Man is not only spirit, but an incarnate spirit; therefore, for him prayer must involve not only his spiritual faculties: intellect and will, but also his affective powers: his heart and sensitive faculties, and even the imagination, the senses, and also external behavior. The whole man must pray.
liturgical prayer, which is not only an interior worship, but also an exterior one, expressed in common prayer, in singing, gestures, and ceremonies. Although interior worship is essential, for without it external worship would be formality and phariseeism, we must, nonetheless, be careful not to downgrade the external, whose purpose is to manifest our interior devotion in a public and tangible way.
the true Church. It is of the essence of the Church that she be both human and divine, visible and yet invisibly endowed with truth, eager to act, and yet devoted to contemplation”
From the very beginning of the Church, the faithful began to gather “in fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers . . . praising God” (Acts 2:42,47). These were the first ecclesial meetings, of which Christ, present in the Eucharist, was the center. In fact, the sacred Liturgy, wholly founded upon the eucharistic Sacrifice and on the sacraments, is the perfect worship that Christ himself offers to the heavenly Father for his glory and for the salvation of men.
By participating in the sacred Liturgy, we officially participate in the worship rendered to God by the whole Christ, that is, by Christ united to his Church and hence to her members.
its benefit to the individual is in direct proportion to his faith, his devotion, and his personal attention. Therefore, liturgical prayer and personal prayer are never opposed nor separated from one another, but are always joined in such a way that one compenetrates the other, each animating and completing the other.
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