Mediator Dei - Nature of Liturgy

Nature of Liturgy

The first part explains the nature, origin and development of liturgy. Liturgy is public worship, an obligation for individuals and communities. Liturgy is outward adoration of God as well as a fountain for personal piety. It originated with the early Church:

The first Christians ... "were persevering the doctrine of the apostles and in communication by the breaking of bread and their prayers." Whenever their pastors could summon a little group of the faithful together, they set up an altar on which they proceeded to offer the sacrifice, and around which were ranged all other rites appropriate for the saving of souls and for the honor due to God.

Through prayer, the members of the Mystical Body of Christ are harmonized and united. The liturgy is regulated by the clergy and hierarchy of the Church. It has divine and human elements. Its human elements result from the teachings of the Church, Church laws, pious usages by the faithful and the development of art and music. It must also be noted, however, that Pius warns strongly against a sense of "liturgical archaeologism", the belief that the most ancient practices are more venerable. He recognizes that liturgy is organic, and to return to the most ancient practices would ignore centuries of liturgical organic development. The Holy Father goes on to say that

" would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive table form; were he to want black excluded as a color for liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Church; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the Divine Redeemer's Body shows no trace of his cruel sufferings."