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The Place Of The Liturgy In The Plan Of Supernatural Adoption

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

F. A. McGowan
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The Liturgy is a great subject, sometimes an inflammatory one, known to generate devotion, enthusiasm, even heat. But there is a possibility of avoiding the controversial, making the study exploratory, seeking out the facts and their relations which help us to live better the life of union with God. So, for security reasons, it is well to begin by putting liturgy in its place by defining terms.

Liturgy is the Church's official dispensation of the Mysteries of Christ. It is the ‘whole’ body of the official prayers and sacramental actions whereby the communication of men with God is carried on in the Church'; ‘the life-dispensing, life-preserving, and life-restoring activity of Ecclesia, the Mystical Christ‘. In less technical words: Liturgy is the official communication of divine Life by Christ through the Church. The liturgy consists of four inter-related parts: the sacraments, the sacramentals, Divine Office and ritual prayers, and the Liturgical Year—all centred in and drawing their source from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which, as the re-enactment of Calvary, is the core of the liturgy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 10 , Issue 113 , November 1955 , pp. 212 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © 1955 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 First of a series on the Liturgy given to lay Adult Education groups.

2 Cf. Humbert Cldrissac, o.p., The Mystery of the Church. New York, 1937. P- 7-

3 Cf.M.C..D'Arcy, s.j.,The Life of the Church, New York, 1933, p. 19. ‘The heart of the Christian mytery is this, that the Christ who was both God and man, has determined to extend His life from the terrain of Galilee and Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, and His span of days from thirty odd years to the end of time; and He is to bear the same relation, as far as that is possible, to human individuals which His divine nature bore to His own soul and body. There is one fundamental difference, of course: His own soul and body had no human personality, whereas we, no matter how close we live in the divine life, remain persons, able to say: “No longer I live but Thou.” ‘

4 Cf. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., L'eternelle vie, paris, 1949, p. 312f; and D-M Nothomb, 'Afin d'embrasser l'univers', La vie Spirituelle, May 1955, p. 454: 'Tous sont desidees de Dieu realisees, des actes d'amour de dieu, pui des objects de son amour. Dieu notre pere est comme un miroir ou nous retrouvons le visage de chaque homme non seulement son visage, mais son ame, mais ce qui fait le plus intime secret de lui-meme, la ou seul Dieu penetre...[The 'new name' which prefectly describe each one's relation to God.]