On the Liturgy

The reason why the Church uses the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical texts in the offering of divine worship and Christian instruction is really very simple: the Liturgy, meaning 'the work of the people,' the formalised structure of worship by which the clergy and people render to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, is Apostolic in origin and traces itself directly back to the worship of the first generation of Christian believers. The Apostles were liturgical, and accustomed to the prayers and liturgical formulae of the Jewish synagogue and temple; hence, they transferred the use of liturgical prayer found in ancient Judaism to the New People of God, the Catholic and Apostolic Church, the new and spiritual Israel (Galatians 6.16). Our Lord Himself used the Jewish liturgy, the Psalms and hymn contained in the Old Testament, and transformed the old liturgy of the Jewish Passover into the Eucharist or Mass, the Sacrifice of the New and Eternal Testament. Our Lord celebrated the first Eucharist and instituted it in the context of the old Passover rite - entirely liturgical. Thus, the Church has, as Our Lord promised, fulfilled and completed, not destroyed, the Tradition of God's chosen people from the Old Covenant, including the liturgy. We use the Liturgy because it actually precedes and predates the writing of the books of the canonical New Testament (which Canon was only settled by the Catholic Church at councils in 393 and 397 AD). The Liturgy is essential part of the Apostles' doctrine, teaching and fellowship - and the Breaking of Bread, the Mass - (Acts of the Apostles 2.42), inherited directly from the Apostles and their successors in the ancient Church.

The Liturgy is fundamental to the handing-down of orthodox Christian doctrine called in Holy Scripture 'the Tradition,' the paradosis, the passing-along of the Faith. Every Christian church has a tradition - either a tradition invented at the protestant reformation, a tradition invented at a later period, or Holy and Apostolic Tradition, which is the content of the preaching and teaching of the Apostles, preserved and handed-on by the Apostles and their Successors in the Catholic Church through the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 'Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us' (II Thessalonians 3.6). 'Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle' (II Thessalonians 2.15). 'Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.' (St John 16.13-15). 'But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you' (St John 14.26). This is Holy Tradition, the living memory of the Church, the Life of the Holy Ghost in the Church.

The Liturgy also preserves orthodox Christian doctrine and protects the Church from falling into novelty, heresy and false doctrine: an ancient axiom of the Faith is lex orandi, lex credendi, the law of prayer is the the law of believe, as we pray so we believe. The Apostles enshrined the Gospel they received from Our Lord in the forms of worship and prayer they handed on to their Churches, and so to this day the Church uses and promotes the teaching of the Apostles contained in the Liturgy. The liturgy is the 'form of sound words' (II Timothy 1.3) given to and by the Apostles. Heretics have through the centuries been known and identified primarily by their changes to the received orthodox form of the Liturgy. Christians worshipped with and through the liturgy before the New Testament was written, and developed through worship the expression of doctrines that would only later be defined by the Church in Scripture, Creed and Ecumenical Council, most especially the dogmas of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation and Deity of Christ. The earliest Christians worshipped One God in Three Persons and Jesus Christ as God and Man long before any official creedal formulae were developed to defend the Church against error. Thus, the Holy Scriptures, the Liturgy and the Church are inseparable for Catholics, for they are three modes conveying the one and same Christian revelation.

The Liturgy unites all Christians across time and space in the common action of the People of God in prayer. It enables us to pray with all those Christians who have gone before us in the Communion of Saints and with all Apostolic Christians in Apostolic Churches today. The Liturgy is the action of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, to whom we are united as members of the Body and His members in His own great act of prayer and intercession.