Phantump Ministry

JUST IN: The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith today released a new document titled “VENITE AD ME [COME TO ME]: Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change” — vatican.va/roman_curia/congr… Signed by DDF Prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the section on Liturgy (n. 90-94) states: 90. The second consideration linked to the rediscovery of the centrality of the proclamation of the kerygma concerns the liturgy. If the heart of the Christian proclamation is the encounter with God’s saving love in Christ, the liturgy constitutes the privileged place in which this mystery is celebrated and communicated sacramentally. For this reason, it plays a central role in handing on the faith, serving as the beating heart of ecclesial life, where the community is nourished by the Word of God and the Bread of eternal life. In this regard, we must move beyond a reductive view that regards the liturgy as merely a ritual framework for ecclesial life. The liturgy, in fact, is first and foremost an experience of faith, even before it is a teaching, in that it allows the faithful to participate in gestures, words, silences, and symbols, thereby experiencing the mystery of Christ in a living way. As stated in Evangelii Gaudium, “the Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy”[94]; precisely through its symbolic power and its ability to engage the whole person fully, the liturgy becomes an authentic place of proclamation and encounter with the Lord. In the liturgical action, and particularly in the Eucharist, we are drawn ever more deeply into the Paschal Mystery, while the sacramental character of the Church—called to be a sign of God’s love for humanity—is made visible. In this sacramental event, the encounter with the Risen One becomes a shared and vital act that educates believers not only by “informing” them, but by shaping them from within so that they may become participants in the mystery being celebrated. For this reason, in the liturgy, faith is transmitted in a performative way: we do not merely speak of God but enter into a relationship with him. The liturgy is living memory and tradition, generating and shaping Christians capable of bearing witness to the salvation they have encountered: by participating in liturgical prayer, one enters, in fact, into a history, into a shared memory that spans the centuries. Therefore, to celebrate means first and foremost to receive a faith that has been believed, lived, and prayed by others before us. 91. Furthermore, this dynamic highlights the eminently communal dimension of the liturgy. Faith, in fact, is not transmitted solely through individual proclamation or teaching, but within a people who celebrate together. In the liturgy, the believer is never isolated but is part of a “we” that precedes, accompanies, and transcends him or her. This communal dimension serves as a powerful antidote to the allure of a selfish and individualistic lifestyle, which, as we have already seen, is so widespread today in many contexts. Precisely because it is an ecclesial and communal experience, the celebration of the faith is closely linked to processes of inculturation—that is, to the effort “to communicate more effectively the truth of the Gospel in a specific context, without renouncing the truth, the goodness and the light which it can bring whenever perfection is not possible.”[95] Applied to the liturgy, this perspective requires preserving the richness of the Church’s symbolic tradition, while at the same time making it accessible and meaningful to the men and women of our time, within a healthy and fruitful tension between fidelity to tradition and the comprehensibility of the message being celebrated. 92. From the perspective of the transmission of the faith, therefore, the liturgy is of crucial importance, in accordance with the ancient adage lex orandi, lex credendi. [96] It follows that the liturgical celebration cannot be reduced to a mere formal performance, but must be an action in which the signs truly speak to the minds and hearts of the faithful, expressing in a vivid and concrete way the one faith of the Church and strengthening in each believer the awareness of being a member of the Body of Christ. Only through fully conscious participation, which presupposes an adequate education in liturgical language, can faith be transmitted not as an abstract doctrine, but as a new life that is communicated by attraction in daily life. The young Augustine also bore witness to this power of the liturgy; years after that experience, he was able to write: “How greatly I wept at your hymns and canticles, how deeply was I moved by the sounds of your Church sweetly singing! Those voices flowed into my ears, and your truth melted into my heart until the feeling of devotion surged up from within; my tears ran down, and I was the better for them.”[97] Through the beauty of the signs and the power of the Word, the liturgical action thus becomes the generative source of the Church’s mission, enabling the community to give an account of the hope that dwells within it, through the credibility of a life transfigured by grace. For this reason, special care must be taken in the celebrations, and a mystagogical accompaniment of the younger generations is necessary, so that they may fully understand and live out what they celebrate in the liturgy. 93. In addition, the liturgy can be experienced in different ways. Indeed, popular piety also has its own way of expressing a liturgical sensibility, which takes different forms according to the various cultures. To understand this, we can cite a beautiful account by Romano Guardini, in which he recounts his visit to Sicily: “Today I saw something magnificent: Monreale. […] When we arrived—it was Holy Thursday—the solemn Mass had proceeded beyond the consecration. […] What should I say about the splendor of this place? […] The crowd sat and watched. […] Almost no one was reading. All were living in the gaze; all were intent on contemplation. Then it became clear to me what the foundation of true liturgical piety is: the ability to perceive the ‘sacred’ within the image and its dynamism. Monreale, Holy Saturday. […] Every now and then a ray of sunlight pierced through the vault, and then a golden smile spread through the space above. […] Yet the most beautiful thing was the people. […] The sacred ceremony lasted more than four hours, but there was a lively participation throughout. There are different ways of prayerful participation. One takes place through listening, speaking and gesture, and the other through seeing. The first way is a good one, and in Northern Europe it is the only way we know. But we have lost something that was still present in Monreale: the capacity for living-in-the-gaze, for dwelling in the act of seeing, for welcoming the sacred in the form and event, by contemplating them.” [98] 94. Particular care should also be taken to enable the faithful in every diocese, as well as those who are approaching or returning to the community of believers, to encounter the various liturgical sensibilities present within the tradition of the Catholic Church. With due respect for the liturgical norms currently in force, pastors are called to highlight the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage—consider, for example the variety of musical styles that characterize it—in such a way as to enter into contact with the different sensibilities of their contemporaries. Specific attention should also be given to accompanying the significant stages of human life with the Church’s blessing. Especially in the West, there is a progressive loss of the collective memory of rites and ritual practices in favor of a highly radical form of individualism; yet this does not eliminate the anthropological need for rituality, to which human beings have always responded in different ways. The Christian community grows and is built up through ritual practices, and in this regard, the Church’s rich spiritual heritage represents a precious and inexhaustible resource.

OCT. 15 — POPE LEO XIV HEALTH UPDATE: @HolySeePress has issued the following update: Dr. Luigi Carbone and Prof. Stefano Margaritora report the following regarding the Pope’s post-operative recovery: This morning the Holy Father underwent routine checks, which were within normal limits. The chest X-ray showed good recovery of the operated lung. He carried out his daily activities independently. The physiotherapy session involved full motor activity. Overall, the post-operative recovery is progressing normally.