Monday, September 23, 2013

Worship / Renewal

[Worship] is not merely a commemoration of the events of the Gospel or other events in the Church’s life, in an artistic form. It is also an actualization of these facts, their renewal upon earth. The Christmas service does not merely commemorate the birth of Christ. In it Christ is truly born in a mystery, as at Easter He rises again. So with the transfiguration, the entry into Jerusalem, the ascension of Christ….The life of the Church in her liturgy, discloses to our senses the continuing mystery of the Incarnation. The Lord still lives in the Church, under that same form in which He was once manifest on earth, and which exists eternally; and it is the function of that Church to make those sacred memories living, so that we again witness and take part in them.

- From Evelyn Underhill’s 1936 book, Worship, in a quote from S. Boulgakoff.

No comments: