Liturgy - What is it?

A church is a sacred building intended for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of access for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship. A church, therefore, accommodates worship so where does liturgy fit in? Here are some definitions:

Liturgy is the celebration of the faith of the Church[1]

The liturgy is the life of prayer and worship of a single community, the mystical body of Christ, developing through history, from a certain unique source, the teaching and the saving action of Our Lord, ever active in us through the Holy Spirit[2]

The liturgy is the public worship that our redeemer as head of the Church renders to its founder, and through him to the father. It is, in short, the worship rendered by the mystical body of Christ in the entirety of its head and members[3]

Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy, by means of signs perceptible to the senses, human sanctification is signified and brought about in ways proper to each of these signs; in the liturgy, the whole public worship is performed by the mystical body of Christ, that is by the head and his members[4]

Liturgy is the communal worship of the entire assembly. It is the worship offered to the Father in the Spirit by the entire body of Christ, head and members[5]

Worship is primarily internal but not exclusively so. It has its bodily dimension too, engaging participants in the totality of their being, body as well as spirit. People engaged in worship not only will and think; they speak, sing play and dance, move and celebrate. And liturgy involves all of these activities.[6]

So, in much the same way that our only reliable access to the the mystery of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is through the liturgical celebration of 'his' (sic) mysteries, .... [7]

[1] Dean, Stephen Ed., Celebration – The Liturgy Handbook p2

[2] Bouyer, Louis, Liturgy and Architecture p3 University of Notre Dame Press

[3] Pius XII, Mediator Dei

[4] Sacrosanctum Concilium #7

[5] Irish Episcopal Commission for Liturgy, The Place of Worship p7 Veritas Publications 1994

[6] ibid p9

[7] Heddermann. M., symbolism - the glory of escutcheoned doors p82