CBCP - ECCCE15th Annual Meeting of Catechetical

MinistersSeptember 15-18, 2015

Sta. Catalina Spirituality Center, Baguio City

Dr. Josefina M. Manabat, EdD, SLD

WORSHIP / LITURGY

Sources (Content) of Catechesis

NNCDP # 151

As Vatican II declared, “although the sacred liturgy is above all the worship of the divine Majesty, it likewise contains abundant instruction for the faithful. For in the liturgy, God is speaking to His people, Christ is still proclaiming His Gospel, and the people are replying to both by song and prayer” (SC 33).

NNCDP # 151

Faith is needed to actively participate in the liturgy, but faith in turn is nourished and deepened in liturgical celebrations. Thus, when catechists draw on the Eucharistic Prayers, the texts of the sacramental rites and prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours, they are sharing in the priestly office of Jesus Christ.

NNCDP # 152

Catechesis, then, “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 human beings” (CT 23).

NNCDP # 152

The focus here is primarily on the liturgy as a major source for all catechesis, rather than liturgical catechesis which specifically prepares for celebrating the sacraments.

NNCDP # 152

Without a vibrant sacramental and prayer life, catechesis becomes lifeless intellectualism and moralism. On the other hand, unless the doctrinal basis for the sacraments is understood, and a moral praxis actually flows from the liturgical life, “the sacramental life itself becomes impoverished and soon turns into hollow ritualism” (CT 23; cf. PCP II, 182-85).

NNCDP # 153

In the Philippine context, the place of liturgy as a source for catechesis is exceptionally important because of the Filipinos’ natural attraction to celebration and song, for fiestas, and festivities. This makes the liturgy a privileged means of effectively communicating the message.

NNCDP # 153

Unfortunately, worship is often seen as only one dimension of life, without any particular connection with life’s social, economic, and political aspects.

NNCDP # 306A good liturgical and sacramental catechesis can

help Filipino Catholics:

a) understand what they are doing and what is really taking place in the liturgy;

b) assume the proper attitudes that should underlie their actions and gestures in the liturgy;

c) strive to live according to what they believe and celebrate.

NNCDP # 306

Through a solid and adequate liturgical/sacramental formation, Filipino Catholics can be brought to a conscious and holistic Catholic worship, fruitful for their own personal faith life and for the life of their faith-communities.

NCDP # 317

An effective catechetical approach to the sacraments must go beyond merely giving factual information about the sacraments and concentrate on inspiring those being catechized to a personal appreciation of the importance of the sacraments for living out the Catholic Faith.

NCDP # 317

Catechesis must focus on explaining the reasons why receiving/celebrating the sacraments is essential for Filipino Catholics to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, in his community, the Church, now, in today’s Philippines.

CFC # 1468

The Church’s sacramental life has been radically revitalized as a result of the liturgical renewal set in motion by Vatican II.

The Vatican II Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the Sacred Liturgy 52 years ago, the first among the 16 documents that came out of the Council.

52

A PASTORAL VISION, A THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION

The vision of the Vatican II program of liturgical renewal is pastoral and practical in nature:

THE ACTIVE, FULL, AND

CONSCIOUS

PARTICIPATION OF THE

FAITHFUL IN LITURGICAL

CELEBRATIONS

Sacrosanctum Concilium # 14

Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their baptism.

But the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy does not begin with practical measures on how to realize that vision.

The first thirteen articles of Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC 1-13) unfold, rather, the most profound theological understanding of the liturgy that the Church has ever conceived of in her two-thousand-year history.

Woven from a treasury of ancient sources.

This, the Liturgy Constitution does by skillfully weaving together biblical, patristic, liturgical, and magisterial sources that form part of the revered literary treasure and tradition of the Church.= ressourcement

SC 2-13 alone has 38 biblical citations from both the Old and the New Testament; 3 citations from patristic sources; 11 from ancient and recent liturgical texts, and 2 from magisterial sources.

SC 2-13 alone has 38 biblical citations

from both the Old and the New Testaments.

SC 2 – 13 has reference to 3 patristic texts.

SC 5: Christ as «bodily and spiritual medicine» (Letter to the Ephesians 7:2)

SC 5: the Church as «wondrous sacrament» (Sermon on Psalm 138, 2).

SC 7: Christ's presence in the sacraments: «so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes » (Sermon 6 on the Gospel according to John 1:7).

SC 2 – 13 makes 11 references to liturgical

texts.

In art. 5, there are four: we find a phrase from a Prayer over the Gifts of the Sacramentarium Veronense:

In Christ "the perfect achievement of our reconciliation came forth, and the fullness of divine worship was given to us”.

a phrase from a Preface of the Roman Missal

He achieved His task principally by the paschal mystery of His blessed passion, resurrection from the dead, and the glorious ascension, whereby "dying, he destroyed our death and, rising, he restored our life”.

an indirect reference is made to the Unde et memores of the Roman Canon and to the Prayer after the Second Reading for the Easter Vigil in the Roman Missal(before restoration):

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“.

In art. 8, there are three indirect citations from the Roman Canon.

Art. 10 has a phrase taken directly from the Prayer after Communion of the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday in the Roman Missal...

The liturgy moves the faithful, filled with "the paschal sacraments," to be "one in holiness;"

and a phrase from the Prayer after Communion of Tuesday of the Octave of Easter in the Missale Romanum.

[The Liturgy] prays that "they [the faithful] may hold fast in their lives to what they have grasped by their faith."

Art. 12 has a phrase directly quoted from the Prayer over the Gifts, Monday of the Octave of Pentecost in the pre-Vatican II Roman Missal.

We ask the Lord in the sacrifice of the Mass that, "receiving the offering of the spiritual victim," he may fashion us for himself "as an eternal gift."

SC 2 - 13 has 2 references to conciliar documents.

Both are references to the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563):

In SC 6, there is a direct quote of the phrase from the Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, 5 to affirm that the Eucharist is where « the victory and triumph of his death are again made present ».

Another direct quote from the Decretum de ss. sacrificio Missae, 5 is found in SC 7 to affirm the presence of Chrìst in the sacrifice of the Mass: « the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross».

Woven from a treasury of ancient sources.

The Liturgy Constitution skillfully weaves together biblical, patristic, liturgical, and magisterial sources that form part of the revered literary treasure and tradition of the Church to unfold the most profound theological understanding of the liturgy that the Church has ever conceived of in her two-thousand-year history.

= ressourcement

The result is a vision of the liturgy

that is not derived from philosophical deductions but from the point of view of salvation history

as it unfolds in the pages of Sacred Scripture

as it was understood and taught by the Fathers of the Church , and

as it has been enshrined in the venerable prayers of the Church.

Liturgy is salvation history… celebrated per

ritus et preces.The vision of Vatican II liturgical renewal is practical but its foundation is theological:

The liturgy accomplishes “today,” “here and now,” the work of our redemption accomplished by Christ once and for all in history.

In the LITURGY

THE WORK OF OUR

REDEMPTION IS

ACCOMPLISHED!

In the LITURGY

what Christ did for our

redemption is being

accomplished “here

and now”.

Articles 2 and 7 of the Liturgy Constitution are particularly eloquent in expressing this theological description of the liturgy.

Anamnesis

the workof our redemption is accomplished.

Paschal Event

CHRIST LITURGY

©

CHURCH

Eucharist

SACRAMENTS

Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 2 Art. 6

In the Liturgy

Pagsasa-ngayonPagsasa-dito

SACROSANCUM CONCILIUM, NO. 7

The liturgy is “an exercise of

the priestly office of Jesus

Christ” by Christ himself and his

Body, the Church.

the Church celebrates the presence of salvation today (= hodie), here and now by means of ritual action. The celebration of the liturgy extends the work of Christ in time and space “until he comes again”.

In the Liturgy

The work of redemption accomplished by CHRISTin the SACRAMENTS of the CHURCH,

continues today

in the celebrations of the feasts& seasons of the Liturgical Year,in the sanctification of time in the Liturgy of the Hours.

The salvation which Christ has already accomplished in his Incarnation and Paschal Mystery is made available and accessible to all men and women, especially in the celebration of the sacraments, in and through the Church “that came forth from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the Cross.”

In the Liturgy

05/01/2023 46

REMBRANDT: Christ’s Deposition from the Cross

47

REMBRANDT: Christ’s Deposition from theCross

What in Christ was visible passed on to the sacraments of the Church!

St Leo the Great [440-461]

SC n. 7

[For the Church] to accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, "the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross”, but especially under the eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes.

SC n. 7

He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20) .

LITURGY SALVATION HISTORY

One cannot possibly understand the nature of liturgy adequately without seeing its intimate relationship with the history in which Christ worked out man’s reconciliation with the Father; in which he exercised his priestly office; in short, salvation history.

The Liturgy engrafts the faithful “today”, that is, at the moment of the celebration, into that uninterrupted flow of life and salvation that has been taking place in history !!

Idinudugtong tayo ng

LITURHIYA sa patuloy at walang

patid na daloy ng BUHAY at PAGLILIGTAS!

CHRISTMASMass at Midnight, responsorial psalm

Today is born our Savior, Christ the

Lord!

EASTER SUNDAY, responsorial psalm

This is the day that the Lord

has made.Let us rejoice and be glad!

EPIPHANY, Canticle of Mary antiphon

Three mysteries mark this holy day:today the star leads the Magi to the infant Christ; today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast; today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation.

The Church re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the "today" of her liturgy.

CCC n. 1095

But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church's liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.

But why this greater emphasis of Vatican II on the need to understand LITURGY/ the SACRAMENTS/ THE LITURGICAL FEASTS and SEASONS with their intimate relationship with SALVATION HISTORY?

CCC 1097

In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church.

CCC 1097 The liturgical assembly derives its unity from the "communion of the Holy Spirit" who gathers the children of God into the one Body of Christ. This assembly transcends racial, cultural, social—indeed, all human affinities.

Forming the Body of Christ:

BREAD and ASSEMBLY

Christ’s and the Church’s vision of the Eucharistic mystery:

The primary reason for celebrating the Eucharist is the Church’s need to be constantly built up into the “Body of Christ”.

The bread and wine have to become

the “Body of Christ” in order to form

those who partake of it into the “Body of Christ”!

CONSECRATORY EPICLESIS

The Holy Spirit is invoked upon the gifts of bread and wine so that they “may become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ” (EP III).

COMMUNION EPICLESIS

The same Holy Spirit is invoked upon the assembly so that by partaking of the body and blood of Christ, they “may be filled with his Holy Spirit and become one body, one spirit in Christ” (EP III).

It is the same Spirit whom the priest invokes later in the eucharistic prayer, so that he may also transform those who will receive the body and blood of Christ unto the image of Christ himself: one body, one spirit in Christ.

DIDACHE, ca. 80-90 A.D.

“As this broken bread was scattered over the hills and

then, when gathered, became one mass, so may thy Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom”.

o For the early Church, what was most crucial about the Eucharistic celebration is that it caused them to “gather together”.

o Their faith conviction was that it is in being “gathered together” (= ekklesia) that salvation comes upon them.

It is in seeing themselves as the “one Body of Christ” that the healthy members felt sensitive to the pain and sufferings of the sick members and thus felt impelled to help them in their needs.

The Eucharist generates social justice

by forming the gathered assembly into the “One Body of Christ” where division, factions, and apathy toward the suffering are called into question.

The Eucharist exhorts toward social justice, yes, by motivating us to think of the poor and to serve them the way Christ did …

The Eucharist exhorts toward social justice more by reminding us of who we are—the BODY OF CHRIST—and what it cost Christ to form us into such!

FROM THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION TO

LITURGICAL PRINCIPLES

A number of liturgical principles naturally emerge from the above-articulated theological nature of liturgy. Two are herein taken up and expounded on.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be accomplished and experienced as such.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be accomplished

and experienced as such.

Characterized by joy, order, recollection, restfulness, and a spirit of gratitude…

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be accomplished

and experienced as such.

liturgy is praise & thanksgiving to God for the salvation which Christ has accomplished for us and which the Church perpetuates today in the power of the Holy Spirit.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be accomplished

and experienced as such

“In the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members” (SC 7).

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

This principle has real demands… on the celebrant’s manner of presiding.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

This principle has real demands…

on the way the Word should be proclaimed.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

This principle has real demands… on the

music of the

liturgy and its

rendition.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

This principle has real demands… on how

the place of the celebration should be set up.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

This principle has real demands…

on the quality of the people’s involvement in the liturgical celebration.

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

Pastors are, therefore, enjoined that, “when the

liturgy is celebrated, something more is

required than the mere observance of the laws governing valid and licit

celebration (SC 11)

it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects” (SC 11).

1. The liturgy is a celebration of our salvation and it should be

accomplished and experienced as such.

For their part, “the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence” (SC 30).

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the faithful in liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the faithful

in liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

The great Benedictine theologian Odo Casel, in his theological synthesis articulating the mystery of Christian worship, asserts that…

the faithful assembled for

worship, by performing the

rite, take part in the saving act made present

precisely by the rite and thereby

win salvation.

The very nature of the liturgy as a making present of Christ’s work for our redemption in rites, word, and signs asks that the Christian faithful, whenever they are gathered together for liturgical celebrations,

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the faithful in liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

take part “fully aware of what they are

doing, actively engaged in

the rite, and enriched by its effects”

(SC 11).

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the faithful in liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the faithful in

liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

They “should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration” (SC 48).

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the

faithful in liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

The various ministries within the liturgy, beginning from that of the presiding celebrant, are to help the assembly accomplish that kind of participation.

2. Liturgy demands the full, active, full, and conscious participation of all the faithful in

liturgical celebrations (SC 14).

Since this concerns, first of all, the clergy to whom belongs the chief duty of a “faithful dispenser of the mysteries of God” (SC 19) by instruction and edifying leadership in liturgical celebrations, how important is the liturgical formation of the clergy both in seminary and in the course of their ministry (SC 14-18)!

PEDAGOGICAL AND PASTORAL PROMOTION

OF THE LITURGICAL PRINCIPLES

OF SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM

The Liturgy Constitution itself brings forward a number of concrete measures for the pedagogical and pastoral promotion of the liturgical principles mentioned above:

Liturgical Formation in

Seminaries

1. Liturgical formation in seminaries (SC 14-17):

so that future priests may become thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy, and undertake to give instruction about it.

The teaching of liturgy in seminaries was the first

indication given by Sacrosanctum Concilium.

“Professors who are appointed to teach liturgy in seminaries, religious houses of study, and theological faculties must be properly trained for their work in institutes which specialize in this subject,” ( n. 15).

2. Continuing liturgical formation of priests

both secular and religious who are already working in the Lord's vineyard (SC 18): so that they may understand ever more fully what it is that they are doing when they perform sacred rites; they are to be aided to live the liturgical life and to share it with the faithful entrusted to their care.

2. Continuing liturgical formation of priests

3. Liturgical instruction of the faithful (SC 19):

the faithful, so far as possible, should be enabled to understand the liturgical celebrations with ease and to take part in them fully, actively, and as befits a community (SC 21).

For this, the same Constitution proposes the following means:

a) Noble simplicity.

Liturgical rites should be kept simple, clear, and within the people’s powers of comprehension (SC 34, 59). This explains Vatican II’s promotion of the use of the vernacular languages in liturgical celebrations (SC 36.2; 63).

b) Homiletics.

The ministry of preaching is to be fulfilled with exactitude and fidelity, drawing its content mainly from scriptural and liturgical sources, and its character should be that of a proclamation of God's wonderful works in the history of salvation, the mystery of Christ, ever made present and active within us, especially in the celebration of the liturgy (SC 35.2; 52).

c) Liturgical catechesis.

Instruction which is more explicitly liturgical should be given to the faithful in a variety of ways (SC 35.3). They should be helped develop a good understanding of the rites and prayers of the liturgy so that they can take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration (SC 48).

c) Liturgical catechesis.

Moreover, their minds must be directed primarily toward the feasts of the Lord whereby the mysteries of salvation are celebrated in the course of the year (SC 108).

c) Liturgical catechesis.

Various post-conciliar documents look to the teaching activity [mystagogia] of the 4th and 5th century bishop-mystagogues as paradigm for the content and method of liturgical catechesis.

c) Liturgical catechesis.

The Directory for Masses with Children provides that catechetical instruction on the liturgy, especially on the Mass, must be given to children with a view to encouraging them to participate in it actively, consciously and genuinely.

c) Liturgical catechesis.

It must be “geared towards the age and intelligence of the children, and must be aimed at conveying through the principal rites and prayers the meaning of the Mass particularly as a sharing in the life of the Church” (n. 12).

c) Liturgical catechesis.

Those who have charge of the religious instruction of children, especially parents, parish priests and teachers should be careful when they are introducing them gradually to the mystery of salvation, to give emphasis to instruction on the Mass… aiming “to convey the meaning of the Mass through the principal rites and prayers.”

Instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium on the Worship of the Eucharistic

Mystery

c) Liturgical catechesis.

Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ (it is “mystagogy”) by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the “sacraments” to the “mysteries” (CCC 1075).

d) Bible study and services of the Word (SC

35.4, cf. SC 51)On account of the importance of the Word of God in the liturgy, the clear and dignified proclamation of the word by well-trained and formed lectors can well be helped

d) Bible study and services of the Word (SC

35.4, cf. SC 51)by promoting among the faithful a “warm and living love for Scripture” (SC 24) by opening opportunities for study of the Scripture and various celebrations of the Word.

4) Promoting a sense of community within the parish

(SC 42):This should be sought, above all, in the common celebration of the Sunday Mass in the parish church.

4) Promoting a sense of community within the parish

(SC 42):Common activities among various groups (according to age level, concerns, occupations, advocacies, etc.) outside liturgical celebrations can have a real impact on the sense of community with which the liturgy is to be celebrated:

4) Promoting a sense of community within the parish

(SC 42):sports activities for children and youth, outreach activities by various professional groups (free medical services by physicians who are from the parish; free legal aid by lawyers who belong to the parish, etc.).

4) Promoting a sense of community within the parish

(SC 42):Promoting common celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, at least Lauds and Vespers, in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts also holds great promise for developing a sense of community among parishioners (SC 100).

5) Establishment and maintenance of a Liturgy

Commission.Proper organization of the liturgical apostolate in the local Church is crucial for the promotion of SC’s liturgical principles. “Every diocese is to have a commission on the sacred liturgy under the direction of the bishop, for promoting the liturgical apostolate” (SC 45).

5) Establishment and maintenance of a Liturgy

Commission.This must have a counterpart in every parish belonging to the diocese to see to the promotion of the liturgy in the grassroots level. Besides the commission on the sacred liturgy, every diocese, as far as possible, should have commissions for sacred music and sacred art (SC 46).

It is not to be forgotten, however, that the best and most effective means is to promote the liturgical sensibility and consciousness of the Christian community…

through actual experiences of liturgical celebrations that are in keeping

with the dignity of the liturgy as the highest form of encounter between God and his People…

and with the identity of the Christian faithful as the royal Priestly People of God.

That in all things

God may be glorified.

In memoriam