A
Amiciel
Guest
**The Liturgical Year **- continued:
"There is still another very important thing that the Church does in the liturgy: she CONSECRATES and SANCTIFIES THE PRESENT, i.e., the people of today, their activities, their problems, their sufferings and achievements. Everything we do is offered up to the Father through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
This ‘amazing grace’ becomes a reality particularly in the Sacraments, and it is somehow ‘encapsulated’ in the weekly observance called ‘SUNDAY’, and most especially in the celebration of the EUCHARIST.
Sunday is, for us, *‘the Day of the Lord’ *in a unique manner, because it is the day in which we not only worship God as Creator and Lord of the universe and thank Him for all the blessings He has granted us, but especially because it is the day when we commemorate and re-live the resurrection and glorificationof Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, which marked the birth of the Church.
It should be noticed that we do all this as a community of believers, and not just as individuals. We become our true selves only when we are in communion with God and our neighbor. The Lord offers His salvation to every human being not in isolation, but as a member of the community of believers, the Church. This is why we are expected to worship the Lord, not only as individuals, but also as members of a community of persons who share the same faith and commitment."(Euchalette, First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2014, p. 4; emphasis added.)
"There is still another very important thing that the Church does in the liturgy: she CONSECRATES and SANCTIFIES THE PRESENT, i.e., the people of today, their activities, their problems, their sufferings and achievements. Everything we do is offered up to the Father through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
This ‘amazing grace’ becomes a reality particularly in the Sacraments, and it is somehow ‘encapsulated’ in the weekly observance called ‘SUNDAY’, and most especially in the celebration of the EUCHARIST.
Sunday is, for us, *‘the Day of the Lord’ *in a unique manner, because it is the day in which we not only worship God as Creator and Lord of the universe and thank Him for all the blessings He has granted us, but especially because it is the day when we commemorate and re-live the resurrection and glorificationof Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, which marked the birth of the Church.
It should be noticed that we do all this as a community of believers, and not just as individuals. We become our true selves only when we are in communion with God and our neighbor. The Lord offers His salvation to every human being not in isolation, but as a member of the community of believers, the Church. This is why we are expected to worship the Lord, not only as individuals, but also as members of a community of persons who share the same faith and commitment."(Euchalette, First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2014, p. 4; emphasis added.)