VATICAN-Pope Leo XIV has urged Catholics to prioritize attending Sunday Mass, warning that active participation in the Eucharist cannot be replaced by virtual gatherings.
‘I urge everyone to seek the best possible conditions so that even those who are unable to take time off work on Sundays may take part in Holy Mass,’ Leo said.
In his address during his general audience at the Vatican on August 12, the pontiff continued his catechesis on the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the liturgy, ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium.’
As on August 5, his general audience was held inside St. Peter’s Basilica due to Rome’s high summer temperatures.
The importance of Sunday Mass
Leo also explained that the Church has always regarded Sunday as a weekly celebration of Christ’s Resurrection: the ‘dies Domini’ (‘the Lord’s Day’).
He urged Catholics to attend Sunday Mass and warned against using virtual gatherings to substitute for in-person attendance.
‘To sanctify Sunday, it is essential to celebrate the Eucharist,’ Leo said. ‘This assembly cannot be substituted by a solely virtual presence, nor can it be reduced to a merely passive gathering.’
‘The liturgical assembly is in fact fulfilled through the active participation of brothers and sisters,’ Leo added.
Sunday, the weekly Easter
According to Vatican News online, Pope Leo went on to recall that Pope Saint John Paul II taught that Sunday is the day of the Lord, the day of the Church, the day of man and, finally, the ‘day of days.’
‘Since Sunday is the weekly Easter,’ he said, it makes present Christ’s resurrection and reveals the meaning of time itself, directing human history towards the Lord’s return.
Pope Leo explained that in order to sanctify Sunday, ‘it is fundamental to celebrate the Eucharist’ as, according to the Council Fathers, by doing so and listening to the Word, and coming together in gathering, ‘the Christian community makes visible its communion with the Lord and bears witness to its belonging to Christ and its fidelity to the Church’.
Such an assembly, he said the liturgy is fulfilled by the assembly who come together to thank God for the ‘living hope’ received through Christ’s resurrection.
The pope urged communities to seek ‘the best possible conditions’ to enable those who cannot take time off work on Sundays to participate in Mass.
The liturgical year according to Pius XII and Prosper Guéranger
Leo explained the importance of the liturgical year, referencing his predecessor Venerable Pope Pius XII as well as Servant of God Abbot Prosper Guéranger, OSB, the first abbot of Solesmes Abbey in France and a key figure in the liturgical movement.
It is ‘important to note that this way of referring to the cycle of Christian feasts as the ‘liturgical year’ became widespread in ecclesiastical language thanks to the work of the Servant of God, Abbot Prosper Guéranger,’ Leo said in his remarks.
The pope also stressed that the liturgical year is not merely a remembrance of past events but, as Pius XII wrote in his encyclical Mediator Dei, ‘Christ himself, who is ever living in his Church.’ Ishmael Adibuah/EWTN News via CBCP News with Vatican News
‘The liturgical year should, thus, be understood as a constant renewal of the work of salvation which Christ accomplishes in history,’ the pope said.
‘As she journeys through this temporal cycle, the Church remains in contact with the Lord’s redemptive action, so that all the faithful may be filled with his grace.’