Liturgy

Liturgy--statement by Pope Benedict 16 on Sept 26, 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Having focused for several weeks now on prayer as taught to us in the sacred Scriptures, we turn to another precious source of prayer, namely the liturgy. The word “liturgy” in Greek means “work done by the people and for the people”. Here, this “people” is the new People of God, brought into being by Christ, a people which does not exist by itself and which is not bound by blood, territory or country, but is brought into being through the Paschal Mystery.

The liturgy is also the “work of God”. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, it is by means of the liturgy that Christ our Redeemer and High Priest continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his Church. This is the great marvel of the liturgy: God acts, while we are caught up in his action.

The Council began its work by discussing the liturgy, and rightly so, for the liturgy reminds us of the primacy of God. The fundamental criterion for it is its orientation towards the Father, whose saving love culminates in the death and resurrection of his Son. It is in the liturgy that we “lift up our hearts”, opening ourselves to the word of God as we gather with our brethren in a prayer which rises within us, and which is directed to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. (source)

video here: http://youtu.be/WmBQptzdeIY

liturgy still in use since ancient times  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_St_James
(http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2014/05/the-witness-of-the-lost-christianities/#comment-111572)

The anaphora of St. James – the oldest Eucharistic liturgy in the Church, preserved in Syriac and in Greek, reads as follows:

Reject not, O my Lord, the service of this bloodless sacrifice for we rely not on our righteousness, but on Your mercy. Let not this Mystery, which was instituted for our salvation, be for our condemnation, but for the remission of our sins and for the rendering of thanks to You and to Your Only-begotten Son and to Your all holy, good, adorable, life-giving and consubstantial Spirit, now, always and forever.