The Significant Details of the Liturgy

THE SIGNIFICANT DETAILS OF THE LITURGY

Ano ang kina-iya sining LITURHIYA? 

          Ang liturhiya amo ang opisyal nga pangkatilingbanon nga pagsimba sa Santisima Trinidad nga ginahalad sang bug-os nga simbahan paagi sa pagsaulog sang Misteryo Paskwal (kabuhi, kamatayon, kag pagkabanhaw ni Hesukristo) nga ginahiwat paagi sa mga tanda, kag ini may kaangtanan sa aton pagginawi kag mga pamatasan kag may panan-aw sa iya sini kahimpitan sa pihak nga kinabuhi.

Ngaa ginatawag ini nga "opisyal" nga pagsimba?

          Opisyal, tungod kay ini nga sahi sang pagsimba iya sang bug-os nga Simbahan kag waay lamang ginpanag-iyahan sang pila lang. Gani may mga pagbulot-an ini nga ginpatuman kag ginasunod, kag ini nga mga layi nagagikan sa awtoridad sang Simbahan. Gani, indi lang ini maulu-islan ukon makulokambiohan nga waay sing pahanugot sa awtoridad sang Simbahan.

The Paschal Mystery (Ang Misteryo Paskwal)

http://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/family/catholic-teens/catholic-teachings-for-teens/the-paschal-mystery-in-everyday-life

Ano ang buot silingon kon magsiling kita nga ang liturhiya pagsimba sa Santisima Trinidad?

Ang liturhiya isa ka pangamuyo kag pagsimba nga ginahalad sa Amay, paagi sa Anak, dira sa Espiritu Santo. Makita ini naton ilabi nagid sa katapusan sang mga pangamuyo sa misa kag sa doxologia sa katapusan sang Pangamuyo Eukaristiko sa diin ang pari nagasiling:

“Through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours Almighty Father, forever and ever.”

Most of the prayers in the liturgy is intended to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

Trinitarian and Paschal

1506. The Church’s liturgical prayer is directed to the Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit. Its specific Trinitarian form takes on a Paschal quality since the liturgy celebrates the Good News of our actual salvation worked by the Blessed Trinity through Jesus Christ’s Paschal Mystery. The Trinity, then, far from being an abstract god of the theologians, is the concrete living, saving God who comes to us in the Risen Christ and the Spirit, within the Christian community, the Church (cf. CCC 1084ff).

Ngaa masiling naton nga ang liturhiya pagsimba nga ginhalad sang bug-os nga Santa Iglesia?

Ang liturhiya indi isa ka privado nga hilikuton. Bisan matuod kon kaisa ang pari lang ang nagamisa nga naupdan sang isa ka manugserbe, ginahimo niya ini sa ngalan sang bug-os nga Santa Iglesia. Wala sing privado nga Bunyag ukon privado nga pagsaulog sang mga sakramento. Ang tagsa ka pagsaulog sini ginasaulog sang bug-os nga katilingban.

1507. Liturgy is the prayer of the Church gathered in assembly, an ecclesial activity, celebrated by the WHOLE Christ, Head and members (cf. SC 26f; LG 10; CCC 1140).

That is, it is the action of Jesus Christ the Priest, and at the same time an activity of the community, a gathering together in an ordered assembly and communion of the baptized. Moreover, the liturgical assembly is arranged according to different roles: priest, deacon, readers, ministers of music and of communion, etc. While we all share the one Holy Spirit of love, different spiritual gifts or charisms are given to community members for the good of all. Thus, the power for salvation is mediated through various relationships within the Church.

1508. This ecclesial quality is especially important for Filipino Catholics because it draws them beyond family bonds of intimacy toward a community solidarity based on faith in Christ. Ecclesial solidarity is a community that has moved beyond the circle of intimacy toward unity and collaborative activity grounded on Christian discipleship rather than merely social relationships.  In its authentic liturgy, the Church has always rejected the temptation to limit the understanding of God’s living Word to its earliest historical period, as the fundamentalists do; or to reduce Christian life to individualistic piety or group intimacy, as in sectarianism; or to make of faith a blind leap without any understanding, as fideism proposes.

Ano ang buot silingon naton kon magsiling kita, ginsaulog naton sa liturhiya ang Misteryo Paskwal?

Paagi sa paghiwat naton sang liturhiya, ginasaulog naton ang Misteryo Paskwal ni Kristo. Sa tagsa naton ka paghiwat sang Bunyag, sang Misa, sang Kasal kag iban pa nga hilikuton liturhiko ginasaulog kag ginadumdom naton ang MIsteryo Paskwal ni Kristo. Sa sini nga pagsaulog padayon naton  nga ginabaton ang mga bunga sang pagpanubos ni Kristo sa aton.

Ano ang buot silingon kon magsiling kita nga ini nga sahi sang pagsimba ginasaulog paagi sa tanda?

Ang liturhiya napun-an sang mga nagakalain-lain nga mga makita nga tanda sang indi makita nga realidad paagi sa mga ritwal, gestures kag mga pagsabat. We use bread and wine, water, and oil. A priest raises his hands while he prays. Nagaduko kita agod sa paghatag katahuran. We use incense and candles. Nagaluhod kita sa pagsimba. Nagagamit kita sang mga imahen. Kag sa katapusan nagasabat paagi sa hambal kag mga ambahanon.

Please refer to:

• http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html
• https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/sacrosanctum-concilium-constitution-on-the-sacred-liturgy

Ang ini nga sahi sang pagsimba ginasaulog sa mga tanda that passes through our senses. These signs have deeper meaning. Ini nagapakita sang aton pagtuo, panimuot, kag balatyagon.

Ano ang kinalain sini nga tanda sa ordinario nga makita naton?

The ordinary sign that we see like for example “THIS WAY,” only tells us the reality (direction). Every time I see the aforesaid sign, it doesn’t tells me to go to the place I want to, but rather, this ordinary sign is just telling me the direction.

While, the liturgy is telling us of the visible signs of the invisible reality.

•  “Ang paghalad sang mga bulak sa aton Mahal nga Iloy” ang makita nga tanda amo ang bulak pero and indi makita nga tanda amo ang aton himpit kag madalom nga pagdebosyon sa kay Maria Santisima.
• “Ang pagkumustahanay” ang makita nga tanda amo ang pag-uyatay sang mga kamot pero ang indi makita nga tanda amo ang pag-abyanay.

1503. Vatican II describes the liturgy as: “an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ” in which our human “sanctification is manifested by signs perceptible to the senses and is effected in a way proper to each of these signs,” so that “full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members” (cf. SC 7).

The Council acknowledged that “the liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church” preaching the Gospel, inviting all to faith, conversion, observance of Christ’s commandments and works of charity, are explicitly mentioned (cf. CCC 1072).

Nevertheless, the Council went on to affirm that “liturgy is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed, and the fountain from which all her power flows” (cf. SC 9-10; CCC 1074).

The Church holds in highest esteem the rich variety of liturgies, both of the Western and of the Eastern Churches (cf. SC 37; EO 6).

1504. The centre of the Church’s liturgy is the Eucharist which commemorates the Paschal Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ - his Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit (cf. SC 5).

“Bangod kay ang Eukaristiya amo ang gingikanan kag putok-putokan sang Kristianong pagpangabuhi. (Source and summit of our Christian Life)”

Through this Mystery the power of God’s salvific love is offered to all. Since this salvation touches all of creation in its entirety, liturgy in its broadest, deepest sense is the proclamation, manifestation, and celebration not only of Christ and His Paschal Mystery, but also of the Church’s own mystery and mission as universal sacrament of salvation, and of the whole world and the temporal order, consecrated and ordered to its Creator and Final Goal.

1505. But for the ordinary Filipino Catholic, liturgy means being caught up in the yearly cycle of liturgical Seasons like Advent, Lent, Holy Week, Easter time, and in celebrating feast days like Christmas, Sto. Niño, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, the Immaculate Conception, etc. Filipino popular religiosity (https://theologicaldramatics.wordpress.com/popular-religiosity/01-understanding-popular-religionreligiosity/) has helped enormously to bring the liturgical year down into the hearts and souls of simple worshippers. What needs to be improved is the basic understanding of the essentials of Catholic liturgical worship. In simple language, what are we doing and why?

1514. The liturgy, then, is:

• a) the official public worship of the Blessed Trinity,
• b) by the whole Church, through the celebration of Christ’s Paschal Mystery,
• c) in a sacramental, symbolic activity,
• d) with intrinsic moral/ethical links, and
• e) in a built-in eschatological orientation toward perfect fulfillment in the future. No wonder, then, that

Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people” (1 Pt 2:9,4-5) have a right and obligation by reason of their baptism (SC 14).

1515. For Filipino Catholics today, this desired full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgy presents a real challenge. Though great strides have been made in the past few years, particularly through the BECs, the average Sunday Mass attendance statistics reported by PCP II prove that much more needs to be done. Such active participation in the liturgy can only come about when ordinary Filipino Catholics grasp personally how their personal lives, especially their prayer lives, and the Church’s liturgy are mutually entwined and ultimately inseparable. Ordinary Filipino Catholics have to see and personally experience the value and worth for them of prayer, worship, ritual, and liturgy. Such realization is, of course, one of the very effects of active participation in the liturgy. Thus, the challenge comes down to how our catechesis and religious education can more effectively draw our people into such participation.

1516. Such active participation has to overcome rather formidable obstacles. There is, first our general human laziness and weakness of which St. Paul complained (cf. Rom 7), fortified by the growing secularist materialism of our age. Secondly, are the more personal obstacles of “growing-up” complaints of children and youth (“why do I have to. . . ?”) and common superficial reasons for Mass attendance __ to be with the crowd, show off my new clothes, etc. Thirdly, are the obstacles posed by the liturgy itself: the many routine, uninspiring liturgies, lacking all spirit and heart. But even well-celebrated liturgies have to face the problem that praise does not come “natural” to many “modern” persons. So many have lacked any experience of genuine praise in their personal lives, or have so suffered from insincere, manipulative flattery that they distrust their emotions. But most fundamental is the current stress on “self-development,” “self-fulfillment,” etc. There is little chance of praising and “taking delight” in God and others when we are so focused on ourselves.