An interview with Dom Alcuin Reid about Sacra Liturgia 2013

CWR: The Future of Liturgical Formation and Renewal

CWR: Given this, how did the conference explore the relationship between liturgical renewal and the New Evangelization?

Dom Reid: This relationship is the raison d’être for Sacra Liturgia 2013. Bishop Rey is not a liturgical scholar, he is diocesan bishop, and it is from the standpoint of that particular vocation that he so profoundly appreciates the role of the liturgy. As he said in his introduction to the conference: “As a bishop it is my duty to do all I can to promote the New Evangelization initiated by Blessed John Paul II...the New Evangelization must be founded on the faithful and fruitful celebration of the Sacred Liturgy as given to us by the Church in her tradition—Western and Eastern.” When first we discussed the possibility of a conference this focus was clear and we invited speakers to base their considerations on it.

Abbot Nault made some important observations about this. Drawing on the work of Louis Bouyer he noted that the liturgy “cannot be reduced to being an instrument for something else, which would end up being a pick-and-mix of catechesis, formation for Christian living, and ritual;” i.e., the liturgy is not primarily a tool of catechesis or evangelization. Rather, he argued that “a correct ‘use’ of the liturgy” is necessary, “a ‘use’ which can be a source of great pastoral and evangelical fruitfulness.” As he pointed out, “it is only when we let liturgy be ‘useless’ that it reveals the extent of its ‘usefulness’ in the life of the Church and the New Evangelization!”