The liturgy is a living encounter in which we worship the Father, through his Son Jesus, our risen Lord, in the Holy Spirit. It is the source and summit of our entire Christian life. It should therefore be celebrated well and according to the rites given to us by the universal community of the Church to which we belong. The rubrics, gestures, postures and words are extremely important. But what is most important is the attitude with which we approach the liturgy. We are God’s creatures, not creators. The structure is given to us to help us encounter the deeper spiritual reality of God-with-us. We can “perform” the liturgy flawlessly, following all the directives beautifully, and still have a very dead liturgy, if we do not remember that the liturgy is primarily prayer. While it has elements of drama that engage us and our deepest emotions, it is never simply a performance. We must put our hearts and souls into the celebration of the liturgy. Most of all, we must open our hearts to the incredible power of the Holy Spirit that works on us and in us in the liturgy.Now we come to the particular comment I'd like to call attention to:
Anyone who has worked on planning the liturgy knows that it is never as simple as it seems. It involves human beings with human limitations, so it is seldom, if ever, celebrated perfectly. While it is important that we better understand the reasons behind what we do, it is more important that we avoid the temptation to become "liturgical police," criticizing anyone and anything that does not conform to the rules. Sometimes the temptation is only played out in the silence of our hearts as we privately criticize the unfolding of the liturgy rather than enter into the worship with praise and thanksgiving. It is true that we are in the process of critiquing our liturgies for the sake of improving them, but Satan can easily lead us to turn legitimate critique into resentment toward our brothers and sisters, thus undermining the real purpose of liturgy.Bravo, Excellency!
I also urge that we be very careful when we find ourselves saying," We have always done it this way. We like it." or "That is not supposed to be done." On the one hand, we sometimes fall into bad habits. The fact that they are habits is not an excuse for holding on to them if they are not correct. On the other hand, I myself have occasionally said, “That is not supposed to be done,” and after double checking, I found that what I judged incorrect was actually quite permissible. We need to approach the liturgy with great humility, because it is in fact our way of approaching intimacy with the Lord himself, before whom we can only be humble.
(But... if we mustn't be liturgical police, how about liturgical referees?)
Liturgical dance detected.
