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Michael Althib

29 January 2018
Intro. To The Liturgy
Fr. Aziz Halaweh
Definitions and Method
The first use of the word “Liturgy” as the rites and practices of
the Church’s worship is found in the 20th century. There have been
many other names before it e.g. “De Divinis Officiis, De Ecclesiasticis
Officiis, etc.” The Greek word leturgia is translated in many different
ways by many different people, each one giving his own interpretation.
In 1947, Pope Pius XII clarified what is meant by liturgy and
its spirituality through his letter Mediator Dei. It described it as not a
form of prayer that is purely external, nor a decorative ceremony. Also
it is not a collection of rules and regulations to be followed as a theater
play. Lastly he cleared up the miscommunication of it being the prayer
of the Church and Liturgical understanding. He continues to talk about
the supernatural truth of the liturgy and the need to understand it. It is,
according to Pope Pius XII only the “exercise of the priestly function of
Christ”.
The Church has expressed more precisely the exact act of the
liturgy in that in the liturgy the purification of the person is signified by
signs observable by the senses, and is achieved in a way which relates
with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is
accomplished by the Mystical Body of Christ, meaning, by the Head
(Jesus) and His members (The Church).
A great liturgical theologian name Louis Bouyer speaks of
what is the Christian Mystery in connection with the liturgy? he
concludes that it’s the passage from death to life, an action which took
place in the past and can never be repeated, because it is perfect, the
Cross of Jesus, seen in fullness and it is embodied in the liturgy,
especially in the Mass and in the whole Christian life.
The liturgy is the gathering of God's People called together in
assembly by God's Word through the apostolic ministry, in order that
the People, purposefully united together, can hear God's Word itself in
Christ, may follow to that Word by means of prayer and praise among
which the Word is proclaimed, and so seal by the Eucharistic sacrifice
the Covenant which is accomplished by that same Word. In closing the
Old Testament was in the darkness, while the New Testament gave us
the image. Only in heaven can we see the true reality.

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