“That Word ‘Liturgy’ is So Unfortunate”: Learning the Mystical Body and Practicing Catholic Action in the U.S. Liturgical Movement (c. 1926-1955)

Abstract

During the liturgical movement era in the United States (c. 1926-1955), advocates of liturgical renewal relied upon both the Mystical Body of Christ theology and the methods of Catholic Action to describe and legitimize a fundamental re-visioning of how “liturgy” should be taught and interpreted: liturgy was not an object or something to be observed, but a dynamic and ritual event in which the faithful actively participated. The liturgical experience simultaneously taught individual women, men, and children how to act as Christians in the world, and formed these same faithful into a corporate identity through their sacramental and liturgical participation in the Mystical Body of Christ. Intersecting with a renewed Catholic intellectual life and modern social concerns, the liturgical movement, with its goal of advancing a spiritual and social renewal in the modern world, inspired the faithful to adopt and apply the Mystical Body of Christ theology and Catholic Action initiatives in a variety of particular contexts, both private and public.