Understanding Our Faith

The Liturgy following on from Vatican II

As also happened following the Council of Trent in the 1500’s, much of the detail of the liturgical reform was left in the hands of the Pope and the commissions he set up to develop the work begun at the Council.

Gradually each part of the liturgy was translated into the many languages that are used by the People of God today.  This took some time before the translations achieved an adequate accuracy and dignity.  This had to happen not just with the Mass but with all the other sacraments and rituals which are part of the Church’s life.  It was an enormous task and involved so many languages.

Before the council, there was only one Eucharistic Prayer in use throughout the Western Church which is our present Eucharistic Prayer 1.  Following on from the Council, we got three more Eucharistic Prayers, numbers 2, 3 and 4 in our present Missal.  Later there were added two Eucharistic Prayers of Reconciliation and three for children along with the prayer entitled ‘For Various Needs and Occasions’.

The first part of the Eucharistic prayer is the Preface which is not a preface as a sort of introduction but is an essential part of the Eucharistic Prayer.  The number of these prefaces was expanded so that today we have over 90 of them for different feasts and sacraments.

In this manner, the liturgy became a great deal more varied than had been the case earlier on and took on a greater capacity to give expression to the many aspects of the mystery of Christ and his meaning for us human beings.

The liturgy was also ‘tidied up’.  Many external elements had crept into the celebration of the liturgy in the course of the preceding centuries which did not contribute to the celebration or its significance.

In all of this renewing activity, the principle at work was that the full and active participation of the people was the aim to be considered above all else.  So, the parts of the Mass in which the people were invited to participate needed to be renewed and emphasised.  Elements like the dialogues between the priest and the people needed to be given clear attention.

We will look at more of this next week.

By:  Fr Frank O’Loughlin