#liturgy

Good Christian liturgy is friendship in action, love taking thought, the covenant relationship between God and his people not simply discovered and celebrated like the sudden meeting of friends, exciting and worthwhile though that is, but thought through and relished, planned and prepared -- an ultimately better way for the relationship to grow and at the same time a way of demonstrating what the relationship is all about. ↗

— N.T. Wright

#worship #friendship

You have made us to be free, But we crave the cheap comforts of our chains. You have made us to serve others, But we have eyes only for ourselves. You have made us to love, But we are inflamed with lust. You provide, that we may be generous, But we greedily hoard as if your well will run dry. You forgive time and again, But we hold fast to the sins of others. You offer light for our path, But we insist on making our own way. You are the God who saves. Lord, save us from ourselves. In your great mercy, restore and heal us, and grant us your peace. ↗

— Ecclesia Catholica

#liturgy #forgiveness

Whenever I hear the epistles of Paul read out loud in the liturgy, I am filled with joy... If I'm regarded as a learned man, it's not because I'm brainy. It's simply because I have such a love for Paul that I have never left off reading him. He has taught me all I know. ↗

— Charles Freeman

#because #brainy #epistles #filled #hear

The service--a moved Roosevelt called it the "keynote" of his meeting with Churchill--was working a kind of magic, which is one of the points of liturgy and theater: to use the dramatic to convince people of a reality they cannot see. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#friendship

Liturgy is like a strong tree whose beauty is derived from the continuous renewal of its leaves, but whose strength comes from the old trunk, with solid roots in the ground. ↗

— Pope Paul VI

#comes #continuous #derived #ground #leaves