What Are You Looking For? Part 2: The Liturgy and the Sacraments

The Liturgy: At Its Most Basic

The Liturgy: At Its Most Basic

            Since we have finished with the Nicene Creed and we’ve looked at what we believe, now we’re going to begin to look at how we practice what we believe in the context of the Church.  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this section is entitled “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery.”  It covers all different aspects of Catholic worship; everything from the Mass to the seven Sacraments.  For those who are unfamiliar with the seven Sacraments, they are: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist (also known as the three Sacraments of Initiation), Penance and Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick (the two Sacraments of Healing), Holy Orders, and Matrimony (the two Sacraments at the Service of Communion).  This section is going to be taken a little more slowly, because it’s impossible to explain any of these things in just one blog.  Eventually we will get to them all.

            The first thing we need to look at in the Celebration of the Christian Mystery is the concept of liturgy.  For people who have been raised in the Roman Catholic Church, it’s a word you are probably familiar with; for those from a Protestant background, probably not.  In the most basic sense, all the word “liturgy” means is how we do what we do during a Mass.  It is the order of the service.  Even in Protestant churches, a liturgy is followed (though it’s not usually called that).  There is a precise way the service proceeds.  For example, if you are from one of the Protestant traditions, imagine if you walked into the sanctuary on Sunday morning and the first thing they did was pass the offering plate.  Or start with the altar call. 

Some of you reading this might be Catholics who have never been to a Protestant worship service.  Therefore, you don’t know what an altar call is.  The altar call is at the end of the service and is an invitation for anyone who wants to come forward, kneel at the altar (if the church has one) and pray the “sinner’s prayer”.  Again, for any Catholics who might not know what that is, it is a prayer that expresses sorrow for all your sins and asks Jesus to come and save you from your sins and be Lord of your life.  After which, you are “saved”, which means you are a Christian.  In some churches, you are also encouraged to go up for prayer for any other issues or if you have “backslidden.”  (That’s where you have sinned and need to re-dedicate your life to Christ.)

The point is you wouldn’t start a worship service with the altar call (if it’s a Protestant church) or the offertory or with the Eucharist (if it’s a Catholic church).  People don’t come in; sit down, and the pastor or priest immediately begins to give his homily (Catholic) or sermon (Protestant) for approximately the next 10 to 15 minutes (Catholic) or 30 minutes to an hour (Protestant).  There’s a proper order that is just logical, therefore everyone uses it.  That’s the basic definition of liturgy.  How that applies specifically to the Catholic Church is a subject for another blog.