The Final Document devotes significant attention to «The Sacramental Roots of the People of God» (nn. 21–27), with particular focus on the Sacraments of Christian Initiation.
Baptism, through which the christifideles «are consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood» (Lumen gentium 10), sacramentally grounds their right and duty to participate in the mission of the Church in the world, granting to all the Baptized the sensus fidei and to each one specific charisms for the common good. Confirmation, for its part, «enriches the lives of believers with a special outpouring of the Spirit so that they become witnesses to faith» (FD n. 25). The Eucharist, finally, is the Sacrament in whose celebration «a differentiated co-responsibility of all for mission is fulfilled», of which synodal activity itself is an extension. In fact, it is above all from the actuosa participatio in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ that the Church learns «to combine unity and plurality: the unity of the Church and the multiplicity of Eucharistic assemblies; unity of the sacramental mystery and variety of liturgical traditions; unity of celebration and plurality of vocations, charisms and ministries» (FD n. 26).
In this light, «deepening the link between liturgy and synodality will help all Christian communities, in the diversity of their cultures and traditions, to adopt celebratory styles that make visible the face of a synodal Church. To this end, we call for the establishment of a specific Study Group which would be entrusted with reflection on how to make liturgical celebrations more an expression of synodality. It could also consider the topic of preaching within liturgical celebrations as well as the development of catechetical resources on synodality from a mystagogical perspective» (FD n. 27).
From this perspective, the Study Group may address at least the following questions first, to which other relevant issues may be added:
- How does the fact that synodality is a “constitutive dimension” of the Church affect the way we live, experience, and understand the liturgy, and in particular the celebration of the Eucharist? How can the Eucharistic celebration be better configured as the source and summit of the synodal missionary life of the Church? How can the ecclesiological orientation emerging from the Final Document (on the basis of the Second Vatican Council) guide the understanding of the liturgy? What is the relationship between the ritual form and the forma Ecclesiae? How does the liturgy manifest the Church as synodal and missionary, and how does the experience of a synodal missionary Church grow and develop to its fulfillment through the liturgy?
- How can we foster in the liturgy a more effective recognition and a more fruitful experience of the dignity, newness of life, and responsibility flowing from Baptism and, in general, from the Sacraments of Christian Initiation? How can the actuosa participatio of the Baptized be increased in celebrations, especially in the Eucharist?
- How can we promote in particular the recognition of the role of women, especially where they continue to suffer forms of discrimination, including through the highlighting in liturgical lectionaries of scriptural testimonies about the role of women in the history of salvation (cf. FD n. 60)?
- How can the modes of liturgical preaching be reinterpreted from a synodal perspective? How can its quality be enhanced? How can the development of mystagogical catechesis on synodality be encouraged?
- How to continue along the path of a healthy decentralization of liturgical authority, valuing diocesan Bishops and Episcopal Conferences, also with a view to the inculturation of the rites (cf. FD n. 39), in line with what was set forth – in implementation of Sacrosanctum Concilium 22; 37–40 – by the Motu Proprio Magnum Principium and the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium (cf. V, 88–97)?
- How can paths of mystagogical liturgical formation be promoted for the People of God, the ministers, ordained, instituted and de facto, so as to «recover the capacity to live completely the liturgical action» (Desiderio Desideravi 27) and rediscover how the liturgy is the summit and source of synodality?
This reflection must be rooted in the understanding of synodality outlined in the Final Document as a whole, and may also draw on other significant materials produced in the course of the synodal journey.
The coordination of the Study Group is entrusted to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the Synod. To benefit from the rich liturgical heritage of the Christian East, the Group may also involve the Special Commission on the Liturgy established within the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.
In the style proper to the synodal Church, all those who wish to contribute to the reflection of this working group may send their contribution to the General Secretariat of the Synod (synodus@synod.va).
Members
1. H. Em. Most Rev. Card. Gérald Cyprien LACROIX, I.S.P.X., Archbishop of Québec, Member of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CANADA), Coordinator
2. Rev. Sr. Elena MASSIMI, F.M.A., Professor at the Università Pontificia Salesiana in Rome, President of the Associazione Professori di Liturgia (ITALY), Secretary
3. Prof. Hélène BRICOUT, Deputy Director of the Institut Supérieur de Liturgie, Institut Catholique de Paris (FRANCE)
4. Rev. Fr. Peter John CAMERON, O.P., the Carl J. Peter Chair of Homiletics at the Pontifical North American College in Rome (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)
5. Rev. Fr. András DOBOS, Consultor of the Special Commission on the Liturgy of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches (HUNGARY)
6. Rev. Fr. Ab. Jeremy DRISCOLL, O.S.B., Abbot of Mount Angel Abbey, Chancellor of Mount Angel Seminary (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)
7. Rev. Fr. Gilles DROUIN, Director of the Institut Supérieur de Liturgie, Institut Catholique de Paris (FRANCE)
8. Rev. Dom Matteo FERRARI, O.S.B. Cam., Prior General of the Camaldolese Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict (ITALY)
9. Rev. Fr. Stefan GEIGER, O.S.B., President of the Pontificio Istituto Liturgico in Rome (GERMANY)
10. Rev. Fr Luigi GIRARDI, Professor at the Istituto di Liturgia Pastorale “S. Giustina” in Padua (ITALY)
11. Rev. Fr. Pietro Angelo MURONI, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontificia Università Urbaniana in Rome (ITALY)
12. Rev. Fr. Ab. Olivier-Marie SARR, O.S.B., Abbot of Keur Moussa Abbey, Professor at the Pontificio Istituto Liturgico in Rome (SENEGAL)
13. Rev. Fr. Manuel Fernando SEDANO LÓPEZ, Professor at the Institut de Litúrgia ad instar Facultatis of the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià in Barcelona (MEXICO)
14. Rev. Fr. Hyung Sub (Agostino) SO, Professor at the Catholic University of Daegu (SOUTH KOREA)
15. Rev. Sr. Susan K. WOOD, S.C.L., Professor at the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology at the University of Toronto (CANADA)
16. Rev. Fr. Pierre PAUL, O.M.V., Office Head at the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CANADA), Assistant to the Coordinator