Notes on Liturgy and Music

Notes on the Liturgy

How can we animate the presence of the medieval clergy through the images and sounds of the cathedral?

"Liturgy" is derived from the Greek, leitourgia, meaning public service.  The word is generally applied to designate the entire range of worship practices of a corporate Christian community. 

Canon François Villeman of Amiens (d. 1743) in his Cérémonial laid out a very clear justification for liturgical practice, suggesting that worship that is purely spiritual without visible forms of expression, although claimed by heretics, was actually only possible for the saints who reside in heaven: ordinary people cannot aspire to such heights, needing outward and visible signs like the sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ.  "The Church, animated by the same spirit, sustains the piety of the faithful by means of exterior rites linked with interior adoration..."

In the image we see the choir and sanctuary of Notre-Dame of Paris, as imagined by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.