167 Liturgy in the Church, part 6

YOUCAT Lesson 167, part 6 of 6 parts

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

167  What is liturgy?

Liturgy is the official divine worship of the Church.  [1077-1112]

…….Photo: Benedictine monks singing Vespers on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday)…..”Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit in the liturgy” (see CCC #1108 below). …..167

A liturgy is not an event that depends on good ideas and great songs.  No one makes or invents a liturgy.  It is something living that grew over millennia of faith.  A Mass is a holy, venerable action.  Liturgy becomes exciting when one senses that God himself is present under its sacred signs and its precious, often ancient prayers.

Power came forth from him and healed them all.  Luke 6:19b

…….THE LITURGY - WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY

…….The communion of the Holy Spirit

…….1108 In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form his Body. The Holy Spirit is like the sap of the Father's vine which bears fruit on its branches.( compare John 15:1-17; Galations 5:22)²⁶    The most intimate cooperation of the Holy Spirit and the Church is achieved in the liturgy. The Spirit who is the Spirit of communion, abides indefectibly in the Church. For this reason the Church is the great sacrament of divine communion which gathers God's scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit in the liturgy.( compare 1 John 1:3-7)²⁷ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

…….1109 The epiclesis [invocation upon] is also a prayer for the full effect of the assembly's communion with the mystery of Christ. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit"( 2 Corinthians 13:13)²⁸  have to remain with us always and bear fruit beyond the Eucharistic celebration. The Church therefore asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to make the lives of the faithful a living sacrifice to God by their spiritual transformation into the image of Christ, by concern for the Church's unity, and by taking part in her mission through the witness and service of charity.—CCC

…….IN BRIEF

…….1110 In the liturgy of the Church, God the Father is blessed and adored as the source of all the blessings of creation and salvation with which he has blessed us in his Son, in order to give us the Spirit of filial adoption.—CCC

…….1111 Christ's work in the liturgy is sacramental: because his mystery of salvation is made present there by the power of his Holy Spirit; because his Body, which is the Church, is like a sacrament (sign and instrument) in which the Holy Spirit dispenses the mystery of salvation; and because through her liturgical actions the pilgrim Church already participates, as by a foretaste, in the heavenly liturgy.—CCC

…….1112 The mission of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy of the Church is to prepare the assembly to encounter Christ; to recall and manifest Christ to the faith of the assembly; to make the saving work of Christ present and active by his transforming power; and to make the gift of communion bear fruit in the Church.