Cardinal Arinze, what place does the liturgy have in the parish’s evangelization efforts?

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A blurb from Francis Cardinal Arinze on liturgy and evangelization.


What place does the liturgy — both Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours — have in the parish’s evangelization efforts?

Essential; important; foundational. The Vatican Council, in the document on the liturgy, Paragraph 10, speaks of liturgical celebration, especially the Holy Eucharist, as profound and the apex of the whole Christian life. From the Liturgy, we get spiritual energy to do the apostolate. In the liturgy, we give honor to God. In the celebration of Holy Mass, the Church has the highest expression of religion, the highest expression of adoration. What is it that the Church has that is as important as Mass? It is only another Mass. The Church has nothing bigger than the Mass. So the liturgy gives us strength; it gives us Holy Scripture, proclaimed and explained. It gives us the grace of Christ. Christ himself received in Holy Communion is really, truly present — substantially. And it inspires us to go and spread the Faith. The liturgical celebration has dynamic energy — not just “go, the Mass is ended; go and rest.” No, go and spread the Gospel! What we have heard, what we have prayed, what we have been singing: Go and live it; go and share it. So the liturgy — we cannot think of the Church without liturgy. The Church makes the Eucharist, and the Eucharist makes the Church.

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