The Need for Formation in the Liturgy for All Catholics

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

Pope Francis recently authored an important apostolic letter, Desiderio Desideravi, in which he speaks about our celebration of the liturgy. I want to share with you some of the main points of this letter, since it underlines one of the key challenges facing the Church, which is a lack of formation and superficial understanding of the liturgy.

Pope Francis describes how, thanks to the Second Vatican Council, the liturgy has been understood as the primary source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 14). No personal prayer or devotion can ever take precedence over our experience of joining together as the Body of Christ, and listening to the voice of the Lord and eating His Body and Blood. The importance of the assembly has been the great discovery of the Second Vatican Council, and from this comes forth the essential need for the entire Body of Christ to actively participate in the liturgy. 

Much of our experience of today’s Mass is thanks to the reforms brought about by the Council. The liturgical calendar, the readings, the celebration of the Mass in the local language, and the responses we speak and sing in the Mass are all fruits of the Council. All of these reforms reveal to us the immense gift and the great graces we receive through participating fully in the Mass.

Unfortunately, many do not understand this great gift that the Church has given us. We have not been formed as adults to be immersed in the power of the liturgy, and therefore, abuses, misunderstandings, and above all, superficial and casual disregard for the depth of the celebration of the Mass have left us unchanged and unprepared for the mission of the Church in today’s world. We do not see that our lives can be fundamentally changed by our active and full participation in the celebration.

Pope Francis points to the need for us to be formed by this liturgy, and to understand that the Mass is a celebration of Christ’s victory over our every sin and death. All of the faithful are invited to this wedding banquet, and so all of us must be formed to participate fully in the Mass! Through this participation, we can have a true   encounter with the Risen Lord, we can hear his voice, and we can find an answer to the problems and challenges of our daily lives. It is the only way we can become formed and prepared for the mission of the Church today. The need for the Church today is not to change the Mass going back to before Vatican II, but to introduce  Catholics into the beauty of what we have received and we don’t know we have. We must be of one heart and mind as we  celebrate the liturgy as it was intended by the Council. I plan to speak more on the Second Vatican Council, so that each of us may be formed and unified in our understanding of the Church and especially by her liturgy.

I ask for your prayers that we may all be formed by this new understanding of the liturgy, and that through our active participation in it, we may have a deeper encounter with the love that Christ has for each one of us!

In Christ,

Father Felix P. Medina-Algaba, Pastor