Mons. Lizardo Estrada: “The jubilee will be an occasion to intensify the spirituality that springs from the liturgy”

Raise the urgency of liturgical spirituality in the life of the Church And his pastoral challenges is one of the objectives of the VII International Liturgy and Pastoral Congress that took place this July 18 and 19 in Medellín.
During the first day the dissertations were oriented towards The relationship between liturgical spirituality and pastoralEucharistic prayer as a model of Christian prayer and the approach from the historical to the teachings left by exile in Babylon, with respect to the cult of Jerusalem.

Mons. Lizardo Estrada, general secretary of Celam, He was part of the guests to share his reflections in the event organized by the Bolivarian Pontifical University and the Archdiocese of Medellín. In his first intervention Estrada affirmed that “the spirituality that springs from the liturgy nourishes the pastoral life of the Church, at the same time guides its activity”; which leads to the person “towards the encounter with the man who is present in the sacramental update of his Easter mystery.”

Latin America’s commitment

Aspect that, in his words, is Present in the Teaching of the Latin American Churchmainly in the conclusive documents of the general conferences of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean that reiterate this relationship between liturgical and pastoral spirituality.

Example of this is the Puebla document that already in 1979, He remembered the principles of the Second Vatican Council around the liturgy and that the bishop explained, shows the vitality in the exercise of the priesthood of Jesus Christ by becoming “Summit and source of ecclesial life”; particularly by promoting the encounter with God and the brothers; during the banquet and sacrifice that is lived in the Eucharist.

He also mentioned the conclusive document of the Conference of Santo Domingo in 1992that according to the auxiliary bishop of Cusco, he reaffirmed “the theological meaning of the liturgical celebration”, pointing out that the Christian cult must express what is understood as “the double aspect of obedience to the Father, that is to say the glorification and the Charity experience with the brothers or what is known as redemption. ”

A reality that is read in the document “Far from alienating men, he releases them and makes them brothers.”. Therefore, according to this document, the liturgical celebration lived in this way has an evangelizing value in itself. Continuing with this historical journey through the Latin American teaching, the prelate highlighted the document of his references to the sacred liturgy and the disciples of Christ that “penetrate more into the mysteries of the kingdom and express in a sacramental way their vocation of missionary disciples.”

Missionary Action

In the same way, the bishop insisted, addresses the value of the liturgy according to Vatican II, that is, in terms of “Place and the function of the liturgy in the monitoring of Christ, the missionary action of Christians, and the life of our peoples in it.” Process that after many years has elapsed its continuity in the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean With the text that emanated from its realization “towards a synodal church in exit to the peripheries”, whose reflections and pastoral proposals, as mentioned by the Peruvian bishop, arise from this event.

In that sense Mons. Estrada shared that on the path of the Assembly “various celebrative spaces were favor, Like the prayer readings of the Word of God, the celebrations of the Eucharist, the worship of the Blessed Sacrament and the prayer of the Rosary that creatively accompanied this process ”, gestures that imply practices and beyond the analysis. It’s about practices that make an experience of faith evident. “Spirituality that finds in our region a privileged expression in popular piety.”

This relationship between liturgy and pastoral, according to the prelate is also present in the reflections of the universal church with respect to way to understand itself as a synodal church. In fact, remember that in the synthesis report of the first session of the XVI Synod Assembly between the proposals is that “if the Eucharist shapes the synodality, the first step to take is to honor its grace with a celebrative style at the height of the gift and with authentic fraternity ”.

Essence of spirituality

A tour that allows us to conclude that the “living celebration of all liturgical actions is gradually forming a Christian life in accordance with the mystery celebrated. ”

In this sense, the bishop points out that it could be described as the essence of Christian spirituality that general attitude of spiritual man, with which he builds, in faith, his own life, human and spiritual, from the celebration of the mystery of Christ . Hence the importance of understanding that such “Inner attitude is inseparable from its action.”

After this analysis Mons. Estrada closed his speech advocating because the next Jubilee is a privileged occasion to “intensify prayer and spirituality that springs from the liturgy, so that we can deepen our faith and commitment to the announcement of the Gospel in the different environments where we are called to live. ”

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