Introduction to Liturgy &

Sacraments
Communicating Christ’s Grace
Making Us See His Love
Heeding the Call
Divine Liturgy makes the
work of our redeemer a
present actuality…[it] is the
outstanding means whereby
the faithful may express in
their lives, and manifest to
others, the mystery of
Christ
and the real nature of the
true Church.
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
Leito (‘public’) + Ergos (‘that
works’) =LITURGY

Liturgy

Makes Shows the

Redemption Nature of the
Present Church
The Real Nature of the True Church

It is of the essence of the Church to be both human & divine

Jesus Christ is both human & divine.

THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST,

Visible yet endowed with invisible resources.
 The Real Nature of the True Church

The Mystical Body of Christ daily builds up its individual members by

enabling subordination of the human to the divine, the visible to the
invisible, action to contemplation, and the world to the Kingdom of God.

It was Christ in His divinity & humanity who became the instrument
of our salvation. Likewise the Church is now situated. A Church-
Member is a Christ-Member, an Body that joins to the Saving Work
of Christ.
 The Saving Work of Christ:
The Paschal Mystery

Paschal Mystery:
the Passion, Death, & Resurrection of
Christ
Recruitment Call
Recruitment Call
The Genius of God’s
Mercy which satisfies
our debt to God and
enables us, who alone
are incapable, a means
to participate in the
work of Redemption
by joining ourselves to
Christ’s work.
Recruitment Call
Col. 1:24: “It makes me
happy to suffer for you, as I
am suffering now, and in my
own body to do what I can to
make up all that has still to
be undergone by Christ for
the sake of his body the
Church.”

1 Cor. 3:9: “We are fellow

workers with God; you are
God’s farm, God’s buildings.”
The Divine Junction
This ability of the
Church’s Sacred
Liturgy to join the
Faithful with Christ is
what gives the Church
power, making it the
source of our spiritual
lives. Because in this
Sacred Time Christ is
made fully present to
us and we are fully
joined to Him.
Conformity to Christ
Christ’s Life is ever-
pleasing to God the
Father. Christ, His
best thought, His
Word, is the very
recipient of all His
Love, the Holy Spirit.
By our conforming to
Christ through the
Sacred Liturgy we
 are perfectly
glorifying God and
becoming holy.
 Perfect Glorification

The Church, the Bride of Christ, cleaves and unites to Him in the Liturgy
becoming one Mystical Body of Christ– Christ who always acts and
offers perfect worship to the Eternal Father.
The Father’s Will is done: “Liturgy belongs in the order of doing, not
of knowing. Logical thought cannot get far with it; liturgical actions
yield their intelligibility in their performance and this performance takes
place at the level of sensible realities, not as exclusively material, but as
vehicles of overtones capable awakening the mind and heart to
acceptance of realities belonging to a different order.”
Liturgical Action = Christ’s
Action
“In the liturgy by means of
signs perceptible to the
senses, human sanctification
is signified and brought
about in ways proper to each
of these signs; in the liturgy
the whole public worship is
performed by the Mystical
Body of Christ, this is by the
Head and His members.”

Const. on Sacred Liturgy

Our Unity with Christ
“Let us congratulate
ourselves and give
thanks, that we have not
only become Christians,
but Christ…be
astonished, rejoice, we
become Christ; for when
He is the Head, we the
members, then the whole
Man is He and we.”
Our Unity with Christ
“The Body and the Head
compose the whole
Christ.”
“Christ preaches
Christ, the Body
preaches its Head and
the Head protects His
Body.”
The Four-fold Presence of Christ
The PRIEST: who sacramentally
conforms himself to Christ.

The EUCHARIST: makes present

His Body & Blood, Soul & Divinity.

The WORD: it is He Himself

who speaks.

The ASSEMBLY: “where two or three

are gathered in my name, there I am in
the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20)
Christ the Priest
“Every liturgical
celebration because it is the
action of Christ the Priest
and of his Body which is
the Church, is a sacred
action surpassing all
others; no other action of
the Church can equal its
effectiveness by the same
title and to the same
degree.”
 The Summit & Source:
Christ as an End & a Means
“The liturgy is the summit
toward which the activity of
the Church is directed; at the
same time it is the fount
from which all the Church’s
power flows.”

“The liturgy is the source

for achieving the most
effective way possible both
human sanctification and
God’s glorification…”
Liturgy: the ritual of illumination
Constrictive or Expansive?
Liturgy
is a precise model meant to
effectuate a precise result: unite
the
Church and make present Christ.
Liturgy is not the be-all, end-all of
the Christian Life: we still pray in
private, we still must undergo
conversion, we still must go into
the world and bear Witness.
But this ritual must be preserved,
as there are necessary elements
whereby the the Christ’s presence
can be manifested. Liturgy is not
primarily a social construction– it
is a divine action.
Liturgy: the ritual of illumination
“The rise of consumer-friendly
rites and a demand for lose and lax
‘happy clappy’ events full of meet-
&-greet transactions– these
trivialize the social, preclude
deeper meaning being read into the
action and skate along the surface
of some very thin ice where all
attention to danger, awe and
reverence is bracketed. These are
rites of the immediate that demand
instantaneous theological results.”
(K. Flanagan)
Not necessarily happy, chipper
festive moment, but it is a
crucifixion of Christ & ourselves.
It is SACRED.
Liturgy: the ritual of illumination
The stuffiness of ritual,
cramping style? No.
I am the light of the world. He
that follows me walks not in
darkness, but shall have the
light
Jn
of life. 8:12
“Those who have accepted the
conditions of confinement find
they are present at a miraculous
birth, limited by time and
place, fully human, before
which even angels cover their
faces.” D. Martin
Liturgy: the ritual of illumination
“The shortest way to
creativity is habituation
to technical means of
expression and steady
soaking in an historical
context.”
“What is done by rote and
performed in ritual
provides the necessary
substratum of habit on the
basis of which experience
becomes possible”
Liturgy: the ritual of illumination
Sacred Liturgy catches us
up in a mysterious
conjecture of time and
eternity, material and
spiritual, immanence and
transcendence. The
elements of the Sacred
Liturgy are meant to
challenge us, confound us,
and call us out of ourselves
and our comfort zones.
The Physics of Unity
The Superabundance of
Christ’s Merit:
0<1
“In the Church’s 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. In his Word who
became incarnate, died and
rose for us, he fills us with
his blessings. Through his
Word, he pours into our
hearts the gift that contains
all gifts, the Holy Spirit.”
CCC 1082
The Unifier
“When the Spirit encounters in
us the response of faith which he
has aroused in us, he brings about
the genuine cooperation.
Through it, the liturgy becomes
the common work of the Holy
Spirit and the Church.” CCC
1091
The Spirit prepares the Assembly
to encounter Christ, recall Christ,
make Him present, and unite us
to Him.
The Lord and Giver of Life
The work of Christ’s Liturgy is
an action of the Church with
engages new life in the Faithful
through the workings of the
Holy Spirit.

“The whole liturgical life of the

Church revolves around the
Eucharistic sacrifice and the
sacraments.” CCC 1113
 The Bonding Agents:
Sacraments

“A sacrament is a sign that:

commemorates what precedes it– Christ’s Passion;

demonstrates what is accomplished in us through Christ’s Passion– grace;

& prefigures what the Passion pledges to us—future glory.” III.60.3

 Timelessness

Liturgical and Sacramental Action break us into Eternity, they catapult us out
of time and unite us to the forever-on-going moment of Christ’s
sacrifice, which is God’s Love for us. It is an event that occurs at
a time in our life which carries us backward and forward
simultaneously.
“In the liturgy, it is principally his own Paschal Mystery that Christ makes
present…it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and they pass
away swallowed up in the past. The Paschal Mystery of Christ, by
contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed
death, and all that Christ is– all that he did and suffered for all men–
participating in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times being made
present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and
draws everything toward life.” CCC 1085
 “Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,
by which divine life is dispensed.” CCC 1131

Effect-
producing.
The
sacrament is
the cause of
something in
the recipient.
 “Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,
by which divine life is dispensed.” CCC 1131
Sense-perceptible. “The Word
added to the element and it
becomes a sacrament.” Weds
material to the spiritual, hence
finds its roots in the Incarnation.
Not mere symbols, because they
actually deliver…they are
efficacious…of what they
symbolize. Stuff used by Christ,
and our rationality is prone to
empiricism; too, our nature
appreciates ceremony for
assurance.
 “Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,
by which divine life is dispensed.” CCC 1131
Convey the merits of
Christ to us in
order to draw us
into union with
God. Grace builds
us up and gradually
sanctifies us. Grace
is entirely a
gratuitous gift of
God.
 “Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,
by which divine life is dispensed.” CCC 1131
“The mysteries of Christ’s life are
the foundations of what he would
dispense in the sacraments…for
what was visible in our Savior has
passed over into his mysteries.”
Baptism (John 3:5, Mk 16:16, Mt 28:18);
Confirmation (Acts 8:14-17, 19:5-6); Eucharist
(John 6, 1 Cor. 10-11); Reconciliation (James
5:16, John 20:21-23); Anointing of the Sick (Mk
6:13, James 5:14-15); Marriage (Mt 19:6); Holy
Orders (John 19-23).
 “Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the
Church, by which divine life is dispensed.” CCC
1131
The Church is guided
by the Spirit in all
truth, and is therefore,
the faithful steward of
God’s mysteries and
determines the number
and dispensation of the
sacraments.
 “Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,
by which divine life is dispensed.” CCC 1131
Through the Sacraments we
are born into a community–
the Church. We are made
children of God and nurtured
for the rest of our life that we
may achieve our ultimate
end– entrance into the
Communion of the Most
Holy Trinity through
membership in the Mystical
Body of Christ, the Son.