Liturgical Worship

[JustaServant]

Made by a poster on another thread:

The mass does not appeal to me in part because it can seem like liturgical legalism. Everything seems scripted in advance, required by order of the hierarchy. A dynamic priest can make a big difference, perhaps preach a powerful sermon (though by Protestant standards they usually are what we would call sermonettes). Just too cut and dried, with too many vestments plus pomp and ceremony that seems medieval to many of us in the modern world. True, major advances were made at Vatican II - such as the language of the people, one of the main points of the Reformers like Luther. 400+ years too late. I like more spontaneity and less scripted liturgy in worship.

The word ‘liturgy’ comes from two Greek words meaning ‘people’ and ‘work’. In its root meaning, liturgy means an act performed for the good of a community. In its restricted meaning, it refers to the public rites and ceremonies officially authorized by the Church.
It is literally the ‘work of the people’ in their common life of prayer and worship. It is used in several places in the New Testament, particularly in Acts 13:1. It is a word “transliterated” into the English language.
A liturgy disciplines our prayers, making them fit for expression, unselfish in content, and comprehensive in scope. It instructs us in the totality of the Christian faith and in the whole range of worship: confession, praise, intercession and self-offering.
The order of a liturgy in its structural framework must be unaltered. Without a fixed order, a liturgy is like a body without a skeleton, a game without rules. A fixed order is necessary if worship is to be corporate. A fixed order keeps the fact of redemption before men’s thoughts continually with fixed
words, expressions and symbolism.
It is simply the “form” of worship, nothing more or less. Liturgy is neither alive nor dead, it simply is.
The Jewish synagogues passed on to Christianity the forms of corporate worship. The reading of scripture, a confession of faith, prayers and the singing of Psalms all have its roots in Jewish worship.
From the Temple and Synagogue worship, the Apostles already knew the rites and the ceremonies that God ordained to worship Him. Only now those rites and ceremonies took on new meaning in Christ and were transferred to the worship rites of primitive Church.
The early Church had a high view of God. Things were not done in a haphazard way. They were done with precision. Worshippers knew something important was happening here. They just did not stumble in and sit for an hour.
They came to worship God. So there are certain things they will do
that they have done before. One of the chief values of a liturgy is that it teaches us both how to pray and what things we should pray for.
There is a certain ceremony and process that the worshipper is bound to, external actions, gestures, movements that are part of the public exercise of divine worship. Worshippers come to worship with their whole bodies, using all the senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling are all involved in the worship experience.
Worship involves the WHOLE BODY, not just the brain or emotions.

 

[JustaServant]

When matched with the Power of the Holy Spirit, liturgy finds it’s most powerful expression. Words, prayers, creeds, and songs are chosen carefully.
There is precise language that is used, not words chosen in a haphazard way. The language of worship is important, words must be chosen carefully.
The object in liturgical worship is God alone. Not the preacher, not the music. It is a corporate expression of worship to an invisible God. It is not a spectator sport, it is an interactive experience.
It is clear where irreverent worship has taken us in our Western society. What passes for worship in the modern Church are programs and entertainment or turning the Church into a lecture hall. It lacks the heart and soul of true worship. In the modern Church’s efforts to be innovative and create a ‘worship style’ it has manufactured a worship in the pattern of man’s invention, void of meaning.
However, Catholic worship is not without meaning. God has provided an outline, a form of worship that combines with our zeal to create meaning. The worshipper that worships God with every fiber of his being will bring to that service all the love and devotion he has for the Creator.
There is a respect and a dignity to liturgical worship that I do not see in evangelical/fundamentalist churches. Saying prayers and confessions out loud in unison has more meaning with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not a mark of ‘dead worship’, it is a mark of living worship.