Few Examples of the Old:  The tree of life  The consecrated altars and pillars  The oil of consecration  The burning bush  The staff of Moses, Aaron and of Elisha  The bones of Elisha

Few Examples of the New:  The garment of Christ and of the disciples  The oil  The spit and the dirt  The Body and the Blood of Christ

1. What is the meaning of the word “Liturgy”? 2. Why the Liturgy? 3. The Sacramental Economy. 4. The Sacramental Celebration.

 Originally meant: a “public work” or “service in the name of/on behalf of the people.”  In Christian Tradition it means the participation of the people of God in “the work of God.”  In the New Testament, the word “liturgy” refers not only to the divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and acts of Charity.

 It is the continuation of the work of Christ -The one “Leitourgos”Heb8:2,6 - in His Church.  The Church shares in Christ priesthood(worship), which is both Prophetic (proclamation) and Kingly (service of charity)

 The Liturgy as source of life: It makes the Church present and manifests her as the visible sign of the communion in Christ between God and men. It engages the faithful in the new life of the community and involves the “Conscious, active, and fruitful participation” of everyone.

 The Liturgy is a participation in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit.  The Liturgy is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all Her power flows.  The Liturgy is the perfect place for catechizing the people of God.

 Liturgical Catechesis: aims to initiate people into the Mystery of Christ, by proceeding from the Sacrament (visible sign) to the “Mysteries” (the hidden truth).  A true Liturgical Catechesis aims at teaching the fundamental and common facts of the Liturgical worship.

 In the confession of our Faith, the Church confesses the “Mystery of Faith” in which God’s “good pleasure” accomplished the “Mystery of His will” by giving His beloved Son and His Holy Spirit.  St Paul called it the “plan of the mystery” Eph3:9 the Patristic Tradition called it “The economy of the word incarnate” or the “Economy of Salvation.”

 The Great works of God among the people of the Old Testament was but a prelude to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God “glory and honor, honor and glory…” the prayer at the sanctuary door in the beginning of the offertory circuit.  Christ accomplished His work principally by the paschal mystery of His death, resurrection and glorious ascension.  For it was from the side of the crucified Christ as He slept that there came forth ‘the wondrous sacraments of the whole Church’

 For this reason, the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation  It is this mystery of Christ that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world

 The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit  The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the “dispensation of the mystery” – the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of His Church, in anew way appropriate to this new age.

 Christ in this new age of the Church acts through the sacraments in what the common Tradition of the East and the West calls “the sacramental economy”.  The sacramental economy “dispensation” is the basis to understand the nature and essential features of the liturgical celebration (who, how, when and where).