Friday, December 14, 2007

A Broad Idea of Liturgy

My friend Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience of Listening has written a beautiful post on life as liturgy:

While perhaps not commonly coined in Protestant, evangelical faith communities, when I speak of liturgy, I guess I am speaking of the whole of my life as liturgy. An everyday liturgy.

With its roots in λειτουργία (leitourgia), liturgy means "public work" or "public servant." Thus all that we do, think, say before others... others in our homes, in our places of work, in our communities.... I humbly offer that this is our liturgy, our public service, before people, and before our all encompassing God. In no way is liturgy to mean rote, empty ritual, but rather

...liturgy is a school where through sign and symbol, word and music, our minds and hearts are formed to be in union with the movement of God, with God Himself. ~Fr. M. Basil Pennington


Don't miss the link to a related post showing how it all fleshes out called Relationship with God in the Midst of Crazy Family Life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jeanne,

US News and World Report has a cover story this week on Christians who are searching for a more liturgical/historical practice of faith. The article talks a lot about the Emergent movement, which is very into that, but it covers the groth of Catholic and Anglican churches that are drawing many young people as well. Thought you'd be interested...

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2007/12/13/a-return-to-tradition.html

Jen in Seattle