Liturgy Essay

In its document “The Constituition on the Sacred Liturgy”, Vatican Council 2 defines liturgy as “the climax towards which all the work of the church is directed and the source from which it obtains all its strength.” The liturgy is the public worship of the Church and the way in which it prays and worships effects its convictions and beliefs. It is for this reason that since the beginning of christianity , basing itself on the jewish tradition of celebrating key moments in their history of salvation like passover, the church felt the imporatnce of choosing specific days to commemorate the fulfilment of gods promise of salvation in christ, god made man. The year of the churck or the liturgical year, commemorates the imporatnt events in the life, death and resurection of christ – the mystery of salvation. The Liturgical Year is devided into cycles : it begins with Advent which starts four Sundays before christmas and it prepares us for the coming of christ among us which signifies that god has kept his promise of salvation, starting with the annunciation of this event by angel Gabriel to Mary. The christmas cycles reaches its climax on christmas day, on 25th december, and ends with the Epiphany – the adoration of christ by the threee kings which signifies jesus ‘revelations’ to all humanity whom he has come to save. The Christmas cycle is followed by the Ordinary time, when the readings during th eliturgy concentrate on the public life and mission of christ. This is followed by Lent, forty days before easter, where we celebrate the fulfilment of god’s promise of salvation with the mysteries of the passion, death and resurrection of christ. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and is a time of repentence, celebrated in the liturgy with the wearing of ashes on ash wednedsay. Lent is a preparation for easter, a commemoration of the forty days that jesus spent in the wilderness in preparation for his public ministry, and hence we are encouraged to feast.