What follows here is just a brief excerpt; do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. [A] priest who is a great preacher may not be a great liturgist. So we have the Prayer Book. A priest may not be great at answering questions like, What is a Sacrament? So we have the Catechism (in the Prayer Book). A priest may find themselves at a loss for words at the graveside – so we have the Prayer Book. The perhaps more critical role of the Prayer Book is not simply to aid the priest who might be deficient in any given area – it is to rein in those who might think themselves gifted in any given area. Our greatest occasions for sin are not when we are making up for weakness but when we are relying on our supposed strength. We are vain creatures, yet it is Christ’s humility, not our pride, that must be the center of our common life. The liturgy is not a time for us to show our respective creative sides – it is the opposite. It is that point at which we show ourselves as part of a loving whole that has given its need for unchecked individuality over to an ancient, holy grace that holds us together as one in the wholeness of Christ.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 20:07:46 +0000
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