From the New Catechism: THE SACRAMENTAL ECONOMY
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, "until he comes." [1076]
THE LITURGY - THE WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY
The Father – Source and Goal of the Liturgy
In the Church’s liturgy the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings of creation and salvation. [1082]
On the one hand, the Church, united with her Lord and "in the Holy Spirit," blesses the Father "for his inexpressible gift" in her adoration, praise, and thanksgiving. [1083]
On the other hand, until the consummation of God’s plan, the Church never ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts and to beg him to send the Holy Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful, and upon the whole world, so that through communion in the death and resurrection of Christ the Priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will bring forth the fruits of life "to the praise of his glorious grace." [1083]
Christ’s Work in the Liturgy
His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is – all that he did and suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life. [1084]
Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying: they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. [1087]
"Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not only in the person of his minister, ‘the same now offering, through the ministry of the priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,’ but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.’"
1 [1088]"In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle."
2 [1090]The Holy Spirit and the Church in the Liturgy
The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of salvation in the liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s living memory.
3 [1099]The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it, according to the dispositions of their hearts. [1101]
The liturgical celebration always refers to God’s saving interventions in history. In the Liturgy of the Word, the Holy Spirit "recalls" to the assembly all that Christ has done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual traditions of the churches, the celebration "makes a remembrance" of the marvelous works of God in an anamnesis which may be more or less developed. The Holy Spirit who thus awakens the memory of the Church then inspires thanksgiving and praise (doxology). [1103]
The Pascal mystery of Christ is celebrated, not repeated. It is the celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present. [1104]
The Holy Spirit’s transforming power in the liturgy hastens the coming of the kingdom and the consummation of the mystery of salvation. Sent by the Father who hears the epiclesis of the Church, the Spirit gives life to those who accept him and is, even now, the "guarantee" of their inheritance.
4 [1107]In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form his Body. [1108]
The epiclesis is also a prayer for the full effect of the assembly’s communion with the mystery of Christ. ...The Church therefore asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to make the lives of the faithful a living sacrifice to God by their spiritual transformation into the image of Christ, by concern for the Church’s unity, and by taking part in her mission through the witness and service of charity. [1109]
THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN THE CHURCH’S SACRAMENTS
5 [1115]The Sacraments of Christ
The mysteries of Christ’s life are the foundation of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments, through the ministers of his Church, for "what was visible in our Savior has passes over into his mysteries."
Sacraments are "powers that come forth" from the body of Christ,
6 which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his body, the Church. [1116]The Sacraments of the Church
The sacraments are "of the Church’ in the double sense that they are "by her" and "for her." They are "by the Church," for she is the sacrament of Christ’s action at work in her through the mission of the Holy Spirit. They are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the Church,"
7 since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with God who is love, One in three persons. [1118]The Sacraments of Faith
They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called "sacraments of faith."
8 [1123]Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition.
9 For this reason no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community. Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy. [1124-25]The sacraments of Salvation
Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify.
10 They are efficacious, because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. [1127]This is the meaning of the Church’s affirmation
11 that the sacraments act ex opere operato (literally: "by the very fact of the action’s being performed"), i.e., by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant of the recipient, but by the power of God." [1128]The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the new Covenant are necessary for salvation.
12 "Sacramental grace" is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature13 by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior. [1129]The Sacraments of Eternal Life
In the sacraments of Christ the Church already receives the guarantee of her inheritance and even now shares in everlasting life, while "awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Christ Jesus."
14 [1130]CELEBRATING THE CHURCH’S LITURGY
Who celebrates?
Liturgy is an "action" of the whole Christ (Christus totus). Those who even now celebrate it without signs are already in the heavenly liturgy, where celebration is wholly communion and feast. [1136]
It is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to participate whenever we celebrate the mystery of salvation in the sacraments. [1139]
The celebrants of the sacramental liturgy
It is the whole community, the body of Christ united with its head, that celebrates. "Liturgical services are not private function but are celebrations of the church which is ‘the sacrament of unity,’ namely the holy people united and organized under the authority of the bishops. Therefore, liturgical services pertain to the whole Body of the Church. ...For this reason, "rites which are meant to be celebrated in common, with the faithful present and actively participating, should as far as possible be celebrated in that way rather than by an individual and quasi-privately."1 [1140]
This "common priesthood" is that of Christ the sole priest, in which all his members participate:
Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people," have a right and an obligation by reason of their baptism.2 [1141]
But "the members do not all have the same function."3 Certain members are called by God, in and through the Church, to a special service of the community. These servants are chosen and consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the Holy Spirit enables them to act in the person of Christ the head, for the service of all the members of the Church.4 [1142]
For the purpose of assisting the work of the common priesthood of the faithful, other particular ministries also exist, not consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders; their functions are determined by the bishops, in accord with liturgical traditions and pastoral needs. [1143]
How is the liturgy celebrated?
The liturgical celebration involves signs and symbols relating to creation (candles, water, fire), human life (washing, anointing, breaking bread) and the history of salvation (the rites of the Passover). Integrated into the world of faith and taken up by the power of the Holy Spirit, these cosmic elements, human rituals, and gestures of remembrance of God become bearers of the saving and sanctifying action of Christ. [1189]
The Liturgy of the Word is an integral part of the celebration. The meaning of the celebration is expressed by the word of God which is proclaimed and by the response of faith to it. [1190]
When is the liturgy celebrated?
"By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday."5 The day of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the "eighth day," on which Christ, after his "rest" on the great sabbath, inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening."6 The Lord’s Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet. [1166]
In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold. This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery. [1171]
By keeping the memorials of the saints - first of all the holy Mother of God, then the apostles, the martyrs, and other saints - on fixed days of the liturgical year, the Church on earth shows that she is united with the liturgy of heaven. She gives glory to Christ for having accomplished his salvation in his glorified members; their example encourages her on her way to the Father. [1195]
The faithful who celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours are united to Christ our high priest, by the prayer of the Psalms, meditation on the Word of God, and canticles and blessings, in order to be joined with his unceasing and universal prayer that gives glory to the Father and implores the gift of the Holy Spirit on the whole world. [1196]