Tour of St. Peter's - Catholic Beliefs that shape our worship and our worship spaces

Catholic worship is called liturgy. In the liturgy, the Assembly (a gathering of the baptized for worship) engages in a communal action that employs a symbolic language of word and sign to offer worship to God and in turn to receive God’s gifts. We believe that a union or communion is thereby established, at God’s initiative, between God and the Assembly, and among the members of the Assembly themselves.

It is Jesus Christ, God and Man, who is the link that makes this communion possible. In Christ, God reaches out to human persons. In Christ, humanity makes a perfect response of worship to God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. The baptized gathering for worship are the Body of Christ, his continuing presence in time and space. Their unity in Him is so real and so intense in the liturgy that they join Christ in his offering of himself to God the Father, and, united with Christ, receive the divine life Christ shares with his Father. Ultimately, what the worshiper offers to God in the liturgy is oneself; what the worshiper receives in return is nothing less than Godself. Liturgy is, therefore, the source and summit of Christian life for the Catholic.

God’s power working in this liturgical action can transform the worshiper into the very image of Christ, not only for the duration of the worship service, but for life and in all aspects of one’s life. The action of the liturgy demands action in life as a response, or else worship is incomplete. Living Christ’s life, we are required to live the life of loving service that He lived on earth.

Catholic liturgical worship is sacramental. That means that words, actions and symbols that can be perceived by human senses carry within themselves an unseen divine power. While some religions are wary of using pictures or symbols in worship, for fear of belittling Almighty God, not so Catholics. Basing ourselves on the doctrine of Creation (the book of Genesis says that all things were created by God in God’s image, and hence bear a divine imprint) and the Incarnation (in Jesus Christ, God took on human nature, thereby initiating a new union between the created and the uncreated), Catholics believe that we are able to use what is created to communicate what is divine. We believe that God has always done so. Hence, in a Catholic church, art and music, color and vesture, statues and pictures and stained glass windows, surround the worshipper with symbols that engage the senses. Catholic liturgy is an experience that is sensory as well as verbal.

The Catholic liturgy is celebrated in seven sacraments. Each of these sacraments is an experience of encounter with the living Lord Jesus, as we are drawn into his worship of the Father. The central sacrament is the Eucharist, which is celebrated in the Mass. The other sacraments are: Baptism and Confirmation (which along with Eucharist are called sacraments of initiation, since they bring a person into the life of Christ in the Church), Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick, (sacraments of healing, since they bring Christ’s power to illness of soul and body), Matrimony and Holy Orders (sacraments of vocation which consecrate those who are marrying or committing themselves to ordained ministry).

Liturgical worship in the sacraments is presided over by a bishop, priest, or deacon, members of the three-fold ordained ministry joined in succession to the apostles, receiving from Christ the same power he gave his original followers for the sake of accomplishing his ongoing ministry. In a parish, it is usually a priest who is the presiding minister, or celebrant, of the sacraments. The priest entrusted with the overall care of the parish is called the pastor. “Monsignor” is an honorary title sometimes given to a priest at the discretion of the Pope. It carries no additional authority or responsibility. The Pastoral Staff of a parish may consist of the pastor and priest assistants (called parochial vicars) as well as lay women and men who share the pastoral ministry in a collaborative fashion.

Catholic worship spaces, or “churches,” reflect the theology briefly described above. (Theology has been defined by one of our saints as “faith seeking understanding.”) The furnishings and decorations are symbolic statements of these beliefs. The differences in appearance between a Gothic cathedral, for example, and a church like ours, reflect not only changes in artistic taste, but also subtle changes over the centuries in our theology of worship. The overall consistency between the two buildings of different eras gives witness to the unchanging nature of our core beliefs.

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