By Cardinal Justin Rigali
With the beginning of Advent, we are reminded that one year from now we will receive the new English translation of the Roman Missal. We take this preparation as our topic this week.
The liturgical concept of time
By Cardinal Justin Rigali
With the beginning of Advent, we are reminded that one year from now we will receive the new English translation of the Roman Missal. We take this preparation as our topic this week.
The liturgical concept of time
As we begin the liturgical season of Advent, preparing for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, we may ask ourselves how we can prepare for an event that has already occurred in time. The answer to this question lies in the timelessness of God, and in the reliving of the events of our salvation in the Church’s Liturgy.
This concept comes to us as part of the heritage received from our Jewish brothers and sisters, who had a deep awareness of reliving the events in their history as the Chosen People by their celebration of feasts. As Christians, celebrating the fulfillment of the Covenant made with our ancestors in the faith, we too relive the events our salvation in time. This occurs throughout our celebrations of the liturgical seasons and, most especially, in the Holy Mass.
“The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the making present and the sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church, which is his Body. In the liturgical celebrations, the events of our salvation become in a certain way present and real. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1363, 1364).
Having briefly reviewed our concept of liturgical time, reminding ourselves that we are truly preparing for the coming of Christ once again at Christmas, we can now reflect on the fact that, just as we are preparing to receive Jesus when He comes again this Christmas, we are also preparing to receive the new translation of the Roman Missal, the liturgical text for the celebration of the Eucharist, on the First Sunday of Advent next year.
What is a Missal?
In the first centuries of the Church, there were no set books used for the celebration of the Liturgy. For one thing, printing, which made books much more readily available, would not be invented for another 1,500 years or so. Also, the early Church prayed and worshiped within the living memory of the Apostles and those who had learned from them and so had their teachings fresh in their minds. Likewise, the persecutions of the first three centuries of the Church’s history did not allow for set places of worship and organized schedules for liturgical celebrations.
During these early centuries, the Eucharistic Liturgy consisted of: readings from Scripture, often recited from memory; the Eucharistic Prayer, within which the sacrifice of Jesus is renewed and He is made present; and short prayers, “collecting” in a concise and sober manner, the prayers of the believing Church.
There is a very important principle of the Liturgy, which developed during the earliest ages of the Church, and which will be important in our brief reflection this week and throughout this year of preparation to receive the new translation of the Roman Missal. It is summed up in the ancient Latin phrase: lex orandi, lex credendi, “the rule of prayer is the rule of faith.” In other words, the liturgical and public prayer of the Church expresses the Church’s belief. That is why the Church has taken such care that her public prayer accurately reflect the faith she has received.
This is also why the Popes, up to our very day, have repeatedly reminded us that the Liturgy of the Church is not the product of inspanidual bishops, priests or members of the lay faithful, but the public expression of the received faith of the Church.
With this principle in mind, along with the spread of the Church and her freedom to worship publicly being acknowledged by the Roman Emperor in the year 313, prayers and liturgical formulas began to be written down. This was generally done at the level of local churches, which came to be known as dioceses, and for specific monastic communities.
Under the care of the early Popes, these written formulas were gathered into 