The Constitution on the Liturgy is one of the most important documents promulgated by the Church In Council. What the Council has proclaimed will affect the practice of the liturgy for the rest of our lifetime and for very much longer. It is therefore important for the ordinary layman and for the ordinary parish priest to know not only what has been decided, but also the reasons for the decisions which have been reached in Rome.
Step by step, basing himself always on the text of the Constitution, but ranging widely to draw upon papal pronouncements, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, the experience of the liturgical movement in this century and his own parish experience, the author draws out the implication of the underlying theology which informs the phrases of the Constitution.