“The liturgical movement is thus shown forth as a sign of the providential dispositions of God for the present time, of the movement of the Holy Ghost in the Church, to draw men more closely to the mysteries of the faith and the riches of grace which flow from the active participation of the faithful in the liturgical life.

(…)

If the hierarchy communicates by the liturgy the truth and the grace of Christ, it is for the faithful, on their part, to accept these whole-heartedly, and to translate them into living realities. Everything which is offered to them, the graces of the sacrifice of the altar, the sacraments and sacramentals, they receive not in a passive manner in allowing them simply to flow into them, but in collaborating in them with their whole will and all their powers, and especially in participating in the liturgical offices or at least in following their unfolding with fervor.

(…)

The pastors and the flock, the teaching Church and the Church which is taught, form but one and the same body of Christ. Thus there is no reason for maintaining a lack of confidence, rivalries, oppositions open or hidden whether in thought, in manner of speaking or in acts. Among the members of one body, there ought to reign before everything else concord, unity and collaboration. It is in this unity that the Church prays, offers sacrifice, sanctifies itself, so that it can be asserted with good reason that the liturgy is the work of the whole Church.

But We must add: the liturgy is not, however, the whole Church; it does not exhaust the scope of her activities. . .  we are thinking above all of its tasks of teaching and pastoral care, of the “Feed the flock that God has entrusted to you” (1 Pet. 5:2). We have recalled the role which the Magisterium, the depository of the truth of Christ, carries out through the liturgy; the influence of the authority of government on it is also evident, since it belongs to the Popes to examine current forms of worship, to introduce new ones and to regulate the arranging of worship, and to the bishops to watch carefully that the canonical prescriptions relating to divine worship are observed”

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Venerable Pope Pius XII

Allocution to the Assisi Liturgical Congress, 1956

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