Day 145: Introduction to the Liturgy (2025)

In three hundred and sixty five days, we'll read through the catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day one hundred and forty-five. Yesterday we had uh Bishop Cousins join us with amazing. We're do reading paragraphs ten sixty six to ten seventy-five.

I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism when I read this, but which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism into your reading plan by visiting Ascension Press dot com slash CIY and you can also click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Also quick little note as we launch into today.

This, you know, second pillar. Thank you. Thank you so much. You guys have stuck together stuck together and stuck with us. We've been here for 145 days. Here we are. Especially after, you know, a day like yesterday. Oh man, my dad at one point he had uh

He was like, Yeah, you know, I'm I'm used to these, you know, fifteen minute days, maybe twenty minute days and all of a sudden you g throw me this curveball with this really long day and I'm like, Oh, sorry, Dad. Sorry about that. But But here we are. So thank you for all those of you who are here and also all those who have supported the production of this podcast with your prayers and financial gifts. Literally could not do this without you.

Uh, here we are, day one forty five. Again, okay, we're talking about the liturgy. Couple things to keep in mind. If you remember, way back when we had this book called Dei Verboom, right? And everyone say, Who's Dave Earbum? I'm like, okay Well maybe I need to enunciate a l a little bit better. That's probably true. Today we're introduced to a new document. The new document's called Sacrosanctum Conchilium, right?

Sacrosanctum concilium is a document of the Second Vatican Council. A couple times today I'm going to reference that document because it really has guided the way in which uh the catechism here as has been presented the sacraments. Now one of the things that we heard yesterday with Bishop Cousins.

Is the beauty, the mystery, just the the way that sacraments impact our lives, like the lit the way the liturgy impacts our lives. And it's just incredible because we have this here, here is God who is so transcendent, right? He is so other and yet he reaches down to us and he comes to us.

in the liturgy comes to us in the sacraments and also we we serve, we worship, we we praise the Lord through the liturgy. And so there's this h incredible, high and powerful vision. Now today as we launch into our understanding of the liturgy,

It's gonna be just like way, some nuts and bolts right away. Like for example, number one, why the liturgy? Why would why would would we even have such a thing as liturgy? Also, we're using this word liturgy. What does it mean? Well, ten sixty nine says The word liturgy originally meant a public work or a service in the name of or on behalf of the people. Now in the Christian tradition, it means that the participation of the people of God in the work of God.

And so just keep that in mind. Ten seventy also gives kind of another explanation of of liturgy. It refers not only to divine worship, but also to the proclamation of the gospel and to act of charity. So all of these meanings

for the word liturgy or we're gonna kind of use them. We're gonna use them all. So when you hear that word liturgy, realize, okay, this is a public work, it's a service in the name of or on behalf of the people, but also it is the work participation of the people of God in the work of God. Let's hold on to that one. The participation of the people of God in the work of God. So God is doing something in this world.

When we enter into the liturgy, we are entering into and participating with what God is doing in this world. And we also recognize that this is the source of our life. So this is, you know, introductory comments. Tomorrow we'll start section one, the sacramental economy, whole nother thing. But today we have the intro. So let's to call call upon the Lord and and pray right now. Father in heaven, we give you thanks, we praise you, we give you glory, and we

We love you. Help us to love you, not just in our in our hearts, not just to love you in our thoughts or having a good attitude or a good opinion of you, Lord God, but help us to love you through worship. Help us to love you by participating in your work.

Your work of sanctifying this world, your work of redeeming this world, your work of transforming this world, your work of reaching out to our brothers and sisters who are in the most need, we ask you to please help us to do that now in the course of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said this day one hundred and forty-five, we are reading paragraphs ten sixty-six to ten seventy-five.

How We Worship, Part 2. The Celebration of the Christian Mystery, The Liturgy, Section 1. The Sacramental Economy. Why the liturgy? In the symbol of the faith, the Church confesses the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the plan of God's good pleasure for all creation. The Father accomplishes the mystery of his will by giving his beloved Son and His Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and for the glory of his name.

Such is the mystery of Christ revealed and fulfilled in history according to the wisely ordered plan that Saint Paul calls the plan of the mystery, and the patristic tradition will call the economy of the word incarnate or the economy of salvation. The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God.

He accomplished this work principally by the paschal mystery of his blessed passion, resurrection from the dead, and glorious ascension, whereby dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life. For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the wondrous sacrament of the whole church. For this reason, the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all, the paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.

It is this mystery of Christ that the church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy, so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world. As Sacrosanctum Concilium states, for it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that the work of our redemption is accomplished.

And it is through the liturgy especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true church.

What does the word liturgy mean? The word liturgy originally meant a public work or a service in the name of on behalf of the people. In Christian tradition, it means the participation of the people of God in the work of God. Through the liturgy, Christ our Redeemer and High Priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his church.

In the New Testament, the word liturgy refers not only to the celebration of divine worship, but also to the proclamation of the gospel and to act of charity. In all of these situations, it is a question of the service of God and neighbor. In a liturgical celebration, the church is servant in the image of her Lord, the one Latragos. She shares in Christ's priesthood, worship, which is both prophetic proclamation, and kingly service of charity. Sacrosanctum Conchilium further states that

The liturgy then is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. It involves the presentation of man's sanctification under the guise of signs perceptible by the senses and its accomplishment in ways appropriate to each of these signs. In it, full public worship is performed by the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and his members.

From this, it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his body, which is the church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree. Liturgy as source of life. As the work of Christ, liturgy is also an action of his church. It makes the church present, and manifests her as the visible sign of the communion in Christ between God and men.

It engages the faithful in the new life of the community and involves the conscious, active, and fruitful participation of everyone. The Sacred Liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church. It must be preceded by evangelization, faith, and conversion. It can then produce its fruits in the lives of the faithful, new life in the Spirit, involvement in the mission of the church. and service to our unity.

Prayer and liturgy The liturgy is also a participation in Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In the Liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal. Through the liturgy, the inner man is rooted and grounded in the great love with which the Father loved us in his beloved Son. It is the same marvelous work of God that is lived and internalized by all prayer at all times in the Spirit.

Catechesis and liturgy. The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed. It is also the font from which all her power flows. It is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the people of God. As Saint John Paul II stated, catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of men.

Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ, it is mystigoji, by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the sacraments to the mysteries. Such catechesis is to be presented by local and regional catechisms.

This catechism, which aims to serve the whole church in all the diversity of her rites and cultures, will present what is fundamental and common to the whole church in the liturgy as mystery and as celebration, section one, and then the seven sacraments and the sacramentals. Section two

Okay, so there we have it, paragraphs ten sixty-six to ten seventy-five. One thing just to highlight. Right away the church asks the question, why the liturgy? Hopefully you caught the answer. The answer is Here is what God has done for us, right? Here is the the the way the Lord has created God has created this world. He's also redeemed hi this world through the Paschal mystery, right? The life, death, and resurrection and s and ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven.

God wants to bring what he has what he has done for us to us. And so he does that in the power of the Holy Spirit through the liturgy. Like it's through the liturgy that we encounter the grace that Jesus Christ has won for us. This is the m massive, massive part of understanding that What is the work of God? Well the work of God is everything in this in this world, right?

But in the economy of salvation, remember in in the way in which God has saved this world, what has he done? Well, through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, by giving the Holy Spirit in the at Pentecost and he has

Redeemed us for the Lord. He's brought us into made it possible for us to live in right relationship with God. Not just like, okay, now we have a right relationship with God and we can live in heaven, but even in this world, we get to have access to the Father. We get to have access to God Himself. And so why why the liturgy? Because here's what Jesus has done for us. He's given us the Holy Spirit, and it is through the liturgy that we encounter and participate in

in what God has done for us. And this is just so important. That's one of the reasons why ten sixty nine, that paragraph, is so important in that second line. Okay, uh well, first line says the word liturgy originally meant public work or service in the name of be on behalf of the people. So yep, definitely. The second line in Christian tradition, it means the participation of the people of God in the work of God. And it just and I know that I'm restating what you just heard.

But it is really important for us to understand, because we're gonna use the w term liturgy a bunch over the next couple of weeks slash months. So to be able to understand, okay, here is the term liturgy. This always means the participation of the people of God. That's you and me and the whole church.

in the work of God. And what is the work of God? Again, redemption, sanctification. Here's the work of God that is reconciliation. The work of God that is here he wants to make us like him, right? Divinization in this, in this amazing, incredible way.

So that's our participation in what God is doing. Every time you and I show up for the sacraments, every time you and I worship the Lord, above all in the Eucharist, but any of the sacraments, whenever we participate in then in them, it is the work of God. So I mean think about the anointing of the sick, as just as an example. The work of God is healing. The work of God is is giving his divine life.

Whether the body is healed or only the soul is healed, what's happening is there's a healing. And the the work of God is the healing, the healing of the person. The work of God is reconciliation and strengthening and giving the person that courage to take the next step in life. And when we celebrate that sacrament of anointing of the sick, we are participating in that work of God.

In the Mass, in the Eucharist, right? What's happening there? Well that is the the self offering of the Son to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, right? It's the sacrifice once for all that happened on Calvary. But it is constantly, we're constantly being pr being presented to it. It's being presented to us. It's constantly happening, this this offering of Son to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We get to, that's the work. We get to participate in that self-offering, in the liturgy. And so if we always can remember this, always come back to this piece. of we're participating in what God is doing. So the liturgy is not meant to be dry, it's not meant to be it's not empty. It's not simply going through the motions.

What we're doing every single time is we're in some ways tapping into what is happening in God, right? We're tapping into, we're participating and we're not simply observing. That's a whole nother thing we're gonna talk about as we move forward. It's too often. You're gonna hear me say this a thousand times in the next few weeks and months.

Too often, when we show up to the sacraments, when we when we show up to worship, we are simply watching. We're watching someone else pray. We're maybe, maybe praying along, or maybe following along. But we're meant to participate fully. That's one of the reasons why paragraph ten seventy one says the conscious, active, and fruitful participation of everyone is

That doesn't mean you are now a lector. That doesn't mean that now you're an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at Mass. It doesn't mean you're now a greeter. The f conscious, active, and fruitful participation of everyone means you and I understand what is happening, what is going on in this particular liturgy.

And we're participating in it in whatever way we possibly can. So again, if I'm going to confession, I I'm going to confession, I'm particip participating in the work of God, of reconciliation, right, of healing, of giving strength, and I'm participating by confessing my sins and receiving his grace. If I'm going to mass. And participating by by praying and offering up my heart and offering up the sacrifice of the Eucharist.

in participation with the ministerial priest and in participation with Jesus Christ, the high priest. So I can go on and on about all these ways, but if we can get this, this is going to be our key for the next number of days. The key being, okay, God's work. The work of God is sanctification. The work of God is redemption. The work of God is is deification. The work of God is is active right now. Reconciliation.

And every time we show up for the liturgies, we are participating in that work of God. If we get that, we will get the next the next number of days, weeks, months will be powerful. And if we don't get it, they'll still be powerful because there's a lot of other things going on. But that's gonna be our key right now as we move forward. So I'm just inviting us all um have our eyes open, have our ears open and just Watch for the opportunity to participate in God's work.

'Cause that is liturgy, our participation in the work of God. Anyways, that's what I got today. That's the one message if you can remember anything from today. The reason I said it a thousand times today, well I've saw also said I think the word a thousand. A couple of times. Why I repeated myself so many times is because we want to get this So absolutely clear. Okay.

Tomorrow we're gonna start section one. This was just a prologue kind of a situation. Section one, the sacramental economy, chapter one, the paschal mystery in the age of the church. This is the work of the Holy Trinity. More on that tomorrow. Right now, please. Let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.