Pastoral Letter on Liturgy
Finally, I close with a reflection from our Holy Father for a renewed understanding of the Sunday obligation to celebrate Eucharist: The spiritual and pastoral riches of Sunday, as it has been handed on to us by tradition, are truly great. It is clear therefore why the observance of the Lord's Day is so close to the Church/s heart, and why in the Church's discipline it remains a real obligation. Yet more than as a precept, the observance should be seen as a need rising from the depths of Christian life. It is crucially important that all the faithful should be convinced that they cannot live their faith or share fully in the life of the Christian community unless they take part regularly in the Sunday Eucharistic assembly. Sunday is the day on which they are called to celebrate their salvation and the salvation of all humanity. Sunday is the day of joy and the day of rest precisely because it is "the Lord's day," the day of the Risen Lord (Dies Domini 81-82).
Let us always remember that our "Sunday obligation," has nothing to do with exacting a duty from the members of a community, with requiring of tribute from a group of participants. If we had to place the real sense of the word "obligation" on someone, it would have to fall upon God himself. For it is he who has struck a covenant of blood with us, to eternally pour forth the water and blood of redemption even while we are sinners (Ro€5:8). If we make but the least effort, he is always there, surrendering his existence, to fill us with his love. Our trip in the car to Church serves nothing to improve his life; it rather allows us to spoon from the wellspring of eternal life, with our hands and mouths, that Christ's blood may circulate within us, giving us hope, happiness, peace and immortality. Christ cannot be other than what he is, the perfect expression and reality of God's self-abandoning love for man. That is exactly what he holds himself to for all eternity, and he carries it out in the Eucharistic encounter where salvation is ours for the asking.
Full, conscious, active participation means entering into the prayer of the Christian community, the limitless prayer of the total Christ, with all of our being: body and soul, voices, affections, thought, and love. Just as all of creation gives glory to God in all that it does, so we – who have received the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ – must glorify him in praise and thanksgiving by all that we do. Full participation means holding nothing back from God: let us praise him with our lips and our hands and our smiles. Such active participation, however, does not preclude active silence and stillness. To the contrary, it demands it. The most proper character of "active listening" is meditation; the most powerful way of cooperating with grace for the good of others is through mental prayer. It is primarily at the deeper, interior (and less transitory) level that we unite most intimately and permanently with our brothers and sisters sitting beside us. This is the unity of Spirit (1 Cor 12:13; Eph 4:4-6) that forms the perfect prayer. In fact, only from this inner activity can an authentic outward expression of praise and thanksgiving take shape. The Liturgy is something into which we enter, something much greater than ourselves and which draws us into an experience of what transcends us. For this very reason, it is called "mystery" and not just "enigma" or "wonder". This experience involves both a subjective and an objective dimension. Subjectively, it depends on everything we bring to the celebration; objectively, it transcends the entire community as the priestly action of Christ himself. Priests are instruments of a reality much greater than themselves; only the Church – Head and Body, the total Christ – realizes the liturgical celebration, wherefore no individual may impose his or her own ideas when it comes to the liturgy. All of us who collaborate in liturgical ministry are totally at the service of a mystery greater than any one of us. Amid faith and prayer, such service requires great humility, obedience and selflessness.
Select Bibliography of Resources:
* The Liturgy Documents: A Parish Resource, Chicago: LTP
1991. Mazar, P., To Crown the Year: Decorating the
Church Through the Seasons, Chicago: LTP 1995.
* Sourcebook for Sundays and Seasons, Chicago: LTP
(published annually).
* Workbook for Lectors and Gospel Readers, Chicago: LTP
(published annually).
* Scagnelli, P., Prayers for Sundays and Seasons: Years A,
B and C, Chicago: LTP, 1995-1997.
* Erspamer, S., Clip art for the Church Year: Years A, B
and C, Chicago: LTP, 1992-1994. Joncas, J.M.,
Preaching the Rites of Christian Initiation, Chicago:
LTP, 1994. This book contains the Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy; General Instruction of the Roman Missal
and Appendix; Lectionary for Mass: Introduction; General
Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar; Ceremonial
of Bishops (excerpts); Directory for Masses with
Children; This Holy and Living Sacrifice: Directory for
the Celebration and Reception of Communion under both
Kinds; Music in Catholic Worship; Liturgical Music
Today; Environment and Art in Catholic Worship;
Fulfilled in Your Hearing: The Homily in the Sunday
Assembly.
