Liturgical Signs and Symbols

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Liturgical Signs and Symbols
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• As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses
  and perceives spiritual realities through
  physical signs and symbols.
• As a social being man needs signs and symbols to
  communicate with others, through language,
  gestures, and actions.
• The same holds true for his relationship with
  God

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Sources

• A sacramental celebration is woven from signs
  and symbols (C 1145) from three main sources
• nature
• society
• history

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Nature as a source of symbols

• God speaks to man through the visible creation.
• Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and
  earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and
  symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.
• Inasmuch as they are creatures of God, these
  perceptible realities can become means of
  expressing the action of God

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Society as a source of symbols

• These are signs and symbols taken from the social
  life of man
• Washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing
  the cup can express the sanctifying presence of
  God

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Jewish history as a source of symbols

• Among these liturgical signs from the Old
  Covenant are circumcision, anointing and
  consecration of kings and priests, laying on of
  hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover.
• The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of
  the sacraments of the New Covenant.

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Four kinds of symbols in the liturgy

• actions
• words
• images
• music

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Actions

• A sacramental celebration is a meeting of Gods
  children with their Father . . . this meeting
  takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and
  words. . . . the symbolic actions are already a
  language . . . (C 1153).
• Actions are a kind of word too they point to
  something beyond themselves, they speak
  something.
• And often actions speak louder than words.

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Words

• The liturgy of the Word is an integral part of
  sacramental celebrations. . . . But also the
  signs which accompany the Word of God should be
  emphasized
• the book of the Word (a lectionary or a book of
  the Gospels), its veneration (procession,
  incense, candles),
• the place of its proclamation (lectern or ambo),
• its audible and intelligible reading,
• the ministers homily which extends its
  proclamation, and
• the responses of the assembly (acclamations,
  meditation psalms, litanies, and
• profession of faith.

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Images

• The sacred image, the liturgical icon,
  principally represents Christ (C 1159)
• All the signs in the liturgical celebration are
  related to Christ .
• Sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of
  the saints as well signify Christ, who is
  glorified in them.
• They make manifest the cloud of witnesses . . .
  transfigured into his likeness.

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• An image cannot represent the invisible and
  incomprehensible God.

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• Previously God, who has neither a body nor a
  face, absolutely could not be represented by an
  image.
• That is why Muslims, who worship the true God but
  deny his incarnation, forbid all images.
• But now that he has made himself visible in the
  flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image
  of what I have seen of God . . . and contemplate
  the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled
• (St. John Damascene, C 1159).

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Music

• He who sings prays twice,( St. Augustine)
• Angels sing.
• As our lives are surrounded by their
  guardianship, so is our liturgical music
  surrounded by theirs.
• It is part of their music, part of the song of
  the Church Triumphant in Heaven.

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Understanding the Signs and Symbols
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The Sign of the Cross

• It is the Sign of the universe and the sign of
  our redemption.
• On the cross Christ redeemed mankind. By the
  cross he sanctifies man to the last shred and
  fiber of his being.
• We make the sign of the cross before we pray to
  collect and compose ourselves and to fix our
  minds and hearts and wills upon God.
• We make it when we finish praying in order that
  we may hold fast the gift we have received from
  God.
• In temptations we sign ourselves to be
  strengthened in dangers, to be protected.
• The cross is signed upon us in blessings in order
  that the fullness of God's life may flow into the
  soul and fructify and sanctify us wholly.

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The Hands

• The open hands are laid together palm against
  palm in sign of steadfast subjection and obedient
  homage, as if to say that the words we ourselves
  would speak are in good order, and that we are
  ready and attentive to hear the words of God.
• Or it may be a sign of inner surrender.
• These hands, our weapons of defense, are laid, as
  it were, tied and bound together between the
  hands of God.

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Standing

• We stand, at attention, geared and ready for
  action.
• Reverence has another way of expressing itself.
  When you are sitting down to rest or chat, and
  someone to whom you owe respect comes in and
  turns to speak to you, at once you stand up and
  remain standing so long as he is speaking and you
  are answering him.
• Standing is the other side of reverence toward
  God. Kneeling is the side of worship in rest and
  quietness standing is the side of vigilance and
  action. It is the respect of the servant in
  attendance, of the soldier on duty.
• Stand up straight not leaning, both feet on the
  ground, the knees firm, not slackly bent,
  upright, in control.

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Standing with hands uplifted and open and head up.

• This is the oldest posture for prayer. It is
  called the orans position, from the Latin word
  for praying.
• By praying this way, the worshiper acknowledges
  God as external and transcendent.
• This posture is for thanksgiving, praises,
  blessings, benedictions, and general prayers.

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Striking the Breast

• The blow also is to wake us up.
• It is to shake the soul awake into the
  consciousness that God is calling, so that she
  may hear, and take his part and punish herself.
• She reflects, repents and is contrite.
• It is for this reason that priest and people
  strike their breasts when they confess their
  sins.

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Lighted Candle

• Jesus as the Light of the World!
• It a symbol of selfless generosity.
• It stands so unwavering in its place, so erect,
  so clear and disinterested, in perfect readiness
  to be of service.
• It stands, where it is well to stand, before God.

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Holy Water

• We emerge from the waters of baptism into a new
  life, born again of water and the Holy Spirit. In
  those same waters the old man was destroyed and
  put to death. It reminds us then of our BAPTISM.
• The Christian when he enters church moistens
  forehead, breast and shoulders, all his person,
  with the clean and cleansing water in order to
  make clean his soul, as he has been cleansed by
  the waters of baptism.
• Holy water is the symbol of nature set free from
  sin. May God protect us from every form of
  darkness!

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Ashes

• Everything turns to ashes, everything whatever.
• Remember man that dust thou art and unto dost
  shalt thou return.
• It is a sign of repentance.

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Incense

• Incense is the symbol of prayer.
• Like pure prayer it has in view no object of its
  own it asks nothing for itself.
• It rises like the Gloria at the end of a psalm in
  adoration and thanksgiving to God for his great
  glory.
• Truly, we worship with our whole senses!

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Bread and Wine

• Bread is food. It is wholesome, nourishing food
  for which we never lose our appetite.
• Under the form of bread God becomes for us even
  the food of life.
• Wine is drink.
• Under the form of wine Christ gives us his divine
  blood. For our sakes Christ became bread and
  wine, food and drink.
• We make bold to eat him and to drink him.
• This bread gives us solid and substantial
  strength.
• This wine bestows courage, joy out of all earthly
  measure, sweetness, beauty, limitless enlargement
  and perception.

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Sitting

• We sit to relax.
• Only when we are refreshed can we listen.
• It is a quiet, meditative listening of the soul.

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Kneeling

• It is an act of humility
• When man is humble he feels his littleness, and
  lowers his head and shrinks into himself.
• The greater the presence in which he stands the
  more deeply he abases himself the smaller he
  becomes in his own eyes.
• Thou art the great God I am nothing!
• To kneel is to bow down before God in deepest
  reverence .

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Genuflection

• The action of genuflecting is usually associated
  with the "incarnatus" of the Nicene creed (from
  the eleventh century) and with reverence for the
  Blessed Sacrament (from the fourteenth century).
• Sign of our adoration and humility of heart by
  genuflecting when we enter the presence of Jesus
  Christ, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
  through Whom and for Whom all things were
  created.

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The Altar

• The altar on which the sacrifice of the Cross is
  made present under sacramental signs and through
  the instrumentality of the priest is also the
  Lords table which the faithful are invited to
  share when they gather together in His name.

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Liturgical Colors

• White The symbol of innocence and triumph
  (Apoc.3,5) It is used on all feasts of the joyful
  and glorious mysteries of our Lord's life (e.g.
  Christmas and Easter), on the feast of our
  Blessed Mother, on the feasts of angels and of
  all saints who were not martyrs.

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• Red The color of blood, is used on all feasts of
  our Lord's Cross and Passion, on the feasts of
  the Apostles and of all martyrs. Red is also used
  on Pentecost and in Masses of the Holy Spirit, in
  memory of the tongues of fire of the First
  Pentecost.

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• Purple A symbol of penance and expiation. It is
  used during the penitential seasons of Advent,
  Septuagesima and Lent, and on fast days and
  vigils.

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• Green The color of budding and living
  vegetation, it is the symbol of hope. It is used
  on the Sundays after Epiphany and after
  Pentecost.

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Remember

• Signs and symbols, and particularly sacraments,
  are the instruments we use in the celebrations of
  our earthly liturgies.
• To remove or diminish the liturgys signs is to
  remove or diminish the reality they make present,
  namely, the saving work of Jesus Christ.
• It is also important that we are attentive to the
  liturgical signs and symbols and try to
  understand their meanings, for the greater we
  understand these symbols and what they are
  pointing to are we better able to participate in
  the Mass (CSL, n. 21).
• The liturgy is our participation in the saving
  work of Christ, and the way in which we
  participate in the liturgy is by signs, symbols,
  and sacraments.

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Mabetbet a Tepet

• Tua ta ya 144,000 labat so nailaban?

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• Rev. 7,4 I heard the number of those who had
  been marked with the seal, one hundred and
  forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of
  israel

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• Rev. 14, 1 Then I looked and there was the Lamb
  standing on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred
  and forty-four thousand who had his name and his
  Fathers name written on their foreheads.

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• 12 is a symbol of choice.
• It is applied to persons which signifies the
  chosen ones
• Hence
• 12 x 12 x 1000 144,000
• 12 of the OT
• 12 of the NT
• 1000 meaning a great number

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