They are (or at least I am) exasperated that pastoral staff are not listening. Here’s where we get “source and summit” in Vatican II, one of the most-quoted sections of … I do, however, wish to address the subject of the ambiguity which is often imputed to the documents of Vatican II, particularly because it is of great relevance to the Apostolic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, the very first document issued by the Council, and the most pertinent to the subject and interest of NLM. The answer to both of these is predominantly No, alas. @Alan Griffiths – comment #3: This constitution sets out the reform of the Liturgy, the liturgical books, and the very life of the Church. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is an eschatological theme in the New Testament that continues to be implicit in these texts (and many others) relating to the celebration of liturgy. I think that Philip’s comment is on target. It is also especially true in those parishes that connect their liturgical celebrations of Triduum with acts of justice and charity in the wider world–the collecting of food for the hungry and other gifts for the poor at Holy Thursday in response to the ritual mandatum, taking to the streets Good Friday afternoon to proclaim the gospel of the passion in outdoor ways of the cross or even peaceful protests at sites where Christ’s body in the world continues to be broken and nailed to trees of systemic injustice; then and only then regrouping in the parish church for the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion. There is no cosmic or supra personal or (significant) wider societal element any more in our ‘celebrations’ – particularly the domestic ones. As my favorite Vibrant Parish Life Study says: people put liturgy first and community second in importance but they gave both mediocre marks for being well done. Just to say I at least am not ‘blaming’ anyone. de Nantes had the impression that he was before a theoretically very beautiful text, coupled, however, with uncertain and disturbing “practical applications”: Nonetheless the Liturgy is the acme/summit to which the Church’s action strives and likewise the fountain/source from which its power arises. Theological Studies 2010 71: 2, 437-452 Download Citation. Ritual action is predicated on the notion that human activity impacts on the universe to influence it in humanity’s favour. Trivialization or omitting certain ritual aspects, deprives the celebration of its reference to the underlying mystery. It is about not reducing our liturgy to a sort of “God (as we thought of Him) is dead, but we now know we’re His hands, voice and collective heart.” 10. Sacrosanctum Concilium and the Meaning of Vatican II. ‘vertical’ which rile up in so many of the arguments and misunderstandings on this subject (from both the ‘tradi’ side and the rest of the Church). It is still possible to see the traces of this idea in the prayers of the Missal. The comments for Nina Lasceski’s PTB article “Ministry of the Eyes” [23 October 2012] reveal a great interest in and desire for interpersonal contact in gesture and verbal statement during Mass. Liturgical Press | School of Theology • Seminary | Saint John's Abbey | Comments Policy | Contact Us The personal, the interior, is prized over the public and the ritual. Joncas’s excellent translation that the id (“it”) in the above phrase likely refers to culmen, “summit”, in the previous sentence. For heaven’s sake, the Old Testament offers numerous instances when God spurns ritual offerings, sacrifices, etc. So Americans certainly see religion as being important and related to life in general and community in particular. #12-13 … but devotions should be “kept under control,” in line with the liturgy, which “is far more important than they are.” #14, 19 This is the first of many places in which it is stated that “all believers Required fields are marked *. We were taught for years that the purpose of ‘church attendance’ was the salvation of my own soul, and “damn everyone else”. Still, if we define God primarily as away, we should not be surprised if we end up with a liturgy that does not find God near to us. We just heard how God is present in the liturgy, and here the liturgy is portrayed as where we come to God and go from God, yet Daneels still separates “the local community” and God. But instead, he simply tells him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”, In a sense, Jesus is saying, “I don’t have to give you your sight; your faith has already done that. Part of the “language event” of the Council is that it inspired and called people to anticipation of the future — with the important role of the Spirit in continuing to lead the Church into God’s future. Blog Staff and Editorial Advisory Committee, http://www.ncronline.org/blogs/spiritual-reflections/blind-beggar-sees, Sr. Jeana Visel, OSB receives Teacher-Scholar Grant from the Calvin Institute of Worship, 59th Annual Southwest Liturgy Conference Study Week – Online Feb. 2-4. Of course more can and needs to be done. The liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with “the paschal sacraments,” to be “one in holiness”. Norms Drawn from the Hierarchic and Communal Nature of the Liturgy (26-32) 2.3.3. Professor Marie Nuar discusses Sacrosanctum Concilium and the main points of the liturgical renewal begun by Vatican II. I do wonder if the great stress some EF adherents place on the holy sacrifice is the result of a false identification of versus populum celebration with the notion of sacrificial banquet. But the Eucharist is both: a convivial meal and an act of worship and sacrifice. Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. Countless people are capable of doing that, and more, together in liturgy. The liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with “the paschal sacraments,” to be “one in holiness” [26]; it prays that “they may hold fast in their lives to what they have grasped by their faith” [27]; the renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them on fire. When all else fails, go to the cookbook, I guess. And yet, and yet… To take a more optimistic viewpoint, there is something – only vestigial, maybe – in people’s continuing desire to celebrate the most important things in life. I would only add to Fr. It provides a real entry into the ‘mysteries re-called and celebrated’. The problem IS modern Roman Catholics, including Americans, many of whom are still trying to celebrate in a preconciliar mode. One more thought, concerning the “divine framework… from all eternity” of which Alan Griffiths speaks: What has become problematic to modern people, I would submit, is not that there are eternal stakes involved in worship nor even divine election and providence, but that what is eternal is being confused with what is historical, and God’s providence is being confused with specific decisions arising from a hierarchical model that is itself outdated and in need of change. It’s a noteworthy fact about the Constitution that it quotes scripture and the fathers (and even, here, the church’s prayer) far more often than it quotes papal statements. The choice of the expression: “font from which all her power flows” seems to me to be related to the nexus of symbolism surrounding the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. Awareness, Wisdom, Will: A “Culture of Care”–in Liturgy, Pray Tell: An open forum on faith in South Texas. ( Log Out /  8-10 from the Catholic Answer Forum study I'm leading. The celebration facing the people suggests in the first place the local community and puts less focus on God. Priests, on the other hand, and especially more with this younger generation (but not exclusively) seem more than willing to bring their own personal sensibilities into the liturgy. Mark provides us with a glimpse of the perfect disciple. I have not (yet) read Guardini, so perhaps this would be an interesting start to my study. Eye contact should be there for the celebrating community, but first to God.”. 7) ought not to obscure the more interesting fact that the authors of CSL did not make them explicit (! They see themselves as being related to God, and religion as being related to community and life. Sacrosanctum Concilium vindicated the liturgical movement of the Roman Rite. Whatever one might say about the pros and cons of requiring people to come to Mass on pain of mortal sin, the juristic view of the Sunday celebration was clearly the reigning one. Catholic Sensibility is a personal blog by a Catholic layperson with comments and occasional other writings by Catholics and non-Catholics. ( Log Out /  Fact 7 Religious organizations contribute to the solving of social problems:65% agree, Fact 7. If “liturgy is genuinely sacramental, then there are spiritual consequences to liturgy”……..the current liturgical reactions from new translation to re-emphasis on ordained appear to want to limit or carefully define that SC statement in ways that impact the *mystery* of the church and church as *Koinonia – community*. However worship comes in at the bottom of the list. This teaching has not been communicated and a genuinely liturgical spirituality mostly does not animate our congregations. 10. SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM ... to be a "bodily and spiritual medicine" (9), the Mediator between God and man (10). The liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with “the paschal sacraments,” to be “one in holiness”(Postcommunion for both Masses of Easter Sunday. Both “set on fire” and “grace poured out like a fountain” are phrases redolent of New Testament eschatology. Nevertheless in my opinion, any consideration of SC 10 requires a consideration of the tendency of a number of Catholics to focus on the consecration as the “high point” of the Mass. Fifty years past the Council, the Constitution is still the most important and foundational and provides the lens from which all other liturgical documents should be interpreted.. The difference between magic and the supernatural is that magic is something we control and use, for our purposes. When we remove liturgy from the daily prayer life of people, we divorce liturgy not only from their lives and their relationships with other people but also divorce liturgy from their prayerful relationship to God. Reverence and celebration don’t sit easily together. God is working effectively in our everyday lives — something most people never seem to notice. 10. We know that historically it takes roughly 100 years for a council to be absorbed and integrated into the life of the church – during that time, we experience resistance, push back, abortive efforts to implement change, etc. The Liturgy is the Great Prayer of Christ the High Priest within his Mystical Body on earth and in heaven. Bib. The problem is NOT modern man, or at least contemporary Americans. The History is caricatured as representing a so-called “hermeneutic of rupture” interpretation of Vatican II. My sense is that Guardini was onto something, which neither ‘meaningful’ nor’orthodox’ liturgies can ameliorate. Nothing official or authoritatively connected to the Magisterium. Or second, we actively petition within the tradtion, humbly accept the outcome, but acknowledge that outcome which is otherwise inexplicable to natural causality is an act of recognition, acknowledgment and thanks to God for such graces. The personal, the interior, is prized over the public and the ritual.”. for the goal of apostolic endeavour is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of his Church, to take part in the Sacrifice and to eat the Lord's Supper. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 4 December 1963. Here is the text, my commentary, my questions, and questions from discussion on Sacrosanctum Concilium, nn. What Sacrosanctum Concilium provides, within the framework of restored tradition and sound doctrine, is the opportunity to assist the faithful in experiencing more deeply and richly the incarnate wisdom and love of God. The ‘eschatological event’ understanding draws together the fountain/source in face of the summit — its fruitfulness flows from that ‘end times’ appreciation of the sacrificial banquet participated in. Trent and Renaissance Catholicism reconstructed the narrative, making what had been a ritual community into an idelogical one. Re-Reading Sacrosanctum Concilium: Article 35. Defending a fortress Church against the wiles of Protestantism led us away from seeing liturgy as nourishing and sustaining the Body (with a capital B). CSL here proposes an alternative vision of the necessity of the celebration — one that springs from its nature rather than from its context or from governance. Therefore from the Liturgy, especially from the Eucharist, as from a fountain, grace is distributed into us and with greatest effectiveness that in Christ the sanctification of human beings and the glorification of God is obtained, toward which, as toward an end, all other works of the Church strive. Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. @Alan Griffiths – comment #6: 10. There is sometimes a danger that the Eucharist gets reduced to just the meal dimension. Half of Catholics, like half of Americans, are critical of religion because it focuses too much on rules, money, power and politics. Searching for the cosmic as if it is far off runs counter to the nature of liturgy presented here, as where God comes to meet us. : Second Vatican Council. God became human, and is present when the Church prays and sings. Plus a dollop of compassion. 10 Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. But acts of prayer aren’t just individual and do encompass the validity of ritual, particularly when they lead to that metanoia Todd, Bill and many of us speak about at the missio. Reconstructed the narrative, making what had gone before “ we also need to recall that II. 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