LITURGY IN GENERAL

MODULE 1
MEANING AND NATURE OF LITURGY ESSENTIAL EFFECTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LITURGY

WHAT IS LITURGY?

 Etymologically, the word Liturgy

o “public work”
o “service in the name of/on behalf of the people” .
o The head of the church “Christ”, the church “Christians”
 In Christian tradition, the participation of the People of God in “the work of God. ” Through the
liturgy Christ, our redeemer and high priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with and
through his Church. (CCC 1069
 In the New testament, The celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the
Gospel and to active charity (Lk 1:23; Acts 13:2; Rom 15:16, 27; 2 Cor 9:12; Phil 2:14-17, 25, 30).

WHAT DOES OUR CATHOLIC CHURCH TEACH US ABOUT LITURGY?

 VATICAN II DESCRIBES THE LITURGY AS:

o The “OFFICIAL PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH ”
o “An exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ ” in which our human “sanctification is
manifested by signs perceptible to the senses and is effected in a way proper to each
sign, ” so that full public worships performed by the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that
is, by the head and his members” (SC7, CFC 1503)
o A summit to wards which the activity of the church is directed, and the fountain from
which all her power flows” (SC9 -10; CCC 107 4)

THE NATURE OF THE LITURGY

 It is the nature of Liturgy to be an encounter with God. In the Liturgy God meets man and man
meets God. This encounter however, often takes place under the veil of sacred signs.
o Example: Receiving Jesus under the veil of bread and wine. This sign character is part of
the nature of liturgical reality.
 “In the Liturgy, the sanctification of man is manifested by signs perceptible to the senses, and is
effected in a way which is proper to each of these signs.”
o Visible Sign Effect
o Baptizing with water
o Divine Life of God Shared to Man
 Liturgy is certainly and indeed essentially, bound up with forms. By forms we do not mean mere
externals, formalities, but forms that are expression, an incarnation, a sign and a symbol; of an
inward event. The invisible event of the meeting between God and His Church is here made
visible. Example: Baptism In Baptism, the FORM is essentially in the.. Words “N.I Baptize you”
Action: Baptizing …taken together as a sign and symbol of an inward, invisible, spiritual event,
which is meeting, encounter with God.
WHAT DOES THE CHURCH CELEBRATE, ESPECIALLY IN THE LITURGY?

 The Church Liturgy principally celebrates Christ’s Paschal Mystery: Through the Paschal Mystery,
Christ has completed his saving mission and the Church celebrates this in order to be able to live
it out in the faithful’s lives and in order to give witness to it in the present world. Through the
Liturgy, the Church participates in the heavenly liturgy as well.
 Paschal Mystery
o PASSION
o DEATH
o RESSURECTION
o ASCENCION

THE CENTER OF THE CHURCH’S LITURGY IS THE EUCHARIST

 It is because the Eucharist commemorates the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Church. Through
this Mystery the power of God’s salvific love is offered to all. Since this salvation touches
all of creation in its entirety,
 Liturgy in its broadest, deepest sense is the proclamation, manifestation, and
celebration not only of Christ and His Paschal Mystery, but also of the Church’s own
mystery and mission as universal sacrament of salvation, and of the whole world and the
temporal order, consecrated and ordered to its Creator and Final Goal.

ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LITUGY

 Trinitarian Paschal
o The Church’ s liturgical prayer is directed to the Father, in the Holy Spirit through His
Son, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Its specific Trinitarian form takes on a Paschal quality
since the liturgy celebrates the Good News of our actual salvation worked by the
Blessed Trinity through Jesus Christ’ s Paschal Mystery.
o The Trinity, then, far from being an abstract god of the theologians, is the concrete
living, saving God who comes to us in the Risen Christ and the Spirit, within the Christian
community, the Church (CCC 1084ff, CFC 1506)

 Ecclesial
o The Liturgy is the prayer of the Church gathered in assembly; it is an ecclesial activity,
celebrated by the WHOLE Christ, Head, and members (cf. SC 26f; LG 10; CCC 1140). The
Liturgy then is the action of Jesus Christ the Priest. At the same time activity of the
community, it is a gathering together in an ordered assembly and communion of the
baptized.
o Moreover, the liturgical assembly is arranged according to different roles: Priest,
Deacon, Readers, Ministers of music and of communion, Altar Knights, etc.While we all
share the one Holy Spirit of love, different spiritual gifts or charisms are given to
community members for the good of all. Thus, the power for salvation is mediated
through various relationships within the Church. (CFC 1507)

 Sacramental
o The liturgy celebrates the Church’s prayer through a pattern of symbolic, ritual
movements, gestures, and verbal formulas that create a framework within which the
corporate worship of the Church can take place.
 o By participating in the liturgy’s sacramental, symbolic activities, the Church members
both express their faith in Christ and their desire to deepen it, and actually share in the
reality signified, namely, salvation through forgiveness and communion with the Risen,
glorified Christ in the Spirit. (CFC 1509)
 Predominant Symbols used in Liturgy
 The gathering of the baptized assembly itself
 The natural symbols from creation like light, darkness, water(baptism),
oil, and fire.
 Humanly produced symbols like bread and wine
 Christian salvific symbols like the reading and interpretation of Scripture
as the living Word of God, the Sign of the Cross, the Paschal Candle,
laying on of hands(decon), etc. But the liturgy’s use of these symbols
always involves persons, for they express the personal mystery of
God’s love manifest in Christ’s Paschal Mystery (CCC 1147-52).

 Ethically Oriented
o The liturgy relates directly to moral life since it empowers the people of God to full
Christian discipleship: both personal and social, they go together. One goal of liturgical
celebrations is that we, the faithful, return to our ordinary activities, newly
strengthened in faith, confirmed in hope, and inspired with the power to love. Far from
separating us from our ordinary work, duties, recreation, and relationships, the liturgy
aims at confirming our mission as Christians to be the light of the world and leaven of
the mass (SC 9). One norm for judging authentic liturgical worship, then, is precisely its
relation with “service of our neighbor”. (CFC 1510)
 Eschatological
o The liturgy makes Christ’s saving Paschal Mystery whereby. He inaugurated God’s rule,
the Kingdom. The liturgy, then at once;- commemorates Christ’ s past saving Mystery -
demonstrates the present grace effects brought about by Christ - points to the future
glory yet to come. (CFC 1511)
o This future orientation is operative now and every moment of our daily lives, and it calls
us to share in Christ’s mission of saving the world. Both the eschatological future and
the “ now ” dimensions of the Liturgy are effectively brought together in celebrating the
feasts and seasons of the Liturgical Year (CCC 1163- 73).
o Vatican II describes how “in the course of the year, the Church unfolds the whole
mystery of Christ from the Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, to Pentecost and
the expectation of the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord” (SC 102, CFC 1513.)

THIS CYCLE INCLUDES FIVE STAGES:

1.) The Lord’s Day

2.) Holy Week, prepared for by Lent
3.) Advent, preparing for Christmas
4.) The 33 Sundays of the Ordinary Time, and
5.) Special Feasts, especially of Christ and Mary (NCDP 336-41).

Surely a practical and informed personal understanding of the liturgical seasons is one chief means for
achieving the enthusiastic, active participation of the faithful in the Church’s worship, called for by our
Second Plenary Council (PCP II 176-82).
EFFECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITURGY (SC, Art 1,2,7)

 Nourishes our faith and lifts our minds up to God, so that we may give Him honor and thanks for
the graces we have received from him.
 Helps our Christian life grow every day, favors our union with Christ and may bring others back
to the Church.
 It is the realization of our salvation and helps the faithful express Christ’s mystery and the
Church nature in their lives.
 It serves to edify our lives and likewise contributes to the unity of mankind.
 Man’s sanctification is realized and public cult is exercised by His Mystical Body. Through the
Sacraments, the Church communicates to God’s people the fruits of Christ’s Paschal Mystery
and its grace