When we worship, what we mean?
If we are to the Greek etymology, the word liturgy means work (ergon) of the people (Leiton, adjective derived from laos, which means village). We could therefore say that the liturgy is the work of the people, public works dedicated to God. In simpler words would say that the liturgy is the spiritual worship or sacred service to God each of us, that we are his people.
Today we understand the liturgy as the official cult of the Church, the new People of God, the Blessed Trinity, worship, thank you, beg forgiveness and ask for grace and favor.
Since the beginning of the liturgical movement, until now, have been proposed many definitions of liturgy and there is still no unanimously accepted it, given the wealth locked up in this mystery. However, all the authors admit that the concept of worship includes the following elements: the presence of Christ the Priest, the action of the Church and the Holy Spirit, salvation history and updated continuously through effective signs, which are sacraments, and sanctification of the cult o.
As this could be considered the liturgy as the priestly action of Christ, and continued in the Church under the action of the Holy Spirit, through which the Lord has updated his saving work through effective signs, giving most perfect worship of God and men communicating salvation here and now.
A great theologian of our time defines the liturgy: "The liturgy is the celebration of the sacred mysteries of our redemption through the Church, which remains alive in the person of Christ, living the saving events of origin, activates presence of his healing grace and faithful promise, by the signs which he chose and that the community place, chaired by the word of the apostles and animated by the Holy Spirit of Jesus ... The liturgy is the case history of a community in obedience to his Lord has remembered everything he said and suffered; of what God did with him for us. The Church is joining what was the saving deeds of Christ and still attached and identified with the intercession, as high priest, He is offering to the Father for us as we journey in this world ".
In this context we can appreciate what the liturgy in the Church. The liturgy is but the conclusion of this process of redemption in the world and the world. The liturgy is the "source and summit of Christian life" as he called the Second Vatican Council, because the liturgy is where checks and has its most explicit expression, this model of initiative and response, and divine action human cooperation. As a source, the liturgy is the starting point that drives us to that satisfied with the Easter sacraments, keep walking toward holiness through honest and upright life, giving glory to God with our words and our actions before men . As culmination, the liturgy is the point of arrival, ie, all activities of the Church is to glorify God.
If asked to why Catholics who attend Mass on Sundays, many would probably say that it is very important to them, or because they like how he speaks the priest who celebrates, or because Catholics are obliged to attend.
However, if we reflect a little, we say that the reason we are going to church is because God has called us to meet with Him in His Church, to give glory, thank you, beg for help and ask for forgiveness . We can therefore say that the liturgy is the celebration of a people made in the name of the Lord who made us brothers, sons of the Father, of the same body, branches the same tree.
In contemporary society, where there are people who believe in all sorts of things or simply do not believe in anything, faith leads us to church on Sunday, while a neighbor pruning the garden and another reads newspaper or watch a movie, you can give us a lively sense of vocation or calling. Not that we are better or worse than our neighbors, but we, for mysterious reasons known only to God, we have been chosen and called to know Him and His works, to love above all things and serve wholeheartedly in our day day.
While recognizing our infidelities and community, we gather for liturgical celebration, and we remain what we are: a people called by God to be his witness and his help in human history. We are the Body of Christ, his arms and legs, feet and hands to the world that He loves.
Pope Pius XII says that the liturgy is the worship of the full Body of Christ, head and limbs. In the liturgy, we are called together to the presence of the Father, who is the Father of all. We gather in Christ, because without Christ we can stand before the Father. And we met for the Spirit of Christ, which fills our hearts to form "one body, one spirit in Christ." Called to the presence of the Father in Christ through the Spirit!
Thus, the meeting of the assembly is a sign and a symbol of what God does and his work. The work of God in history is to gather into one the children of God who are scattered overcome divisions, provide a place for those who have no home and are alone, to support those who support heavy loads, and create community an oasis in the midst of a painfully divided world in which almost everything and those who lack everything.
There, in the Christian community, we discover that we all belong to the same humanity and put aside differences. The gathering of believers in a liturgical celebration is the anticipation of the day to establish the Kingdom of God in its fullness, when there is no discrimination on grounds of sex, race or wealth, where there is no hunger or thirst, nor distrust and violence, competition or abuse of power, for all things subject to Christ, and God will reign over His people holy in peace and forever. Every liturgical celebration is "should be" a piece of heaven on earth.
In the words of Vatican II: "So, to build day by day those who are in a holy temple in the Lord and habitation of God through the Spirit to reach the measure of the fullness the age of Christ, the liturgy also strengthened his forces admirably to preach Christ, and thus presents the Church to those outside as a sign up in the middle of the nations under him to gather in the children's unit of God who are scattered, until one flock, one shepherd "(Vatican II, the Constitution" Sacrosanctum Concilium, "n. 2).
The liturgy, therefore, can never be a private matter, individualistic, where everyone reads their private devotions, self-enclosed. It is the Church, the ecclesial community that celebrates the liturgy. The liturgy is an action of all Christians. Nobody is spectator of it, no one is a spectator in it. Everyone should participate "actively, fully and consciously in it," as says the Second Vatican Council.
Another aspect of the liturgy: The liturgy is the present, but points to the future of this world, but it points to a reality that transcends present experience. Is present, it celebrates and makes real the presence among us of God who saves the world and man in Christ, but this presence makes us painfully aware of how far we are the Kingdom of God. It is a call to live and act for God's values, which are the values \u200b\u200bof a society that as a fact of inequality, competition, prejudice, infidelity, international tensions and consumerism without borders. The values \u200b\u200bof God are love, truth, peace and grace.
Thus, the liturgy of this world, but it points to a way of life in the world to recognize its profound meaning. The liturgy takes all elements of human life. It teaches us to use our body and our soul to manifest the presence of God, to worship and serve, and to keep his word and heal others.
teaches us to hear God's voice in the voices of others and to receive from the hands of others the gifts of God. It teaches us to live in society, people of different education and race, as men and women delivered to promote peace and unity and mutual assistance. It teaches us to use the goods of the earth, represented in the liturgy for the bread and wine, water and oil, not for treasure and consume selfishly alone, but as sacraments of the Creator to be accepted with gratitude , used with reverence and share generously.
Yes, the liturgy is an expression of our faith and love, but also informs and deepens that faith and love. It teaches us how to live with faith and how to love deeper and more true. It teaches us that faith, hope and love are alive when we recognize and accept the work of God in the world. We know that the liturgy begins and ends with the sign of the cross because the cross is the sign of the love God has for us and the human response to that love Jesus. Loved to the end, obedient unto death on the cross.
Thus, the liturgy makes us realize that there is no love without sacrifice, no life except by death. In the liturgy and in life we \u200b\u200bidentify with the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in us. The heart of the liturgy, the heart of all the sacraments, from baptism to the rites for the dying, is the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of God's initiative and our response as revealed in the death and resurrection. By liturgy, the Church updated the Paschal Mystery of Christ for the salvation of the world and praise God on behalf of all mankind.
not only the bread and wine are transformed into the liturgy, but also we have to transform, involving the sacrifice of Jesus, allowing God to inspire in us a new life constantly, so that the Church is transformed for the world to evolve according to the will of God to all mankind.
In this sense we can say that in the liturgy together the "lex orandi" (prayer), the "lex credendi" (dogma) and "lex vivendi" (life). They are not separable, as discussed in the first part, prayer, dogma and life, but that should illuminate and interact in return.
The liturgy makes explicit what is hidden and implicit in the history of man reminds us what God has done in the past, so we can recognize the same God acting in this, and reminds us of the purposes for which the world and its history are addressed, the eternal possession of God in heaven. It puts us in contact with the mystery that exists in the heart of all things and every human being.
Liturgy is undoubtedly the highlight of the life of the Church of the Holy Spirit's action and the presence of Christ in glory. Liturgy salvation is celebrated, lived.
with faith and respect us enter into this mystery of the liturgy.
"The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church and at the same time, the source of which comes all her strength."
SEE ALSO:
LITURGICAL VESTMENTS AND MEANINGS
LITURGICAL YEAR: ORIGIN AND MEANING
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