Two Anniversaries (Part 2)

The second section of the apostolic letter, entitled "From Renewal to a Deeper Understanding," proposes an examination of conscience regarding the reception of Vatican II in the Church and how liturgy is lived today. To wit:

• Is the liturgy lived as summit and font of the Church's activities according to the teachings of Sacrosanctum concilium?
• Has the Council's rediscovery of the value of God's Word led to a positive response within our celebrations?
• Up to what point has the liturgy entered concretely into the lives of the faithful and set the rhythm of each Christian community?
• Is the liturgy understood as a road to sanctity and the inner strength of the Church's apostolic dynamism and missionary character?

One means is a deepening in our understanding of the renewed liturgical books so as to make better use of the possibilities they offer. This must be based on a spirit of fidelity to sacred Scripture and to liturgical tradition as interpreted by the Church. The primary protagonist of this effort must be the bishops, whose task is to both regulate the liturgy as well as assure that each member participates as fully as possible according to his particular mission.

This requires a concerted effort to assure the adequate liturgical formation of both ministers and faithful. It also demands an adequate pastoral liturgy that, while remaining faithful to the liturgical books, seeks to foment and cultivate an increased interest in God's Word. This can be achieved by making full use of the possibilities already available in the lectionaries as well as by means of an explanation that moves the Christian to bring to his life what he has heard in the liturgy.

This response must also lead to a renewed evaluation of Sunday as the center of the Christian life, another theme dear to the heart of John Paul and to which he has already dedicated an apostolic letter, Dies Domini.

Finally, in this section the Holy Father renews the exhortation made in his programmatic document Novo millennio ineunte for the Church to recover and foment the art of prayer — both liturgical prayer and popular devotions, especially the rosary.

The final section "Perspectives" looks at some of the challenges facing the liturgy if it is to fulfill its mission in the new evangelization.

Although it might appear that our highly secularized world has sidelined the liturgy, the Holy Father proclaims that it is still the best means of slaking the thirst for God that continues to permeate our society and of sharing Peter's experience on Tabor: "Lord, how good it is to be here."

In order to do so, pastors have to cultivate once more the "mystagogical art," so dear to the early Church Fathers, by bringing the liturgy to life through opportune and enriching explanations and making the sense of the mystery penetrate the conscience of the faithful.

One aspect which the Holy Father insists must be encouraged with greater effort in our liturgies is the "experience of silence." At a time when several forms of meditation are being promoted in modern society, not all of them of Christian matrix, the Church must offer and promote a true pedagogy of silence within the coordinates of its own tradition. The liturgy must also participate in this recuperation of silence by making full use of the suggestions offered in the liturgical books.

In concluding this section John Paul returns once more to the importance of forming a "taste for prayer" among the faithful. This is achieved by explaining the rites and above all by introducing the faithful to praying the Divine Office, or Liturgy of the Hours, as an outstanding source of piety and a means of nurturing personal prayer, while not excluding other forms of prayer and devotion. The Holy Father's emphasis on the subject of prayer in this and in other recent interventions clearly shows that he considers it to be a principal element in the Church's mission and in the personal mission of each Catholic.

The onus of educating the faithful in prayer falls above all upon the Church's pastors whose actions also guarantee the assistance of the Holy Spirit. The harmony between leaving space for a certain degree of creativity and a normative structure also assures the conservation of the liturgy's identity as prayer of the Church. Failure to observe the liturgical norms can lead to grave abuses which cast a shadow over the truth of the mystery and cause distress and tensions among the People of God.

The Pope expresses the desire that a new liturgical spirituality will be developed that is fully aware of Christs role as primary liturgos who ceaselessly acts in the Church and the world through the power of the continual celebration of the paschal Mystery, and who associates the Church to himself to the praise of the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

See CNP's Booklets of Chant, Treasury Series, Organ Music, and other Articles on Liturgy