T he day-to-day life of a parish varies greatly from one community to another, but the one thing that all Catholic parishes hold in common is the celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. This is the gathering point for all parishioners, the time when everyone comes together. The table of God’s Word and the table of the Eucharist feed and nourish the community, refreshing the people and sending them on into yet another week of work and struggles, joys and successes, and many opportunities to spread the Kingdom of God. In speech and song, symbol and gesture, we unite our praise and thanksgiving to Christ’s perfect self-offering on the cross.

Sunday: The Day of the Lord

From earliest times, Christians have kept Sunday, the Lord’s Day, by celebrating the Eucharist, which the Lord gave us as an everlasting memorial of his saving death and resurrection. The Eucharist makes present sacramentally the living mystery of the Lord’s Passover from death to life, and our participation in the Mass gives us a unique share in the Passover of Christ. It is no wonder that the Church teaches us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church’s life, and that the Holy Father invites us to renew our amazement in the face of this great gift.

So important is the liturgy for our lives as Christians that the Church has always taken great care with how the liturgy is celebrated. The essential parts of the liturgy have remained unchanged over the centuries, although the ritual words and form of the liturgy have varied from time to time. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) instituted a number of revisions to the Roman Missal, calling for changes to help Catholics celebrate the liturgy more deeply. After the Council, there was a major effort to catechize the faithful on the meaning of the liturgy and these revisions. Since then, a whole new generation of Catholics has grown up with the liturgy that we celebrate Sunday after Sunday, week after week, season after season.

If we were to stop and reflect on what has happened in the years since the Council, we might have to admit that some well-intentioned people may have overlooked some parts of the deep meaning and order of the liturgy. We might become aware that in some places, certain idiosyncrasies might have crept into a particular parish’s celebration of the Eucharist. And we might realize that now is a good time for the Church to reflect on and review how we celebrate the liturgy, the most important element of Catholic life.

The Revised General Instruction

Recently, the Holy See issued a revision of the Roman Missal and its introduction, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. This revision has grown out of the years of pastoral experience with the Roman Missal that was published immediately after the Second Vatican Council. Respecting the diversity of cultures in the universal Church, the Holy See invited the national conferences of bishops to propose revisions appropriate to their own particular regions. The changes called for in this revision, relatively minor though they are, give witness to the fact that the liturgy is the prayer of the living Church and so understandably must undergo some changes from time to time. The publication of this revision provides the occasion for renewed catechesis on the understanding and practice of the liturgy, especially the Mass. The hope is that, with this catechesis and reflection, Catholics everywhere can more deeply pray the liturgy with all their hearts