{"id":19033,"date":"2017-03-31T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says-48533\/"},"modified":"2017-03-31T23:12:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T23:12:00","slug":"true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/","title":{"rendered":"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cross, Cardinal Robert Sarah has said.<\/p>\n

If Catholics feel they are undergoing a divisive \u201cliturgical war,\u201d the cardinal said, they should see it as \u201can aberration.\u201d Instead, the liturgy is \u201cthe space par excellence where Catholics should experience unity in truth, in faith, and in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, it is inconceivable to celebrate the liturgy while having sentiments of fratricidal conflict and rancor,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this \u2018face to face\u2019 with God that is the liturgy, our heart must be pure of all enmity, which requires that everyone must be respected in his own sensibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, stressed the need to reaffirm that the Second Vatican Council never called for a break from the past. Rather, the council\u2019s vision of liturgical renewal should be promoted.<\/p>\n

The cardinal had prepared his remarks for the 18th Cologne International Liturgical Conference, which is focusing on the 10th anniversary of Benedict XVI\u2019s instruction Summorum Pontificum<\/em><\/a>, which gave broad leeway to priests for the celebration of the Roman Catholic liturgy according to the 1962 Latin-language Roman Missal, now known as the extraordinary form.<\/p>\n

The cardinal\u2019s speech<\/a>, which he did not deliver in person due to other commitments, addressed various debates about the liturgy and the direction of the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council.<\/p>\n

After the council, Blessed Paul VI issued a new Roman Missal, now known as the ordinary form, which was widely translated from Latin into local languages.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah said both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the liturgy should bring to the faithful\u00a0 \u201cthe beauty of the liturgy, its sacredness, the silence, the recollection, the mystical dimension, and adoration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe liturgy must put us face to face with God in a personal relationship of intense intimacy. It must plunge us into the intimacy of the Most Holy Trinity,\u201d he said, adding \u201cthe liturgy should allow us to attain all together to the unity of faith and to the true knowledge of the Son of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

He rejected any efforts to oppose one Roman Missal to the other, or to oppose the Roman liturgy to those of the Eastern Catholic Churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ought rather to enter into the great silence of the liturgy, allowing ourselves to be enriched by all the liturgical forms, whether they be, incidentally, Latin or Eastern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Without mystical silence and a contemplative spirit, the liturgy will remain \u201c an occasion for hateful divisions, for ideological confrontations, and for public humiliations of the weak by those who claim to hold authority, instead of being a place of our unity and our communion in the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah spoke of the importance of liturgical formation, which must begin with a proclamation of the faith and a catechesis based in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This formation \u201cprotects us from the risk of the more or less learned deviations of certain theologians in need of \u2018novelties\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Cardinal Sarah, the heart of all authentic Christian liturgy includes efforts to improve and esteem its beauty and sacredness as well as \u201cmaintaining\u00a0 the right balance between fidelity to the Tradition and legitimate evolution.\u201d This last point means \u201cabsolutely and radically\u201d rejecting any interpretation that sees liturgical history as a break with the past.<\/p>\n

The cardinal spoke at length of divisions over the liturgy, delivering some strong criticism for some abuses.<\/p>\n

While the sense of the sacred is inseparable from the liturgy, some of the faithful have been so mistreated or deeply troubled by superficial celebrations of the liturgy that they have become \u201cliturgically homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah criticized a vision of\u00a0 liturgical reform that failed to fulfill the authentic restoration envisioned by the Second Vatican Council. This vision was carried out with \u201ca superficial spirit\u201d and wrongly aimed \u201cto eliminate at all cost a heritage perceived to be totally negative and outdated in order to dig an abyss between before and after the council.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Cardinal Sarah, the Second Vatican Council was not intended to be \u201ca rupture with the Tradition,\u201d but rather a rediscovery and confirmation of tradition \u201cin its deepest significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, what is called \u2018the reform of the reform,\u2019 and which should perhaps be called with greater precision \u2018the mutual enrichment of the rites,\u2019 to adopt an expression of the magisterium of Benedict XVI, is above all a spiritual necessity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCardinal Joseph Ratzinger tirelessly repeated that the crisis that has been shaking the Church for the past fifty years, principally since the Second Vatican Council, is linked to the crisis of the liturgy, and thus to the disrespect, desacralization, and horizontalization of the essential elements of divine worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in his memoirs, he is convinced that \u201cthe crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah added: \u201cwe cannot close our eyes to the disaster, the devastation, and the schism that the modern promoters of a living liturgy have provoked by remodeling the liturgy of the Church according to their ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

He contended that those who enacted negative changes in the liturgy forgot that it is not only a prayer, but is especially a mystery \u201cthat we cannot understand entirely, but which we must accept and receive in faith, love, obedience, and an adoring silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, he said, is the true meaning of the council\u2019s endorsement of \u201cthe active participation of the faithful\u201d in the liturgy.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccrisis of faith\u201d since the council has affected many Christian faithful, especially many priests and bishops, and has made them incapable of understanding the Eucharistic liturgy as a sacrifice identical to the Sacrifice of the Cross.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah emphasized that the Mass is \u201c the living sacrifice of Christ who died on the cross to free us from sin and death, so as to reveal the love and glory of God the Father.\u201d Every celebration of the Mass aims for \u201cthe glory and adoration of God and the salvation and sanctification of men.\u201d<\/p>\n

True worshipers of God do not reform the liturgy according to their own ideas and creativity to please the world. Rather, they \u201creform the world with the Gospel\u201d to help the world access the\u00a0 liturgy that is \u201cthe reflection of the liturgy that is celebrated from all eternity in the heavenly Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah stressed Benedict XVI\u2019s approach. The Pope\u2019s 2007 letter to bishops accompanying Summorum Pontificum<\/em><\/a> said it aimed \u201cto allow for the mutual enriching of the two forms of the same Roman Rite\u201d and opened the possibility of perfecting them \u201cby highlighting the best elements that characterize each.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cardinal offered guidelines for Summorum Pontificum<\/em>, saying it should be applied \u201cwith great care\u201d and not as \u201ca negative and regressive measure, turned towards the past.\u201d Neither should it be applied\u00a0 \u201cas something that builds walls and creates a ghetto.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather, it should be \u201can important and genuine contribution to the current and future liturgical life of the Church.\u201d It can contribute to the liturgical movement, from which \u201cmore and more people, in particular the youth, draw so many true, good, and beautiful things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the extraordinary form is celebrated, the cardinal said, pastors have reported \u201cgreater fervor\u201d among both the faithful and the priests. Where the ordinary form is celebrated, there has been a positive impact on the liturgy, especially in the rediscovery of the postures of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, such as kneeling and genuflection.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Sarah said there was a renewed sense of the importance of \u201csacred silence\u201d at important parts of the Mass that allows priests and the faithful to \u201cinteriorize the mystery of the faith that is celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liturgical reform itself has a mystical goal, he said: \u201cThe liturgy must therefore always reform itself to be more faithful to its mystical essence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"yoast_head":"\nTrue liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-31T23:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Cardinal_Robert_Sarah_Prefect_of_the_Congregation_for_Divine_Worship_and_the_Discipline_of_the_Sacraments_at_the_Vatican_Feb_10_2015_Credit_Bohumil_Petrik_CNA_CNA_2_10_15.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/\",\"name\":\"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-31T23:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-31T23:12:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says","description":"Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says","og_description":"Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2017-03-31T23:12:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Cardinal_Robert_Sarah_Prefect_of_the_Congregation_for_Divine_Worship_and_the_Discipline_of_the_Sacraments_at_the_Vatican_Feb_10_2015_Credit_Bohumil_Petrik_CNA_CNA_2_10_15.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/","name":"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-31T23:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-31T23:12:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Cologne, Germany, Mar 31, 2017 \/ 05:12 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cros...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2017\/03\/true-liturgy-is-a-reflection-of-heaven-cardinal-sarah-says\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"True liturgy is a reflection of heaven, Cardinal Sarah says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}