CHAPTER THREE TO THE FATHER, THROUGH THE SON, IN THE SPIRIT ‘The first time I met Abbot Ambrose Verheul T complimented hhim on his book Introduction fo the Liturgy, the outline of which followed for my course. He was abashed but he managed to declare detachedly, almost dismissively, “It is a good book.” We ‘met a couple of times in his Abbey of Mont-César, the monastery of Lambert Beauduin, to discuss a possible publications tie-up between his abbey and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute. Sadly, the project did not materialize. And so in 1963 Adrien Nocent and I Started the Institute's periodical Eccles Orans. It was a dauntless fact for an institute that needed to publish or else perish in the ‘estimation ofthe liturgical academe. ‘The plan ofthis chapter follows closely the book of Verheul, but have added to the content the result of my years of entanglement With the awe-inspiring mystery of the Blessed Trinity that is at ‘work in Christian worship. Uturgy Is Encounter with God “And so, what is liturgy?” Verheul defines it as encounter ‘between God and the worshiping assembly. The Latin etymology of “encounter” (inand con) isnot sympathetic othe wse ofthis word {in the liturgy, or theology, for that matter. Nor so are the different ‘meanings English dictionaries give to it. a meeting between hostile factions; sudden, often violent, clash such asa military encounter; an unexpected or chance face-to-face meeting; and a coming to the Vicinity by a celestial being, asin the title of the lm Clase Encounters of the Third Kind, But after Edward Schllebeeckx’s book was ‘ranalated into English in 1971 under the ttle Chris, the Sacrament108 What. Then Is Liturgy? ofthe Encounter with Go, hostity, violence, or chance meeting gave ‘way to a new lexical use that stressed harmony, mutual expect, and love. Today there is a popular seminar program for marred ‘couples called Marriage Encounter. ‘The phrase “encounter with God” implies a number of things Encourter is the personal act of the individual worshipers that together constitute the itugical assembly. The assembly is not mantle under which individuals can settle quietly with one’s heart ‘ot being in the Liturgical action that is taking of community worship cannot be gauged merely on the surface of active participation. It suffers when the individual persons are ‘not interiorly involved, when ther hearts do not burn within them 4s they listen tothe word of God, and when they do not perceive the presence of Christ in the breaking ofthe bread. in reality only God knows the true quality of liturgical worship, because God alone can read the heart and mind of each person. The tool for active participation are nothing more than external aid to bing to realization the individual person's encounter with God. After we have performed the liturgy tothe best of our ability, we can only hopethatit deserved fll marks for “achieving human sanctification and God's glorification, the end to which all the Church’ other activities are directed” (C10). ‘Our encounter with God inthe liturgy is personal also inasmuch 45 we encounter the persons ofthe Holy Trinity. When Christians pray they do not address a Supreme Being or Divine Entity: they Pray to God sho revealed himself as a Trinity of Persons. That is hy liturgical worship is addressed to the three Divine Persons ‘The invocation “God” may give the wrong impression that we are calling upon some unnamed divine being, but inthe liturgy “God” isthe Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We address our worship to ‘he Father, through Jesus Chis, in the unity ofthe Holy Spirit. The ancient doxelogial formula phvases this succinetly: Ad Patrem, per Flu, in Sprta Sacto. The formula expresses the final phase of salvation history, which i the liturgy Tt describes what takes place