Liturgical Commission

In light of the experience of the work done last year, the Liturgical Commission wished to prepare a teaching aid for 1998 as well, containing a differentiated proposal for liturgical animation, that is, points of reference, indications, suggestions, texts of celebration and prayers.

Taking into consideration the various levels implied - the formative and the celebrative - the contributions are of different types to be able to respond to different exigencies and occasions.

The teaching aid's unity is represented, in addition to the matter, by the intention of offering contributions on various fronts. In articulating the teaching aid, the following angles were considered: theologico-liturgical, pastoral-spiritual, celebrative, of popular and private piety. Naturally the work is guided and placed on the background of the orientation found in TMA 44-48.

Here is the scheme of the teaching aid:

1) The Holy Spirit's presence and action in the liturgy

It is a descriptive-explicative text, of a theologico-liturgical tenor. In the first part the operation of the Holy Spirit in all the Sacraments, not just Confirmation, is exposed in general. The third part shows the Holy Spirit as interior Master of Christian prayer (dulcis hospes animae): prayer in secret, community prayer, liturgy of the hours, listening to the word of God.

The fourth part orders the liturgical year around two points, manifesting the operative presence of the Holy Spirit in the baptism of Christ in the Jordan and in the baptism of the Church at Pentecost. The fifth part enlarges the circle of the sanctifying operation of the Spirit to the sacramentals and popular piety.

The last part is an opening to the action of the Spirit, outside of the celebration, as an active transforming force in each of the faithful, in the Church, in the world. This part, in its brevity, serves also as a conclusion.

2) Itinerary of the liturgical year

The text plans to help gather the specific accentuations of 1998 in the various times and feasts of the liturgical year. The presence and work of the Holy Spirit is placed in the light in Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, in Lent, in the Easter Triduum, in the Easter season and in ordinary time, at each step turning specific attention to Christian hope (cf. TMA, 46) and the Virgin Mary (cf. TMA, 48).

3) Texts for universal prayer

In the line already proposed last year, a certain number of closing prayers for the universal prayer were prepared for Sundays of the various liturgical times, and for some of the solemnities of the year with a manifest reference to the Holy Spirit. In some cases the complete formulas were prepared, to wit, with the introductory monition and the prayer intentions. It intended in this way to offer to the Christian communities texts which, though seen in the missal, are not codified.

4) Celebrations and prayers

In this part of the teaching aid, instructions and schemes of celebrations of various types and prayer proposals have found a place. Indications for votive Masses (formulas for the Roman Missal and of the "Collectio Missarum de Beata Maria Virgine") have been given. It is also being considered to publish the texts of the office of the readings of the days before Pentecost Sunday, belonging to the "Supplementum" of the "Liturgia Horarum," in the final stages of completion at the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

It is also intended to re-examine the form of the "vigil of prayer," dear to the Roman tradition, beyond that for Pentecost (the instructions already appearing in the "Notitiae" had been taken out), for some solemnities of the year and for the beginning of Advent and Lent. Seven celebrations of the Word on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit have been proposed, indicating possible occasions of use and placing emphasis also on the non-verbal language. Two schemes appear for prolonged prayer in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the "Acathistos" hymn in honor of the Mother of God, five mysteries of the Rosary with relation to the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, various invocations of the Spirit, to be recited even privately.

Texts belonging to the Roman Missal, the lectionary or the Liturgy of the Hours have been used whenever possible in order not to multiply new texts, to pedagogically offer an example of the wise use of the material already available in liturgical books, and finally to facilitate the translation of the teaching aid into other languages.