Posted October 24, 2012

Oct. 24

It is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates.

“Liturgical services are not private functions but are celebrations of the Church which is ‘the sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united and organized under the authority of the bishops. Therefore, liturgical services pertain to the whole Body of the Church. They manifest it, and have effects upon it. But they touch individual members of the Church in different ways, depending on their orders, their role in the liturgical services, and their actual participation in them.” For this reason, “rites which are meant to be celebrated in common, with the faithful present and actively participating, should as far as possible be celebrated in that way rather than by an individual and quasi-privately.” (No. 1140)

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Teaching of the Day is a daily passage from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the 20th anniversary of its publication during the Catholic Church’s “Year of Faith.”