Liturgy and the New Evangelization

ryand

I'm looking for a quote ... it came from BXVI or JPII ... about the importance of the liturgy in our faith. Essentially, Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi, but explained a bit more, and in terms of the New Evangelization.

My parish is really focusing on the New Evangelization during the Year of Faith, and I'm now kicking myself for not having saved that quote. It could be a great tool for me & the priests in explaining why the liturgy, properly celebrated, is so important.

When explaining my inner liturgy-geek to some, the reaction is that I'm just focused on meaningless rubrics and worship the ritual more than the God to whom it is offered. No doubt, there are many who do that (and I've been guilty of it myself in the past), but this quote that I'm thinking of explained why the ritual is actually just as important as any other aspect of our faith ... how, if done correctly, in body, mind, and spirit, then it enriches our faith more than anything else ... and it is also the greatest tool of the New Evangelization.

If you happen to have any quotes handy that seem to fit the bill, please share! I'm thinking specifically of something that came from BXVI or JPII. Can't remember who, but it was one of the last two popes.

Adam Wood

Not the quote you are looking for (unless someone made me Pope without informing me), but what you said here:

When explaining my inner liturgy-geek to some, the reaction is that I'm just focused on meaningless rubrics and worship the ritual more than the God to whom it is offered. No doubt, there are many who do that (and I've been guilty of it myself in the past), but this quote that I'm thinking of explained why the ritual is actually just as important as any other aspect of our faith ... how, if done correctly, in body, mind, and spirit, then it enriches our faith more than anything else

is similar to a concern I have addressed in my own writing, here:

Sometimes I worry that we all get a bit too wrapped up in these issues – issues which seem, from what I can read, to have been fairly unimportant to the Teacher from Nazareth. He cared about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, caring for orphans – not about translations or modes or altar placement or any of the rest of the things that liturgists and musicians are into. How can we, in good conscience, spend our time obsessing over these external elements?

I think a certain amount of obsession, by those who are called to it, is actually quite worthwhile. It is in the public liturgy of the Church that we come to understand the love of Christ which we are called to emulate. It is in the sacrifice of the Mass, dwelling in the sacrifice of Jesus, that we hear our calling to sacrifice ourselves. Recognizing Christ in the Eucharist, recognizing Christ in the assembled family of believers, gives us the eyes to recognize Christ in His “disturbing disguises” out in the world. We know how to clothe the naked because our God has clothed us in the garment of Baptism; we know how to feed the hungry because our God has fed us with his very body; we know how to comfort the dying because Our Lord has died in our midst; we know how to visit the imprisoned because God has visited us in the prison of our sin; we know how to care for orphans because our God has given us a spirit of adoption.

(The above is excerpted from an article I wrote for PrayTell.)

ryand

I like that very much, Adam. Well said.

Ralph Bednarz

see SACRAMENTUM CARITAS35. This relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. Like the rest of Christian Revelation, the liturgy is inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor.
36. The "subject" of the liturgy's intrinsic beauty is Christ Himself, ...
38. In the course of the Synod, there was frequent insistence on the need to avoid any antithesis between the ars celebrandi, the art of proper celebration, and the full, active and fruitful participation of all the faithful. The primary way to foster the participation of the People of God in the sacred rite is the proper celebration of the rite itself...
(42)Consequently everything -- texts, music, execution -- ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons

Ralph Bednarz

"In this connection, the Christian community must make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and song will return increasingly to the liturgy. It is necessary to purify worship of deformations, of careless forms of expression, of ill-prepared music and texts, which are not very suited to the grandeur of the act being celebrated. John Paul II -Give Praise through the Beauty of Music At his Wednesday audience, February 26, 2003, Pope John Paul II commented on the importance of music of praise in his reflection on Psalm 150, the last and shortest of the Psalms

Andrew_Malton

"Psalm 150, the last and shortest of the Psalms"

Eh?

chonak

Here's a piece by Cdl. Ratzinger on essential elements in the new evangelization:
http://www.christlife.org/resources/articles/RatzingerNewEvangelization.html

Speaking about God and speaking with God must always go together. The proclamation of God is the guide to communion with God in fraternal communion, founded and vivified by Christ. This is why the liturgy (the sacraments) are not a secondary theme next to the preaching of the living God, but the realization of our relationship with God. While on this subject, may I be allowed to make a general observation on the liturgical question. Our way of celebrating the liturgy is very often too rationalistic. The liturgy becomes teaching, whose criteria is: making ourselves understood – often the consequence of this is making the mystery a banality, the prevalence of our words, the repetition of phrases that might seem more accessible and more pleasant for the people. But this is not only a theological error but also a psychological and pastoral one. The wave of esoterism, the spreading of Asian techniques of relaxation and self-emptying demonstrate that something is lacking in our liturgies. It is in our world of today that we are in need of silence, of the super-individual mystery, of beauty. The liturgy is not an invention of the celebrating priest or of a group of specialists; the liturgy (the "rite") came about via an organic process throughout the centuries, it bears with it the fruit of the experience of faith of all the generations. Even if the participants do not perhaps understand each single word, they perceive the profound meaning, the presence of the mystery, which transcends all words. The celebrant is not the center of liturgical action; the celebrant is not in front of the people in his own name – he does not speak by himself or for himself, but "in persona Cristi". The personal abilities of the celebrant do not count, only his faith counts, by which Christ becomes transparent. "He must increase, but I must decrease" (Jn 3:30).

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