Conclusion

22. The liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church, as the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium pointed out. [93] It is, however, a source and summit of her activity. [94] It is a source because, above all, from the sacraments the faithful draw abundantly the water of grace which flows from the side of the crucified Christ. To use an image dear to Pope John XXIII, it is like the village fountain to which every generation comes to draw water ever living and fresh. It is also a summit, both because all the activity of the Church is directed toward the communion of life with Christ and because it is in the liturgy that the Church manifests and communicates to the faithful the work of salvation, accomplished once and for all by Christ.

23. The time has come to renew that spirit which inspired the Church at the moment when the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium was prepared, discussed, voted upon and promulgated and when the first steps were taken to apply it. The seed was sown: It has known the rigors of winter, but the seed has sprouted and become a tree. It is a matter of the organic growth of a tree becoming ever stronger the deeper it sinks its roots into the soil of tradition. [95] I wish to recall what I said at the congress of liturgical commissions in 1984: In the work of liturgical renewal, desired by the council, it is necessary to keep in mind "with great balance, the part of God and the part of man, the hierarchy and the faithful, tradition and progress, the law and adaptation, the individual and the community, silence and choral praise. Thus the liturgy on earth will fuse with that of heaven, where . . . it will form one choir . . . to praise with one voice the Father through Jesus Christ." [96]

With this confident hope, which in my heart becomes a prayer, I impart to all my apostolic blessing.

Given at the Vatican, on the fourth day of December in the year 1988, the 11th of my pontificate.