Visit of the Prefect to the 56th Annual National Meeting of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions

From September 30 to October 2, 2025, at the Hilton Inner Harbor in Baltimore, the 56th Annual National Meeting of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions was held, bringing together about 200 participants, including priests, lay faithful, and seminarians from across the country.

On October 1, the Cardinal Prefect delivered an address on the theme “Interpreted by Love: Liturgical Formation and Participation in the Light of Desiderio Desideravi,” offering a reflection on the meaning of liturgical formation and participation in the light of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter.

In his address to the participants, the Cardinal explained that the Holy Father’s Apostolic Letter is an invitation to rediscover the heart of Christian celebration and to contemplate the liturgy as a living reality, “interpreted by love.” In the liturgy, Christ Himself longs to meet His people. Citing St. Paul, Cardinal Roche recalled the need to safeguard ecclesial unity in the Eucharistic celebration, avoiding divisions, abuses, and arbitrary interpretations of the rites.

The Prefect showed how Desiderio Desideravi stands in continuity with the Magisterium on the liturgy, placing at its center the formation that arises from the very experience of celebrating. He emphasized that the liturgy is not theoretical knowledge but an action that involves the whole person, body and spirit, and that forms the Church into communion with Christ.

Furthermore, the Prefect, quoting Romano Guardini, explained that authentic participation is not reduced to external activity or to isolated interior recollection but is rather “revealed interiority”: a vital balance between gesture and spirit, sign and grace. He further underlined, following the teaching of Pope Francis, the urgency of recovering the ability to read symbols, since modern people risk becoming illiterate in symbols through which God communicates His grace.

He also reaffirmed the mission of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as stated in Praedicate Evangelium: to promote the sacred liturgy according to the renewal desired by the Second Vatican Council. This reform, the Prefect recalled, is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church and, as the late Holy Father affirmed, is “irreversible.”

Finally, he encouraged a renewed liturgical formation and an ars celebrandi rooted in the Paschal Mystery, so that the lex orandi may truly become the lex vivendi. In conclusion, he recalled the humility of God in the Eucharist, according to the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, the supreme sign of that love which gives itself totally so that humanity may be fully transformed in Christ.