In a rare public statement Pope Benedict has called on the people of today to once again make God the centre both in their daily lives and in the liturgy (the public, community worship of God).
He noted that even the liturgy can be distorted when people use it to focus too much on their own needs and creativity rather than on the God whom they are worshipping.
For people today, "the things of God and thus of the liturgy do not appear at all urgent," said Benedict. "There is an urgency about everything else. But the matter of God does not seem to be urgent."
He stressed, however, that "the priority of God, whom we have forgotten, holds true for everyone."
If God is no longer important, "the criteria for establishing what is important are displaced," meaning we no longer know how to decide what does and does not deserve our care and attention.
This only leads to slavery. "Humans, in putting aside God, submit themselves to constraints that make them the slave of material forces and thus at odds with their dignity."
Benedict made his comments in a foreword he wrote for the new Russian translation of one of his books, a collection of essays on the liturgy.
He told how, after the Vatican Council, a deep misunderstanding of changes to Mass and the other sacraments spread widely in the Catholic Church, and is still a major problem.
It "has led to more and more emphasis on the aspects of education and one’s own activity and creativity. The doings of human beings almost obliterated the presence of God."
But "the Church is in danger," he said, "when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy nor consequently in life."
Benedict went on to point out that "the deepest cause of the crisis that has upset the Church lies in the obscuring of God's priority in the liturgy."
It was this concern which led him, as a theologian and a pastor, to devote himself more intensely to the theme of the liturgy.
"I knew that the true renewal of the liturgy is a fundamental condition for the renewal of the Church," he wrote.
He hoped that his book would help the Christians of Russia "to understand in a new and better way the great gift that has been given to us in the sacred liturgy."
He noted that even the liturgy can be distorted when people use it to focus too much on their own needs and creativity rather than on the God whom they are worshipping.
For people today, "the things of God and thus of the liturgy do not appear at all urgent," said Benedict. "There is an urgency about everything else. But the matter of God does not seem to be urgent."
He stressed, however, that "the priority of God, whom we have forgotten, holds true for everyone."
If God is no longer important, "the criteria for establishing what is important are displaced," meaning we no longer know how to decide what does and does not deserve our care and attention.
This only leads to slavery. "Humans, in putting aside God, submit themselves to constraints that make them the slave of material forces and thus at odds with their dignity."
Benedict made his comments in a foreword he wrote for the new Russian translation of one of his books, a collection of essays on the liturgy.
He told how, after the Vatican Council, a deep misunderstanding of changes to Mass and the other sacraments spread widely in the Catholic Church, and is still a major problem.
It "has led to more and more emphasis on the aspects of education and one’s own activity and creativity. The doings of human beings almost obliterated the presence of God."
But "the Church is in danger," he said, "when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy nor consequently in life."
Benedict went on to point out that "the deepest cause of the crisis that has upset the Church lies in the obscuring of God's priority in the liturgy."
It was this concern which led him, as a theologian and a pastor, to devote himself more intensely to the theme of the liturgy.
"I knew that the true renewal of the liturgy is a fundamental condition for the renewal of the Church," he wrote.
He hoped that his book would help the Christians of Russia "to understand in a new and better way the great gift that has been given to us in the sacred liturgy."
ALIVE