presence.
The
apostolic interpretation reveals that Christian worship (liturgy) is always a
memorial and invocation (anamnesis and epiclesis) of the risen Lord. It is the
public proclamation and the celebration of the present power of his death and
glorification and a call for the completion of this world’s redemption in
accordance to the mandate of Christ to his Apostle (Mark 16: 15 – 16).
The
experience of the saving power of the Risen Lord actually led to the rapid
expansion of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire
in the first Christian generation. This fact can be seen in the Apostles,
especially St. Paul
As
the faith spread outside Palestine, it certainly met with significant cultural
forces; such as political, social and religious cultures that were already in
existence and vital in the lives of the people. Such important cultural forces
outside Judaism also influenced the development of the structures and content
of Christian liturgy.
In
the course of time, precisely between the 2nd and 4th
centuries, major urban cities in the Mediterranean world which became homes of
Christian (Acts 8:1, 4-5; 11:19-21), together with the early Christian zeal for
the world’s salvific mission among other reasons, also became homes to
distinctive liturgical traditions with their particular pattern of their
actions within liturgical assembly. They also developed different emphasis in
content within the common focus of a memorial of the life, suffering, death,
burial and resurrection of Christ. Examples of all this various urban cities
and their distinctive liturgical developments include:
In
the Easter Mediterranean area we have Byzantine rite, Maronite rite, Armenian
rite and Coptic rite with the cities of Antioch
in Syria and Alexandria in Egypt Gaul .
During
the early Christian mediaeval periods, mutual borrowings among the various
distinctive rites both from the east and the west gradually led to the
modification of the early liturgy of the city of Rome, which became known as
the Roman rite, in the 19th century, it was this expanded and
modified Roman rite that the emperor Charlemagne of France imposed on the whole
territory of the then Holy Roman Empire in the bid to centralise religious
worship in the Empire. This act was
another determining factor in the subsequent shaping and development of
Christian liturgy in Western Europe .
Still
another major subsequent influential factor in the Western liturgical
traditional development was the 16th century reformation. This was
occasioned by the challenge posed by the protestant reformers to the Roman
liturgy they found at that time. The Roman See in response to the challenges
ordered uniform revised liturgical books to be used throughout all the Churches
in communion with the Roman See with the exception of some few ancient local usages.
However, the reformer’s own pre-occupation with the need for renewal in the
church’s public worship resulted in the distinctive Lutheran, Anglican,
Reformed and Anabaptists. Similar liturgical developments were experienced in
the Eastern tradition.
This
historical development of Christian liturgy is indeed a complex one. In recent
liturgy, this complexity has become a central concern of scholars. This is in
their bid to unravel/reveal the relationship existing among them, identifying
their social and ecclesial context (milieu), in order to interpret them
reliably.
In
line with the above rationale from major focus on the complex nature of the
history of Christian liturgy, by liturgical scholars in the field, it is of
immense importance that one has a grasp of an idea of at least the brief
history and origin of Christian liturgy. This is so because; it will help in
our adequate understanding and appreciation of liturgical forms and actions
found in the Christian worship today in such a way that would enhance and
enliven the full and active participation of the faithful as emphasised by the
Vatican II revision of the sacred liturgy.
v 12/03/09 – Class
Works starts from here.
F What is Liturgy?
v
The liturgy is the official public worship of the
Church
v
Etymologically liturgy “Leitougia” means secular work
undertaken on behalf of the people.
v
It is considered as an exercise of the public office
of Christ
v
Liturgy is the source and summit towards which all
other activities are directed.
v
It is the gathering of the Assembly of God’s people in
celebrating the mystery of Christ.
v
Originally, the word ‘liturgy’ was regarded as the
public work of the common people which are voluntary, political, social and
religious.
v
It is the public work done for the sake of oneself and
others.
F
Characteristics
of public work.
·
Universal purpose
·
Self-sacrifice
·
Voluntary/ free will
·
Public/open
·
Done for the well-being of others
·
Free-will
·
Participatory
·
Unification
·
Objective
·
Common good.
Everything
we do in the liturgy is Christo-centric – Christ centred.
For the
whole world
There is
no room for pride because it is Christ’s work (Alter Christus) it has to be
done with the mind of Christ.
The
liturgy is the foundation and apex of the Christian worship. Every activity of
the liturgy has to glorify God and should be in line with liturgical norms. The
Paschal Mystery is the core of the liturgy. It is holy, godly and divine. The
idea should make us to fear God.
v
26/03/09 – See
handout for detail
v 30/04/09
F
Theological
Dimension.
Worship
is a reaching out as a religious phenomenon through the fear that always
accompanies the contact with the sacred, the transcendence to the mystery being
celebrated. Just as worship encompasses fear, it is also attractive. In Latin
this is called “Tremendum” and “Facinams”. Worship in its theological dimension
implies the performance in its devotional acts which makes us to yearn and
glorify God who is our source, our sustainers and protector to the end of our
lives.
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