Living Catholic Spirituality in Sacrocanctum Concilium from Vatican II

Most people don’t turn to the documents of ecumenical councils for advice on how to live Catholic spirituality. So it may surprise you that we’re turning to a document like Sacrocanctum Concilium to talk about our prayer life.

Sacrosanctum Concilium is the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy from the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. This document if famous (or infamous) for its supposed revision of the Holy Mass. The thing is, this document wasn’t really about changing the liturgy. In fact, you will not find the “ordinary form’ of the Holy Mass in this document. The changes in the liturgy that form what is called the “Novus Ordo” were made by a liturgical committee after the Second Vatican Council.

My point here is that the main theme of Sacrosanctum Concilium is really the promotion of “full, conscious participation” in the Church’s liturgies – the public prayers of the Church. Every change in the Holy Mass that the Council recommended (and there really weren’t many of them) had the purpose of teaching all Catholics what really happens in the Holy Mass and to encourage the faithful to assist at the Sacred Liturgy with greater understanding.

The document didn’t stop with the Holy Mass. While the Holy Mass is the source and summit of our faith, it is not the Church’s only liturgy. One of the exciting things Sacrosanctum Concilium did was to revise the Liturgy of the Hours to make it more accessible to the laity and to invite all of us to pray it.

Here are some ways Sacrosanctum Concilium teaches us about living Catholic spirituality

• Be fully present to God through the Holy Mass. Contrary to popular belief, “full, conscious participation” does not primarily mean singing or saying the responses. It also doesn’t mean hanging onto every word the priest says. It means entering into the sacred Mystery that the liturgy invites us to. So whether you attend the “ordinary form” of the Mass or the “extraordinary form,” you participate best in the Holy Mass through your prayers.
• Learn more about the meaning of the Holy Mass. By educating yourself about the meaning of each part of the Sacred Liturgy, you can subconsciously align yourself with its prayer even without trying to catch each and every word (which can be exhausting).
• Make the Holy Mass the source and summit of the way you are living Catholic spirituality. Jesus offers himself to you intimately in the Holy Eucharist. That intimate union should fuel your spiritual growth, inform your prayer life, and be the destination your prayer leads you back to. You can remind yourself of the truth about Jesus’ presence in the Holy Eucharist by being conscious of the way you approach Him (in and out of the tabernacle) and receive Him. This is why Catholic tradition includes genuflecting and norms for receiving our Eucharistic Lord.
• Seek more ways to engage in the public liturgy of the Church. I personally love the Liturgy of the Hours. It’s a great way to connect yourself yet again to Christ and his Church on a daily basis. And it’s pretty cool to think that while you’re praying you’re being joined by thousands of other Catholics around the world.

Sacrosanctum Concilium invites us to remember that living Catholic spirituality means that all of our prayers are united to the Church. The liturgy is an explicit sign of that unity, and the Eucharist is its cause. Catholics serious about spiritual growth need to take the liturgy, especially the Mass, very seriously. Unlock the treasure of the liturgy.

When the Church calls the Holy Eucharist the “source and summit of the Faith,” it’s not just being poetic. Living Catholic spirituality in a very practical way begins and ends with the Holy Mass. If you can learn to assist at Holy Mass prayerfully and reverently, your personal prayer life will be fed by the Sacred Liturgy. The more intimate your personal prayer becomes, the more meaningful the Holy Mass becomes for you as well.

There is a lot that we can learn from this document about building a deeper, more meaningful spiritual life. The same is true of many of the documents of Vatican II as well. The Live the Glory series of online courses takes you through four documents from Vatican II (including Sacrosanctum Concilium), shows you what the documents really said, and then reveals lessons you can pull from them for your own walk with Christ.