The liturgy, celebrated from earliest times in the Church’s life, is “the summit towards which all the Church’s activity is directed.” No ordinary event in the Church’s life, the liturgy is the commemoration, initiated and indeed celebrated by Christ himself, of his saving death and resurrection.

As the “work of God,” liturgy effects our salvation, leading us to the Father as we respond to him in love and praise. Many aspects of the Church’s life contribute to the growth in holiness of her members—the liturgy is meant to infuse them all, as the “font from which the Church’s power flows.”

"In Austria, at the present time," Adolf Holl recently re-marked, "about 1.3 million Catholics go to church every Sunday. This means that Holy Mass is the most popular of all our public activities (cinema, soccer, theatre, and so on)." There used to be more people in church. There may be fewer in years to come. But one thing remains the same throughout the centuries: the faithful come together Sunday by Sunday, many also day by day, for the worship of God, for the celebration of the liturgy. The pagans of antiquity recognized this as the special mark of the Christians. In a letter written about A.D. 112, Pliny told the Emperor Trajan that, "on a certain day before daybreak," a large number of Christians came together "in order to sing antiphonally a hymn to Christ as to a god."  From the beginning, the Church has been a community that prays and celebrates divine worship.

The Greek word for "liturgy" (leiturgia) primarily means "the performing of a service for the community" (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:12), but it can also mean "divine worship in public" (cf. Acts 13:2). As Christians understand it, the liturgy is first of all "the work of God" for men, before it becomes our response of thanksgiving and supplication in divine worship. It is not, in the first place, we who "fashion" the liturgy. No, it is Christ who is the "liturgist," the "principal celebrant" of our divine worship. He has accomplished "the work of God" for us: our redemption and the glorification of God (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1067). The great "liturgy" of Christ is the surrender of his life, the sacrifice he offered the Father on the Cross "once and for all” (CCC, n. 1085), for us and for our reconciliation.

Every time the risen Lord celebrates the liturgy for us and with us, "the work of our redemption is accomplished" (CCC, n. 1068). This is, above all, true of the Eucharist, in which Christ offers Himself, together with His Body the Church, to God the Father.

Of course, the liturgy is not the Church's only activity (CCC, n. 1072). The preaching of the Gospel and the service of neighbor by active love, personal prayer and sacrifice, the witness of Christian life, whether quiet or conspicuous: all these things are indispensable parts of the Church’s life. However, "the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed" (CCC, n. 1074). The Rule of Saint Benedict says that nothing should take precedence over divine worship (CCC, n. 347), though, of course, sometimes it is necessary, for the urgent needs of our neighbor, to forego attendance at divine worship.

Love of neighbor and the worship of God are not opposed. On the contrary, for the Church, the liturgy is "the font from which her power flows" (CCC, n. 1074). That is why it deserves the greatest care and reverence. Experience proves that wherever the Church's liturgy is celebrated in its simple beauty with dignity and love, the faithful come together. The liturgy is like a fountain in which the living wellspring, that is Christ, is contained and given to us to drink.