![]() ![]() The solution is, as Benedict insists, a true celebration of the liturgy, which demands beauty.īenedict XVI has offered many reflections on different aspects of liturgical beauty, such as architecture, ritual, vestment, and others. What we are witnessing is the fruit of poorly celebrated liturgies. The solution to this situation is not, contrary to what prominent commentators have said, simply to review our catechetical methods. ![]() ![]() And when a young person goes to Mass and finds mediocre music and poor preaching, and nothing of what he experiences inspires him, if his faith is not strong, then we shouldn’t be surprised that only 7 percent of millennials raised in the Church still practice their faith, or as a recent Pew Study has shown, only 31 percent of Catholics believe in the real presence. Haven’t we all found some comfort in saying, after a poor celebration of the Mass, or one done with irreverence or plain abuses, that at least the “words of consecration” were said? Is that all that matters? Of course, we know the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist will be there even if the rites of the Mass are performed in a sloppy way, as long as the consecratory words are said validly, but when a believer has to struggle to go beyond what he sees and hears in order to keep his faith, one has to admire that perseverance. The dull average of much modern architecture, ritual, and music in many parishes might have created a false sense of security in keeping things “average.” Beauty seems secondary, when not simply irrelevant or disruptive. This is another complicated point, not only because of the difficulty of going beyond subjective preferences in regards to beauty, but also because at times it seems that some are afraid of true beauty in the Church. That will lead them to truly, consciously, and actively participate in the richness of the sacred liturgy.Ī final key for liturgical renewal is beauty. We need to help them to enter into the words of the liturgy, and offer a sacrifice of the heart. This is an important key for us, who celebrate and preside over liturgical celebrations this is a decisive key as well for our people. Just as Israel understood that the sacrifice pleasing to God was a contrite heart, so Jesus transfigured the Passover prayers and gave them “a heart that opens the locked door this heart is his love…, Jesus Christ transformed his death into verbal form-into a prayer-and, in so doing, changed the world.” The more we pray with the words of the liturgy, which is the prayer of Christ, the more we participate in his offering. And this leads us to the core of true participation: to take part in the action of Christ, which is a sacrifice of the heart. The more we enter into those words, the more we worship according to the Word. ![]() God has given us the word and the sacred liturgy offers us words we must enter into the words, into their meaning and receive them within us, we must attune ourselves to these words in this way we become children of God.” The words of the liturgy, taken from Scripture and Tradition, precede our thoughts, our feelings, our dispositions, and are meant to shape our ways of thinking, praying, feeling, and acting. But “in the liturgy, the opposite is true, words come first. He said that in human life thoughts come first, and then the words. Benedict’s indication that our minds must concord with our voices when we pray. Why?ĭuring a Wednesday catechesis in 2012, Pope Benedict commented on St. The Church, truly, stands or falls with the liturgy. The true celebration of the sacred liturgy is at the center of any renewal of the Church.” Any renewal, the renewal that we so honestly desire, has its center in the true celebration of the liturgy. Similarly, in the words that I used for the title of this lecture, he said: “The Church stands or falls with the Liturgy. It is not only about, to put it simplistically, if priests are “saying Mass,” but also about how those Masses-and other liturgical actions-are being celebrated. Almost two years ago, writing a preface for the Russian translation of his Collected Works on the liturgy, he stated: “The deepest cause of the crisis that has upset the Church lies in the obscuring of the priority of God in the liturgy.” How so? He explains: “The Church’s existence lives from proper celebration of the liturgy and…the Church is in danger when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy nor consequently in life.” It is important to notice one adjective in this sentence: Benedict is not simply saying that the Church lives from the celebration of the liturgy, but from the proper celebration of the liturgy. ![]()
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