“Living the liturgy in the parish”: this is the title of the eighth volume in the series Jubilee 2025 - Quaderni del Concilio, which reveals to us the beauty and contemporary relevance of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
First fruit of the Second Vatican Council
In the book “Living the liturgy in the parish,” Samuele Riva presents some sections of the constitution Sacrosanctum concilium, the first fruit of the Second Vatican Council.
The purpose of this constitution is to restore the liturgy to the people and the people to the liturgy, in the certainty that it is precisely from the liturgical celebration that every believer, and the Church as a whole, can draw everything needed for their faith to be nourished, grow, and spread through proclamation.
The liturgy: gift and commitment
Samuele Riva writes that “the liturgy in the parish is the believer’s and the Church’s first and principal path of faith; it is ‘a passage of the Holy Spirit in his Church.’”
The Sacrosanctum concilium states, in fact: “The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed and, at the same time, the source from which all her energy flows” (no. 10).
Therefore, the liturgy is a constitutive dimension of Christian life; through it we are transformed into the body of Christ, which is the Church, and conformed to the Lord.
The liturgy is a gift to be received from above; a gift that requires our commitment and active participation.
When we take part in the liturgy, we experience Jesus and encounter and contemplate the risen Crucified One through the invisible yet real action of the Holy Spirit.
The communal celebration of Sunday Mass
The liturgy, then, is a reality to be lived within the community context of the parish. It is not a service agency, but the place where all those who have become children of God through faith and Baptism gather in assembly, praise God, and take part in the sacrifice and the Eucharistic table of the Lord’s Day.
Today, participation in the Sunday assembly has waned. We must strive to ensure that Sunday becomes the Lord’s Day once again, so that we may draw strength and peace from him.
The Sunday obligation is not a duty or a burden imposed on us. On the contrary, taking part in the Sunday celebration, nourishing ourselves with the Eucharistic bread, and experiencing communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ is a need, a joy, a celebration. Only in this way can we find the strength we need for the journey we must make each week.
The liturgy is our teacher in life and the parish is our temporary home, the privileged place where we become a sign of Christ.
So let us get to work “so that the sense of parish community may flourish above all in the communal celebration of Sunday Mass” (SC 42).
