Public worship is a common feature in most major religions, enabling members of a religious group to grow in their faith and build stronger connections to their community. In the Roman Catholic Church, public worship is known as liturgy, which comes from the Greek leitourgia, meaning “work for the people.”
The general concept of liturgy even traces its roots to ancient Greece, where leitourgia specifically referred to public services performed by wealthy members of Greek society; these services included religious ceremonies held by priests. Although those ceremonies were not Christian, they served as a spiritual precursor to the modern Catholic liturgy. Today, members of the Catholic Church actively participate in the liturgy, where they celebrate the works of Jesus Christ and the Paschal Mystery.
What Is Liturgy?
The liturgy is public, communal worship that praises God. The term refers to the collective rites, ceremonies, prayers, and sacraments of the Catholic Church and is a celebration of the Paschal Mystery — that is, the mystery of Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, and God’s plan for eternal salvation.
Liturgy is also intended to be a constant dialogue of love between the three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As the Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis states:
“Liturgy is centered on the Holy Trinity. At every liturgy the action of worship is directed to the Father, from whom all blessings come, through the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. We praise the Father who first called us to be his people by sending us his Son as our Redeemer and giving us the Holy Spirit so that we can continue to gather, to remember what God has done for us, and to share in the blessings of salvation.”
In the Roman Rite, the Mass — the central liturgical service — is comprised of two principal parts: the Liturgy of the Word, which consists of readings from Scripture, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which consists in the breaking of the bread as a remembrance of Jesus’ Last Supper. Catholic parishioners believe that Christ is present in the liturgy through the person of the minister, the assembled people of God, the Word of God, and in the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist.
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Why Is Liturgy Important?
Liturgical celebration sits at the very heart of Catholic life. According to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“The liturgy as the sacred action par excellence is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed and it is likewise the font from which all her power flows. Through the liturgy Christ continues the work of our redemption in, with and through his Church.”
The Catholic liturgy serves several important functions, including:
- Giving glory and honor to God
- Imparting the wisdom of Christ’s teachings
- Creating a sacred space to explore the Paschal Mystery
- Drawing people into the Word of God
- Empowering parishioners to engage with their faith and deepen their relationships with God
The collective, public nature of liturgical celebration comes with the added benefit of enabling Catholics to form stronger relationships with their fellow parishioners and become a true community of faith. Liturgy also helps give shape to the liturgical year, which consists of six seasons: Advent, Christmas, Lent, the Sacred Paschal Triduum, Easter, and Ordinary Time. Various holy days, feast days, and special observances fall within each of these seasons.
When combined with private devotion, liturgical celebration can lead to a healthy and vibrant spiritual life. It is little wonder, then, that Pope Francis has emphasized the importance of the Catholic liturgy, stating that “A Christianity without liturgy, I would dare say is perhaps a Christianity without Christ, without the whole of Christ.”
Liturgical Practice in the Church
Although liturgy can take many forms, in the Roman Rite — the largest rite in the Church — the Mass is the most common form of liturgical service. Mass, which takes place daily, consists of the following practices:
The Introductory Rites
- The entrance procession
- The reverence of the altar, when the celebrant either bows to or kisses the altar
- The greeting of the gathered assembly
- The Penitential Act, when the faithful acknowledge their weaknesses and ask for God’s grace
- The Gloria, during which the faithful give glory to God
- The opening prayer, known as the Collect
The Liturgy of the Word
- Two readings from Scripture; traditionally, the first reading comes from the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), whereas the second reading comes from the Christian New Testament
- Responsorial Psalms, which take place between readings and may be sung
- The Gospel acclamation, normally a sung “Alleluia,” which prepares the hearts of the faithful to receive God’s word
- The Gospel reading
- The homily, during which the celebrant shares lessons from the Scripture readings with the gathered assembly
- The Profession of Faith, usually either the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed
- The Universal Prayer, also known as the Prayer of the Faithful, when the gathered assembly intercedes with God
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
- The presentation of the gifts, when members of the assembled congregation bring forward bread and wine to become the offerings of the Eucharist
- The preparation of the altar, when the celebrant places the necessary items on the altar and prays over the offerings
- The Eucharistic Prayer, during which the celebrant — acting in the person of Christ — offers prayers to God the Father and consecrates the offerings; this is the point at which transubstantiation, or the conversion of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, occurs
- The Communion Rite, which consists of the following:
- The Lord’s Prayer
- The Rite of Peace, during which members of the faithful extend offerings of peace to one another
- The Fraction Rite, when the celebrant breaks the consecrated bread, recalling the actions of Christ at the Last Supper
- The reception of Holy Communion by the faithful
- The Prayer after Communion
The Concluding Rites
- The blessing, during which the celebrant bestows a final blessing to the gathered assembly
- The dismissal
The Mass is presided over by a priest who is called the celebrant.
Although Catholic liturgy is often ritualistic in nature, Pope Francis has cautioned against “putting the rite before what it expresses” and, in an apostolic letter Desiderio Desideravi, stated that “a celebration that does not evangelize is not authentic.”
In addition to the celebration of Mass, other liturgical services include the celebration of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Orders, and the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office or Work of God, a public prayer that takes place at regular hours throughout the day.
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How to Participate in Catholic Liturgy
Catholic liturgy requires the active participation of parishioners; every action that takes place during Mass or any other liturgical service is considered a part of worship. As a result, most prayers are said and songs are sung in unison, and members of the faithful are expected to pay close attention to the readings and the homily and consider their teachings.
Other actions such as dipping one’s hand in Holy Water and making the sign of the Cross, genuflecting to the altar before entering a pew, and greeting fellow parishioners might seem like small gestures but meaningfully contribute to one’s engagement and reverence.
Ultimately, Catholic liturgy should be a complete mind, body, and spiritual experience. As the St. Jerome Catholic Church states:
“Active participation means the interior participation of all the powers of the soul in the
mystery of Christ’s Sacrificial Love. It also means that the mind and heart are awake, alert and engaged during the Eucharistic celebration. […] Participation involves exterior action: saying things and doing things. We are talking about the bodily gestures and sacred signs we use during the course of the Mass, that is, the relationship between soul and body in liturgical prayer. In other words, it must be the whole person who carries out the liturgical activity.”
This is where the “work” in “work for the people” really comes into play: By engaging with the liturgy itself parishioners recognize the power and glory of God and strengthen their spiritual relationship with God.
Although much of this information is specific to baptized members of the Catholic Church, unbaptized individuals are also welcome to attend and observe liturgical celebration; however, unbaptized individuals are not expected to actively participate in the service unless they choose to do so and can receive a blessing during the Communion Rite.
Liturgical Music in the Catholic Church
Music is an essential component of liturgical celebration — so much so that the phrase “He who sings prays twice,” often attributed to St. Augustine, is a common saying amongst the faithful. Sacred music — music that was written for use within the Church and Catholic liturgy — is seen as an entryway to the divine and speaks to the human soul. As a result, singing along to hymns enables worshippers to engage more meaningfully with the mysteries of God and to joyfully proclaim the Gospel.
There is growing interest in how sacred music can overcome language barriers within liturgical services, help navigate the complexities of intercultural worship, and promote culturally diverse faith-based communities. Brother Rufino Zaragoza, OFM is a leading expert on liturgical inculturation — that is, the adaptation of Catholic liturgy to a multi-cultural background — in the Church today and is pioneering the use of multilingual song collections in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese in support of multicultural liturgies.
Living Out Your Liturgical Mission
For baptized members of the faithful, liturgical celebration extends well beyond traditional services. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, in the Christian New Testament, “the word ‘liturgy’ refers not only to the celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and to active charity.”
In order to truly live in Christ’s divine image and engage with God’s grace, parishioners must carry on this work beyond the physical walls of the church. Living out one’s liturgical mission can take many forms, from regular prayer and performing charitable acts to sharing the word of God and supporting social justice causes. Ultimately, it is parishioners’ responsibility to live as Jesus did and to show patience, humility, and, most importantly, love to those around them in order to lead a life of faith.
What is active charity? How can someone carry on this work beyond the physical walls of the church? A Master of Theological Studies can help you explore these and other questions more academically.
The Master of Theological Studies – Franciscan Theology (MTS-FT) is a fully online program offered by the Franciscan School of Theology in partnership with the University of San Diego. The program gives working professionals, recent undergraduates, and anyone interested in deepening their understanding of faith the opportunity to study with renowned scholars and use theological studies to enact positive change in local and global communities.
To learn more about the MTS-FT degree, please visit our program page.
Note: Although it is discussed in a few courses, the MTS-FT program is not focused on liturgy and, therefore, does not provide comprehensive coverage of this subject.