Liturgy

“ For the origin of liturgy thus broadly defined we have to go a long way back; beyond the Prayer Book, beyond the Mass-book, beyond the ancient Sacramentaries, yes, beyond the synagogue worship, beyond the temple worship, beyond the tabernacle worship; in fact I am disposed to think that, logically, we should be unable to stop short until we had reached the very heart of man itself, that dimly discerned groundwork we call human nature, and had discovered there those two instincts, the one of worship and the other of gregariousness, from whence all forms of common prayer have sprung. ”

“ That the practice of praying for the dead has descended from apostolic times is also evident from the Liturgus of the Church. A Liturgy is the established form of public worship, containing the authorized prayers of the Church. The Missal, or Mass-book, for instance, which you see on our altars, contains a portion of the Liturgy of the Catholic Church. ”

“ I certainly admire much of our Liturgy, and think that the men who drew up some of the prayers, though not inspired, in the sense in which apostles and prophets were inspired, yet they must have been greatly assisted by the Spirit of the Lord when composing them. ”

“ For while I am as much satisfied as ever of the great utility of a Liturgy, I have become equally convinced that original, spontaneous prayer is likely to open the preacher's heart, or to stir up the gift in him in a way very important to his own ministration and to the edification of his people. ”

“ The most powerful movement of feeling with a liturgy is the prayer which seeks for nothing special, but is a yearning to escape from the limitations of our own weakness and an invocation of all Good to enter and abide with us; ”

“ Let those who would substitute their own crude impulses for the sublime rites of our liturgy, making ill digested forms the supplanter of a ritual carefully and devoutly prepared, listen to one of their own semi-conversational addresses to the Almighty over a grave, and then hearken to these venerable rites, and learn humility. ”

“ I would remind you, however, that greatly as many of us love our liturgy, and helpful as we find it, God may be worshipped by us all in spirit and in truth, though our prayers be but halting and imperfect. ”

“ The Epiklesis of the liturgy of the Apostles is vague: "And may there come, O my Lord, thine Holy Spirit and rest upon this offering of thy servants and bless it and hallow it, that it be to us, O my Lord, for the pardon of offences and the remission of sins, and for the great hope of resurrection from the dead, and for new life in the kingdom of heaven, with all those who have been well-pleasing in thy sight." Certainly, if we look for a categorical "form" of the Sacrament, we shall have difficulty in finding it in this liturgy. ”

“ A liturgy comes in as a corrective of these constitutional failings; it confronts us with all that is vast in the realm of truth; it calls us away from the consideration [Pg 94] of those things over which we have pondered until morbidness has seized upon us; it ministers that grateful rest which comes from the mind being freed from the contemplation of one set of interests, by being caught away by and absorbed in new and wider interests; it rounds out the devotional life; it invites us to lean upon the prayers of others as we desire them to lean on ours. ”

“ The liturgy is inseparably bound up with the central act of consecration and oblation, and is conceived as itself possessing a divine sanction. The liturgy is not in any sense the creation of the people, but comes [241] down to them from a higher source, the gradual production of men believed to have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, and is accepted by the laity as a divinely authorized means in the accomplishment of the supreme sacerdotal function. ”

“ We have, after earnest and frequent calling upon the Name of God, and after much Consultation, not with Flesh and Blood, but with His holy Word, resolved to lay aside former Liturgy, with the many Rites and Ceremonies formerly used in the Worship of God; and have agreed upon this following Directory for all the Parts of publick Worship at ordinary and extraordinary Times. ”

“ It is rather the [Pg 189] Romish-looking arrangements about the "altar," the crosses and candles and cloths, the vestments and processions, the turning of the people towards the east when they pray, the "vain repetitions" of certain parts of the liturgy, such as the Lord's Prayer, which sometimes occurs four or five times in one service, and the "intoning" of the service, that is, the literally monotonous recitation of the prayers, without any rising or falling inflection, every word being uttered in precisely the same tone, without the slightest variation. ”

“ Liturgies have been different at different times and in different countries. We have the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, of St. Peter, the Armenian liturgy, Gallican liturgy, &c. The properties required in a public liturgy,” says Paley, are these: it must be compendious; express just conceptions of the divine attributes; recite such wants as a congregation are likely to feel, and no other ”

“ This he seems to have done as “Liturge” and “Hierurge,” or evangelical priest, [23] “ministering in sacrifice [24] the Gospel of God,” etc.
Compare, then, with the Scriptures, Justin Martyr’s account of the early worship of Christians; and after consulting the (so-called) “Clementine Liturgy,” [25] the student will be qualified to form an enlightened judgment upon the primitive and the interpolated elements of the following liturgies. ”

“ Having preached, then reads a prayer out of their liturgy, then sings a psalm, and then the Blessing.” [5] Some pastors made less use of this Devotional Manual, and some perhaps more; while others appear to have made no use of it. ”

“ A liturgy, for example, is intolerable, because it is a slur upon the extemporary effusions of ministers of the Gospel. "Well may men of eminent gifts set forth as many forms and helps to prayer as they please ”

“ We praise Thee, we sing hymns to Thee, we bless Thee, we glorify Thee, we worship Thee by Thy great High Priest; Thee who art the true God, who art the One Unbegotten, the only inaccessible Being. For Thy great glory, O Lord and heavenly King, O God the Father Almighty, O Lord God, the Father of Christ the immaculate Lamb, who taketh away the sin of the world, receive our prayer, Thou that sittest upon the cherubim. For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord Jesus, the Christ of the God of all created nature, and our King, by whom glory, honour, and worship be to Thee. ”

“ I implore Thy grace to enable me to perform all my duties in the spirit of our Holy Rule, and to observe faithfully my vows, which I now renew. Bless our dear Reverend Mother in the government of our holy Institute, and direct her in the way of salvation. Teach us all to do Thy will, O God, and strengthen us to fulfill it perfectly.
O Jesus, ever-present in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, may every creature praise and bless Thee. ”

“ Many acts and prayers contained elsewhere in this book may be substituted occasionally for those given in the following methods of assisting at Mass, especially such as relate to the Passion, the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
You may also very appropriately recite the Rosary during Mass, and in particular the Eucharistic Rosary in which we meditate on the life, passion, and death of Our Lord in connection with the sacred mysteries of the altar. Formulate your own prayers occasionally.
Converse with God in a familiar manner. Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. ”

“ The Church has always kept it as such. From day to day, amid the solemnities of worship, we follow our Lord in His Passion, live it over again, as in Psalm and Hymn, in Proper Lessons, in Epistles and Gospels and pleading, prayers the whole record of the Royal Reception, the final Teachings, Betrayal, the cruel mockery, the desertion, and the awful Agony on the Cross, the Death and the Burial of the Lord of Life is solemnly recited as a memorial before God. ”

“ This was intended to show that when we are occupied in any spiritual exercise, we ought not be diverted to other things, even under pretext of civility.
11. The Mass is certainly a function the most excellent, the most holy, the most acceptable to God and useful to us, that can be imagined. And so, while it is going on, the Angels assist in crowds, with bare feet, with earnest eyes, with downcast brows, with great silence, with incredible amazement and veneration. With what purity, attention, devotion, and reverence, then, ought the priest to celebrate it? ”

“ Here is a supreme priest who believes God to be—what, in the name of God, does he believe God to be?—and discerns that all worship of God is a scenic phantasmagory of wax candles, organ blasts, Gregorian chants, mass-brayings, purple monsignori, wool-and-iron rumps, artistically spread out, to save the ignorant from worse.... ”

“ Liturgical prayer, such as we have it in the Office and as is laid upon us by the Church, is no private devotion; it is the prayer which the Word Incarnate is ever pouring forth in behalf of the mystical body of which He is the head. Those who say it are the willing instruments placed at His disposal by His Spouse, the Church. We abide in Him and He in us. The words we speak, we speak not of ourselves, but in His person. In liturgical prayer we have the most perfect means of adoring and thanking God, and of making supplication and atonement, that the Eternal Wisdom could provide. ”

“ In place of the pleasing variety of the old exercises of prayer—from the Office recited by the clergy with its daily commemoration of the Saints down to the multifarious devotions of the people, to say nothing of the great Sacrifice of the Altar, the very heart’s pulse of the Church—he recommends as a rule only the Our Father, the Creed and the Psalms—prayers indeed rich beyond all others and which will ever hold the first place among Christian devotions. ”

“ The priests chant texts, and the people wait upon the worship. And we see faces-in-the-fire of the time to be, when the eyes of the poet shall rest upon the sacrifice, and shall fashion therefrom this mighty vision of God and nature, the soul and life. ”

“ Let us always ask God when present at the holy Mass for a lively faith in His Real Presence, an ardent love for Him in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, and the grace to imitate His humility, His purity, His meekness, obedience, patience, and charity here, and enjoy His presence forever hereafter. ”

“ ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who desirest A not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live: mercifully accept our prayers: that the heathen being delivered from the worship of idols may be united to thy holy Church to the honour and glory of thy Name. Through. ℟. Amen.
¶ Having finished the Prayers, the Priest lays aside his chasuble and goes to the Epistle horn of the Altar, where, standing at the back corner, he takes from the Deacon a Cross which has been previously made ready on the Altar. ”

“ Now in the morning Mass you do all that the race needs to do and has done for all these ages where religion was concerned; there you have the sacred and separate Enclosure, the Altar, the Priest in his Vestments, the set ritual, the ancient and hierarchic tongue, and all that your nature cries out for in the matter of worship. ”

“ What writing has taught us to turn to the East in our prayers? Which of the saints has left us in writing the words at the invocation and at the displaying of the bread in the eucharist and the cup of blessing? For we are not, as is well known, content with what the Apostle or the Gospel has recorded; but, both before and after, we say other words as having great importance for the mystery, and these we derive from unwritten teaching. Moreover, we bless the water of baptism and the oil of chrism, and, besides this, him who is baptized. ”

“ The Church regards the true Faith as of such vital importance to her life and to the life of each individual soul, she bids us to pray in the Litany, "From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism, Good Lord, deliver us."
High Celebration.—A term commonly employed to describe the solemn midday service of the Holy Eucharist with the full adjuncts of ritual and music. There is always a Gospeller and Epistoler in addition to the Celebrant. The music is often of an elaborate character and the ceremonial more imposing. ”

“ At the ringing of the bell the people adore on their knees, and strike their breasts in token of repentance for their sins. 9. The Priest begs of God graciously to accept the Sacrifice, to have mercy on all mankind, also on the souls in Purgatory, and concludes with the Lord's Prayer, which contains the substance of all petitions. 10. After a preparatory prayer, during which, at Solemn Masses, the Kiss of Peace is given, follows the Holy Communion, of which all those who are present should partake, at least spiritually. ”

“ Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.
Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.
Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ our great High Priest, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, your Church gives honor, glory, and worship, from generation to generation. AMEN.
Continue with the Lord’s Prayer on page 364. ”

“ A. The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.
Q. What is grace? A. Grace is God’s favor towards us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills. Q. What are the two great sacraments of the Gospel? A. The two great sacraments given by Christ to his Church are Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. ”