This course will be directed to better liturgical celebration. Contemporary liturgical practice will be evaluated in its historical, cultural, and theological context. Students will learn the principles of effective celebration of the Liturgy of the Word and liturgical prayers and will practice good liturgical worship. Students will also be introduced to the historical development of Christian liturgy, its anthropological dimensions, and important church documents. Students will engage the pastoral and academic dimensions of liturgical theology and discuss the role of sacramental ministry in worship.
Se ya there. But if this one is not for you, there's a whole pile of others, including Anthony Ruff OSB on - not (again) why he's upset that the Mass will be in English for the first time in forty years - but Gregorian Chant. Go check it all out here.
There are two faiths in Roman Catholicism today: liturgism and orthodoxy.
ReplyDeleteLiturgism preaches that the Mass must be conformed to persons through the fungible "active participation". In liturgism, the objective reality of the sacrifice of the altar yields to anthropological subjectivity. Adoration of Christ and the infinite sacramental grace of Holy Communion yields to the People of God, in assembly, "building a new Church."
Orthodoxy orders us to adore the unbloody Sacrifice in our midst through a full surrender to piety, reverence, and contrition. The grace given us at Mass in the Eucharist is not through "community sharing", but rather the mandate of our sovereign Lord. There is no need for innovation, as the inestimable Canon has provided us with the eternal re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice, the most precious gift given to humankind. There is no need to create endlessly innovative "celebrations" centered on "relevance". Our mortal lives are not that relevant when compared against the infinite horizon of Calvary and the sacrifice of the altar.
I do hope that all of us turn from the navel-gazing of liturgism and simply kneel in humility before our Lord though the guidance of Our Lady.
I strongly recommend the late Cardinal Avery Dulles' fine analysis of this problem. It was written in the late '90s but has not lost its force:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/11/002-the-ways-we-worship-10