True active participation, Cdl. Sarah reminds us, means becoming the graceful instrument of Christ. And thus "language about the 'celebrating community' can carry a degree of ambiguity requiring true caution (cf. the Instruction Redemptoris sacramentum, §42). Participatio actuosa must not be understood, therefore, as the need to do something."

This of course brings to mind many attempts in modern Catholic parishes to engage the laity in all sorts of superficially active exterior movements out of the desire to include them in the Mass. Cardinal Sarah, however, says, "On this point the teaching of the Council has often been distorted."

He explains that active participation is more about "allowing Christ to take hold of us and to associate us with his sacrifice."

"[T]he celebrant is not the host of a show," notes Cdl. Sarah, citing recent words from Pope Francis. "[H]e must not seek the affirmation of the assembly, standing before them as if they were called to enter into dialogue primarily with him. To enter into the spirit of the Council means — on the contrary — to efface oneself, to renounce the spotlight."

The Vatican's head of worship then proceeds to call for a return to the more traditional style of liturgy, in which the priest, instead of facing toward the people most of the Mass (versus populum), is directed toward the east (ad orientem), from which direction Christ will return at His Second Coming.

"True participation means the renewal in us of that 'amazement' that St. John Paul II held in such high regard (cf. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, §6)," he states. "This sacred amazement, this joyous reverence, requires our silence before the divine majesty. We often forget that sacred silence is one of the means indicated by the Council to foster participation."

He then turns to the irreverent practice of letting nearly anyone enter into the sanctuary to participate in artificial ways, especially when the person isn't properly suited for the task.

"It is deplorable that the sanctuary in our churches is not strictly reserved for divine worship, that people enter it in worldly garb, that the sacred space is not clearly delineated by the architecture. And since, as the Council teaches, Christ is present in his word when it is proclaimed, it is equally harmful when readers are not dressed in a way that shows they are pronouncing not human words, but the Word of God."