Letter from the Archbishop of Urgell: «The liturgical formation of the People of God»

Pope Francis, on June 29 of this year, gave us the beautiful and profound Apostolic Letter «Desiderio desideravi»on the liturgical formation of the People of God with which he wants to “invite the entire Church to rediscover, safeguard and live the truth and strength of the Christian celebration” and asks that “the holy People of God be helped to drink from the main source of Christian spirituality, rediscovering the principles expressed in the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. She also asks to abandon polemics to listen to what the Spirit says to the Church, maintaining communion and admiration for the beauty of the liturgy, under the gaze of Mary.

In number 16 of this Letter, the Pope encourages us to rediscover the profound theological meaning of the liturgy and its importance in the life of the Church, inviting us all to deepen our liturgical formation. One aspect that we should especially take into account is that the liturgy and celebration of the Eucharist is not our success or the fruit of our desires, but rather the Easter gift of the Lord that, when we accept it with docility, transforms our existence: “One does not enter the Cenacle if it is not by the force of attraction of his desire to eat Passover with us:”I have ardently desired to eat this Passover with you, before suffering!” (Lk 22.15). To heal the spiritual worldliness that has crept into the bosom of the Church and therefore also into the liturgy, it is necessary to rediscover the beauty of liturgical celebrations. This requires us to overcome “ritual aestheticism” and “banal carelessness” in celebrations, confusing “the essential” with “ignorant superficiality”, “the concreteness of ritual action with an exaggerated practical functionalism” (nº 22). As concrete proposals, the document invites us to take care of all aspects of the celebration, and also asks us to take into account the liturgical norms established by the Church, so as not to take away from the assembly what corresponds to it, that is, the Paschal mystery. celebrated in the ritual way that the Church establishes.

There are 3 dimensions that clearly emerge from the conciliar impulse towards the renewal of liturgical life: 1.- Active and fruitful participation; 2.- The ecclesial communion animated by the Eucharist and the sacraments of the Church; and 3.- The impulse to the evangelizing mission from the liturgical life that involves all the baptized. Good liturgical formation is necessary for the entire People of God, beginning with bishops, priests and deacons. In addition, this affects the totality of the People of God who attend, who participate and who join in the priestly action of Jesus Christ, through the rites and prayers that make all public liturgical worship possible. It calls for an authentic art of celebrating, which includes several fundamental aspects: the art of obeying (faithful obedience to the liturgical norms in their fullness); the art of harmonizing (harmony of the rite, of the liturgical adornments, the decoration, the sacred place, the forms of language foreseen by the liturgy, the songs, gestures and silences…); and the art of charity (uniting discipline and spontaneity). It was S. Pablo VI who, by promulgating the Constitution of Sda. Liturgy, said: “God in the first place; prayer, the first obligation; the Liturgy, the first source of divine life that is communicated to us, the first school of our spiritual life, the first gift that we can make to the Christian people, who believe and pray with us, and the first invitation to the world to unleash in happy and truthful prayer your mute tongue, and feel the ineffable regenerating power of singing with us the divine praises and human hopes, through Christ in the Holy Spirit”.

+ Joan Enric Vives Sicily

Archbishop, Bishop of Urgell

Letter from the Archbishop of Urgell: «The liturgical formation of the People of God»