A Bishop celebrating the Divine Liturgy in an Orthodox Church in Prešov, eastern Slovakia.

Wedding ceremony at Kiuruvesi Church in Kiuruvesi, Finland

Liturgy (Greek: Λειτουργία) is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions.

The word, sometimes rendered by its English translation "service", may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy (Greek: Θεία λειτουργία) and Catholic Mass, or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat^[1] and Jewish services. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy is a communal response to the sacred through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance. Ritualization may be associated with life events such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death. It thus forms the basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy. Methods of dress, preparation of food, olication of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgical activities.

Ancient Greece[link]

The familiar sense of the word is an extension of the technical term in ancient Greek, leitourgia, signifying the often expensive offers of service to the people, and thus to the polis and the state.^[2] Through the leitourgia the rich carried a financial burden and were correspondingly rewarded with honours. The leitourgia became both mandatory and honorific, supporting the patron's standing among the elite. The holder of a Hellenic leitourgia was not taxed a specific sum, but entrusted with a particular ritual, which could be performed with greater or lesser magnificence. The chief sphere remained that of civic religion, embodied in the festivals: M.I. Finley notes "in Demosthenes' day there were at least 97 liturgical appointments in Athens for the festivals, rising to 118 in a (quadrennial) Panathenaic year."^[3] Eventually, under the Roman Empire, such obligations, known as Monera, devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden that was not avoided^{[clarification needed]} when possible.

Christianity[link]

Main article: Christian liturgy.

Frequently in Christianity a distinction is made between "liturgical" and "non-liturgical" churches based on the elaboration and/or antiquity of the worship; in this usage, churches whose services are unscripted or improvised are called "non-liturgical". Others object to this usage, arguing that this terminology obscures the universality of public worship as a religious phenomenon.^[4] Thus, even the open or waiting worship of Quakers is liturgical, since the waiting itself until the Holy Spirit moves individuals to speak is a prescribed form of Quaker worship, sometimes referred to as "the liturgy of silence."^[5] Typically in Christianity, however, the term "the liturgy" normally refers to a standardized order of events observed during a religious service, be it a sacramental service or a service of public prayer. In the Catholic tradition, liturgy is considered to mean the participation of the people in the work of God and in the liturgy Jesus Christ is considered to continue the work of redemption in union with his Church.^[6]

The term "liturgy" can also be used as a precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those who do not (hence leitourgia = work of the people).^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Book of Common Prayer
• The Book of Common Worship of 1993
• Divine Liturgy
• Divine Service (Eastern Orthodoxy)
• Divine Service (Lutheran)
• Eucharist
• Mass
• Roman Rite
• Sacrament
• Holy Spirit

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Baldovin, John F., SJ (2008) Reforming the Liturgy: a Response to the Critics. The Liturgical Press
• Bowker, John, ed. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-213965-7.
• Bugnini, Annibale, (1990) The Reform of the Liturgy 1948–1975. The Liturgical Press
• Dix, Dom Gregory (1945) The Shape of the Liturgy
• Donghi, Antonio, (2009) Words and Gestures in the Liturgy. The Liturgical Press
• Johnson, Lawrence J., (2009) Worship in the Early Church: an Anthology of Historical Sources. The Liturgical Press
• Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold, eds. (1978) The Study of Liturgy. London: SPCK.
• Marini, Piero, (2007) A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal. The Liturgical Press
• "What Do Quakers Believe?". Quaker Information Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2004.

External links[link]

• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Orthodox Tradition and the Liturgy
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Liturgy
• Contemporary Christian Liturgy Website History, theory, practice
• The Indult Tridentine Rite of Mass
• Work of the People
• Yejeonhak Baeumteo: Online Community for Liturgical Resources (Korean)
• Dictionary of Catholic Liturgy
• Liturgie-Kontor "Maria Magdalena" (Texte zu Gottesdiensten im Kirchenjahr)
• 15th century liturgy for the deceased, written in Gothic Textualis script, Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries
• Eastern Orthodox Christian Liturgy Website Liturgy

Mons. Guido Marini

'Guido Marini' (born 31 January 1965) is a Roman Catholic priest, currently serving as the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations. He was appointed to this post on 1 October 2007, replacing Piero Marini (no relation). He previously served as chief liturgist for the Archdiocese of Genoa.^[1]

Career[link]

Marini was ordained on 4 February 1989 by Cardinal Giovanni Canestri. He earned a doctorate in the psychology of communication in early 2007, in addition to an earlier JUD, a degree in both canon and civil law, from the Pontifical Lateran University

From 1988 to 2003 he served as secretary to the cardinal archbishops of Genoa Canestri (until 1995), Tettamanzi (until 2002) and Bertone.^[2]

Marini has received praise^[3] for returning traditional elements of the church's liturgical history to the papal Masses and other liturgical celebrations.

While his predecessor, Piero Marini, was raised to the episcopacy and eventually elevated to the rank of archbishop, this is not the norm for this post, as it is with some other posts in the papal household or the Roman Curia, but it could happen again. Before Piero Marini, Enrico Dante was the last master of pontifical ceremonies to be made an archbishop while still serving as the Pope's MC. He was later made a cardinal during the Second Vatican Council.

Papal Mass[link]

When on 13 January 2008, for the first time in thirty years, the Pope celebrated Mass publicly ad orientem, Marini helped organise the liturgical ceremony.

He has touched on themes such as the proper orientation in the liturgy, the primacy of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony as a "permanent criterion" for sacred music, forms of liturgy, sacred art and architecture, receiving communion kneeling and upon the tongue, the hermeneutic of continuity, silence, and many other aspects of liturgy. Marini, following his appointment as Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, has restored some traditional elements of papal ceremonial. He adjudged that the papal altar should sustain its traditional formation (Seven ornate candles and a central ornate Crucifix), the use of the traditional papal staff (the Ferula Staff, made for Pope Pius IX, now no longer in use), the use of ethereal papal vestments (either Roman style or Gothic style) at Mass and other pontifical celebrations, Cardinal-Deacons in dalmatics when serving pontifical celebrations, and the size of the Pope's pallium at Mass.

References[link]