Andres Azcarate: Liturgy and Monastic Life

• Andres Azcarate, a Benedictine abbot, is the author of "La Flor de la Liturgia Renovada" (The Flower of the Renewed Liturgy).

Early Life and Monastic Life

• Azcarate entered the Benedictine monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos as a child oblate.
• He professed on September 24, 1911.
• He was sent to Argentina in 1915 before finishing his theological studies.

Missionary Work in Argentina

• Monks from Silos started a new foundation in Argentina in late 1914.
• They moved to the capital in July 1916 after identifying the inconveniences of the initial location.
• Azcarate was ordained a priest on June 2, 1917.
• He was appointed superior of the nascent community the following year.
• Azcarate tirelessly promoted the liturgical movement and Gregorian chant throughout Argentina.
• He initiated a modest liturgical leaflet in 1921, which became the magazine Pax in 1927 and was transformed into the Revista Liturgica Argentina in 1935.

Construction of a New Monastery

• Azcarate deemed it necessary to build a new monastery.
• He envisioned a grand monastery, inspired by the cloister of the Silos abbey.
• Plaster casts were made of the Silos abbey's capitals to create copies.
• A neo-Romanesque-style monastery was erected.
• Construction began on a large neo-Romanesque basilica in 1940, following the plans of architect Carlos Fromm.

Leadership as Abbot

• The monastery became independent in 1938.
• Azcarate sought novices in Spain, aiming to form an authentically Argentinian community.
• San Benito of Buenos Aires achieved abbey status on October 28, 1950.
• Azcarate was elected its first abbot and blessed in the Buenos Aires cathedral on April 1, 1951.
• He led the community and its numerous related activities for twelve years.

Return to Spain and Death

• Azcarate's resignation as abbot of San Benito was accepted on June 15, 1963.
• He returned to Spain, residing in the monastery of San Salvador de Leyre (Navarra) until his death.
• He worked on revising "La flor de la liturgia", a book which greatly contributed to the development of the liturgical movement in Argentina.

Nature and Importance of the Liturgy

• The term "liturgy" comes from the Greek word "leitourgia", meaning public service or ministry.
• Greeks used it to denote any civil or military service citizens were obligated to perform for the State.
• Egyptians used the term to refer to cultic service related to the worship of gods.
• Among the Greeks, war contributions, public taxes, military service, and other state burdens were considered liturgical acts.
• Citizens who performed public duties were called "liturgos" (public servants).
• "Aliturgesia" referred to exemption from burdens or public duties.

Liturgy in the Bible

• The Greek version of the Bible uses "leitourgein" and "leitourgesia" 47 times in the Old Testament, referring to religious or Levitical ritual worship.
• The New Testament employs these terms less frequently (15 times) mainly in the Acts of the Apostles and in Saint Paul's epistles.
• The New Testament references the care of the poor and collections for the Apostles and the public religious worship of the Christian community.

Liturgy Among Early Christians

• Early Christians used the term "liturgy" to designate the Holy Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
• The Eucharist or Mass was a preeminent ministry.
• The priesthood involves the worship of the Savior.

Christian Writers and the Liturgy

• Christian authors started freely using the term "liturgy" in its present cultic sense, from the 16th century.
• The Sacred Congregation of Rites and the Code of Canon Law later officially adopted the terms "liturgy" and "liturgical" to distinguish everything related to sacred worship.
• The Church employs these terms constantly, and they are included in the Missal and new Anaphoras.

Defining Liturgy

• Defining liturgy with exactitude has posed challenges, resulting in multiple incomplete definitions.
• Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei was authoritative until Vatican II.
• Vatican II did not offer a technical definition but considered "Liturgy as the exercise of the priesthood of Jesus Christ".
• In liturgy, sensible signs signify and realize the sanctification of man, exercising the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and integral public worship.

Key Ideas in the Definition

• Liturgy possesses sacramentality, transmitting divine life to men through sensible and effective signs.
• It is a priestly office of Jesus Christ, eternally active in the Church and the world, especially in the Liturgy.
• It is the exercise of public worship by the entire Church, head and members, through which Christ is always present in every liturgical action.
• Liturgy actualizes the Paschal Mystery of Christ the Redeemer, glorifying the Father and saving men.

Other Definitions of Liturgy

• "Official worship of the Church".
• "Mystery of the worship of Christ and of the Church" (dom Casel).
• "Set of sensible and effective signs of sanctification and worship of the Church" (dom Vagaggini).
• Sacrosanctum Concilium reflects these ideas and the thought of Pius XII.

Conciliar Valuation of Sacred Worship

• "Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed, and at the same time the font from which all its power flows".
• Missionary and catechetical action precedes liturgy
• Works of charity and pious exercises accompany liturgy

Other Concepts of Liturgy

• "Liturgy is the public manifestation of the unfailing sanctity of the Church, and one of the clearest signs of its Divine origin".
• "Liturgy is the cry that springs from the heart toward the Father moved by the Holy Spirit".
• "Liturgy is perfect praise and adoration in spirit and truth, which Christ and through Christ pays to God".
• "Liturgy is the ever effective instrument to purify and sanctify men".

Liturgy and Formation

• Church shares these concepts to prepare individuals liturgically for future pastoral ministry.
• Professors must be pastorally, musically, and artistically apt.

Classes of Worship

• "The public and integral worship of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ" can be offered to God, the Virgin, or the Saints.
• It is internal, external, individual, and social.
• It demands homage from all of humanity, manifesting the unity of the entire Mystical Body.

Internal and External Worship

• "Liturgy is not private actions but celebrations of the whole Church"
• Man exercises the worship in the faculties of the soul and competition of the sensitive faculties
• Corporate organs are mobilized
• The worship is individual and in groups(social).

Latria, hyperdulia, dulia

• This same worship is granted to the three divine persons, called latria
• hyperdulia is used in service of the virgins.
• dulia, is the saint's service.
• Everything is official.

Subject and Term of Liturgical Worship

• The subject is the legitimate priests who exercise this worship.
• Christ is the high priest, the supreme minister.

Purpose of Liturgy

• The Church does everything for the worship.
• It produces ministry and worship and the norms to realize it
• The priests receive grace from baptism (common priesthood) and the sacred sacrament.

Ends of Liturgy

• Liturgy's primary end is the glory of God.
• Liturgy's secondary end is the sanctification of man in order to eternal life.

Divine Right

• God has the divine right to be glorified
• Man has the strict obligation to glorify him.
• Through the trinity is how liturgical worship is granted
• Saints are additional terms.

Special Objectives

• There are four additional objects.
• The holy and divine.
• Thankful and Creator.
• Almight and merciful.
• The sacred and forgiving.

Christianity

• Liturgy satisfies every christian.
• Importance is that it provides the means of salvation and sanctification.
• Importance and study is still urged.

Essential Relationships

• Human creations provide spirit and guidance.
• Study of liturgy is still urged.

Liturgical Spirituality

• Liturgy isn't just important or studied, you must live it.
• It is a source of spirital practice.

Spiritual exercise

• It is recommended by the Vatican for encouraging.

Piety

• Revitalized with church and must maintain it.

Worship

• Vatican 2 has ordered the assignments.