The center holds

The liturgy ... is an action (not a program, or a performance) which occurs on the cusp between time and eternity, and between our earthly mortality and the Civitas Dei. We are not an audience. We are not spectators. The liturgy ("the work of the people" is what the word means) draws us in, sacramentally, but quite literally, to the action whereby Jesus Christ offers himself to the Father in our behalf as the perfect Offering for sings. The Church asks us to kneel, to stand, to sit, to bow, to trace the sign of the Cross on ourselves, and to echo with "Thanks be to God," or "And also with you," or "Amen," like deep calling unto deep which we glimpse in the psalms. Every single gesture and phrase is freighted with mystery and glory. --Thomas Howard