There is one experience in which the “clay” of our humanity lets itself be molded, not by changing opinions or the sociological analyses, however necessary, but by the word of God and the Spirit of the Risen Lord. That experience is the liturgy (…) This experience, as I was saying, is heaven on earth, and it is given to us in the liturgy, as the Eastern tradition loves to repeat. Yet the beauty of the Eastern rites is much more that simply an oasis of escape or of conservation.  The liturgical assembly recognizes itself as such, not because it was called together of its own accord, but because it hears the voice of Another, is constantly turned towards him, and, precisely for this reason, feels the urgent need to go forth towards our brothers and sisters, and to bring them the message of Christ. Even those traditions that preserve the use of the iconostasis, with the royal door, or the veil that conceals the sanctuary at some moments in the rite, teach us that these are architectural or ritual elements that speak not of distance from God, but rather heighten the mystery of the “condescension” – of the synkatabasis – by which the Word came and continues to come to the world.

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Pope Francis

Address to Participants in the Plenary Meeting

of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches

February 18, 2022