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To experience true relationship with God in the liturgy, faithful’s participation cannot be passive, pope says
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During the liturgy, “the memorial of the work of salvation is celebrated,” and the Church’s ritual actions also provide an opportunity “to experience a true relationship with God, coming into contact with the salvific event,” the pope said.
The Council Fathers expressed “a renewed awareness of the value of the liturgy,” Pope Leo said during his general audience talk in St. VATICAN CITY (CNS) — “Firmly rooted” in the Church’s living tradition, the liturgical reform put forth by the Second Vatican Council grew from the need for the faithful to celebrate the liturgy more “consciously and actively,” and not “as strangers and silent spectators,” Pope Leo XIV said.
Therefore, the intention was “to allow the liturgy to shine forth as ‘the primary source of that divine exchange in which the life of God is communicated to us.'” Because of the importance of language, teaching and “intelligibility,” there was “the need to make the richness of the biblical texts and prayers more accessible to all the faithful, and to streamline the order of the celebration compared with that set out in the liturgical books then in use,” he said.
It was the pope’s final catechesis dedicated to the council’s first constitution after beginning his new series of talks on the documents of the Second Vatican Council Jan. 7, so people would be motivated to reread and reflect on them rather than base their understanding of the texts on “hearsay” and the interpretations of others, he had said.
In his main catechesis in Italian, he said it is still the primary responsibility of bishops and priests “to safeguard and promote a liturgy which, while respecting liturgical norms, shines with noble simplicity and thus manifests the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Therefore, it is “not surprising that the Second Vatican Council, too, with the utmost respect for the heritage of tradition, and precisely in order to make it more accessible, considered it necessary to revise the liturgical books,” Pope Leo said.
Their physical presence cannot be reconciled with their spiritual absence,'” he said, quoting Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini of Milan, the future Pope Paul VI and saint, who was attending the council’s first session at the time in 1962.
“At every celebration of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, let us ask for God’s help to be strengthened on our journey and to enter into a deeper relationship with the Lord,” he said in his English summary. Quoting the conciliar constitution, he said, “the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change.
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- VATICAN CITY (CNS) — “Firmly rooted” in the Church’s living tradition, the liturgical reform put forth by the Second Vatican Council grew from the need for the faithful to celebrate the liturgy more “consciously and…
- Their physical presence cannot be reconciled with their spiritual absence,'” he said, quoting Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini of Milan, the future Pope Paul VI and saint, who was attending the council’s first…
- The Council Fathers expressed “a renewed awareness of the value of the liturgy,” Pope Leo said during his general audience talk in St.
- It was the pope’s final catechesis dedicated to the council’s first constitution after beginning his new series of talks on the documents of the Second Vatican Council Jan. 7, so people would be motivated to reread…
- “A correct understanding of it also enables us to reject the abuses that occurred in certain sectors of the Church during the post-conciliar period, and which, unfortunately, still occur from time to time today,…
- During the liturgy, “the memorial of the work of salvation is celebrated,” and the Church’s ritual actions also provide an opportunity “to experience a true relationship with God, coming into contact with the…
- The council’s reform put “at the center that which constitutes the heart of the ecclesial experience,” he said.
- Therefore, the intention was “to allow the liturgy to shine forth as ‘the primary source of that divine exchange in which the life of God is communicated to us.'” Because of the importance of language, teaching and…
Sources
- Osvnews — source text fetched for this pass link