The Liturgy is at the same time the Kingdom of Heaven and our dwelling place, “a new Heaven and a new earth”, the point of convergence where all things find true meaning.
The Liturgy not only teaches us to broaden our horizon and our vision, to speak the language of love and communion, but also to learn how to live in love for one another, notwithstanding our differences and even our divisions.
The whole world is included in this great embrace, the communion of saints and all God’s creation. The entire universe becomes “Cosmic Liturgy”, to cite the teaching of St Maximus the Confessor. Such a Liturgy can never become old or antiquated. – Patriarch Bartholomew, 2006 (when Pope Benedict visited him).
I can only dream of the day when the Church will worship (liturgically) the same way everywhere it meets as the Corpus Christi. I can only wish the the words of the hymn “The Church’s one Foundation”:
“Elect from every nation
and yet ONE over all world
Her charter of Salvation:
One Lord, one faith one birth
One only Name she blesses
Partakes one only food
And to one hope she presses
With every Grace endued.”