Liturgia: Opus Trinitatis Sanctissimae

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavens!
(Eph 1:3)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church begins its treatise on the liturgy with an affirmation that is both
exuberant and fundamental:
The Liturgy is work of the most Holy Trinity!
This is how the CCC articulates the necessary intimate relationship between Liturgy and the History of

Salvation:
Both are masterworks of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their workings ad extra, that is, in their
dealings with manin revelation and in the work of salvation.

In fact, the document uses one and the same word to express both the saving, life-giving action of
God and mans response of adoration, surrender and thanksgiving for such action of God:
BENEDICTIO (= Gk. eulogia). Cf. CCC n. 1078-1083.

Both Gods initiative for mans salvation and mans response of gratitude to such initiative are a great
act of blessing because both constitute a saving and life-giving personal encounter with God who is
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Liturgy as Personal Encounter with God

In the history of revelation and salvation, the Triune God dealt with humanity in a personal
way.
Salvation history was a personal encounter between God and man:
o the Father sent his Son to redeem man;
o the Son, Jesus, responded to the act of sending by offering his life on the cross;
o as Lord, Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church so that animated by the
Holy Spirit from within, she might encounter the Father through Christ.
Mans encounter with God in the liturgy is patterned after this plan of revelation and
salvation.
Seatwork?
What is the importance of active, full and conscious participation in the Liturgy?
Answer this in 6 lines only...no more, no less.

Birds Eyeview
o Liturgy is directed to the Father (theological aspect of the liturgy: theos, God, in euchological
formulas, refers to the Father),
o through Jesus Christ as the Fathers Sacrament and Mediator between the Father and man
(Christological aspect),
o in the Holy Spirit (pneumatological aspect),
o in the liturgical assembly (ecclesial aspect),
o through signs of symbols expressing the reality of encounter (symbolic aspect).
Liturgy is the Churchs Worship to the Father.
As the Father is the source of all life and salvation [history of salvation], so is the Father also the goal
of all adoration and thanksgiving [worship].
In the Churchs liturgy the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The Father is
acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings of creation and salvation
(CCC 1082).

In the liturgy, Christ, whose whole being and activity is orientated to the Father, is the paradigm and
model of Christian encounter with the Father.

Christ spoke of his having come from the Father and of going back to him: I came from the Father and
have come into the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father (Jn 16:28, cf.
16:10; 14:12).
John describes the death of Jesus as his passing from this world to the Father: It was before the
festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the
Father (Jn 13:1).

The liturgy follows the theological orientation of Jesus by addressing its prayers, especially the
presidential ones, to the Father.

Liturgical attitude
In the preparation and celebration of the liturgy, attention should be given to the
theological aspect of encounter:
in the liturgy, the Person of the Father should stand out as the source and
ultimate end of the entire Christian life
and Christs orientation to the Father should be clearly shown as the paradigm
of Christian encounter.
In other words, Christian liturgy should be an encounter with the Person of the
Father through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Interior as well as exterior attitude during liturgical celebrations: filial reverence expressed
through words and gestures.

Traditional in the Roman euchology are phrases of respect when addressing the Father: quaesumus
[English: We beseech you; We beg you

o Gestures of reverence: standing during presidential prayers, prayer of the faithful, the
Lords Prayer in which the Father is addressed.