“It is especially at the altar that
we show forth our faith and our love of God.”
– St. Norbert
From the rising of the sun to its setting, we join the universal Church in proclaiming and celebrating the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ through the celebration of the Holy Mass and the chanting of the Divine Office. We join priests, consecrated, religious, and lay faithful across the globe in “Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1073). Not merely ritual, the liturgy expresses what we believe, how we believe it, and how deeply we believe it. It is the official prayer of our mother, the Church, and a response to God’s call to pray always. It is the window between Heaven and Earth, mediating heavenly realities to us. It is the fountain springing forth from the open heart of Christ through which we enter God’s mysteries.
One of the five marks of the Norbertine Order is to be liturgical. “For it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist that ‘the work of our redemption is accomplished,’ and it is through the liturgy especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (CCC 1068). The liturgy is instrumental to our sanctification.
In his own life, St. Norbert was a witness to the magnitude of the liturgy, never omitting Mass or the Divine Office. He passed this spirit on to all his sons and daughters in the Norbertine Order. For Norbertine Sisters the liturgy is a way to exercise spiritual motherhood. By giving glory to God and interceding for the Church, we open roads to Heaven for our spiritual sons and daughters.