Studia Pastoralne
Rocznik Wydziału Teologicznego UŚ

EUCHARISTIC GATHERING AS THE HEART OF CELEBRATING „THE EIGHTH DAY” IN A PARISH
Summary
It is true that in free Poland Sunday became relativized. More and more Poles spend this holy day in new „temples of consumption” which are supermarkets. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced to work. It is sad that the apostolic letter of the pope, Dies Domini, in which John Paul II appealed for respecting Sunday did not trigger any legal repercussions in Poland. In view of desacralised time and a lack of a deeper understanding of the meaning of Sunday as the day of celebration, one can see a necessity of a permanent upbringing to celebrating Sunday.
The Eucharist is, in a sense, the aim of a religious life because from the Christian perspective the purpose of life is getting involved in God’s redemptive plans. Their pivotal point is Jesus Christ and His Passover mystery which is constantly being personalised in the Church. It is done especially in a Eucharistic gathering thanks to which people get unified with Christ in the word and the sacrament and with one another. In this way it is the Eucharist where the community with God and among people becomes real and gets deepened. This type of a communion is the purpose of the whole history of salvation. Of course in the eschatological perspective it is also the source towards the purpose since this is the sign pointing at the ultimate community which will get realised at the end of the history of salvation. Being the source, however, it already includes its own purpose to which it is supposed to lead.
In view of the above it seems that both in teaching and upbringing the link between Sunday and what can be called „the theology of the eighth day” is insufficiently emphasised. For Sunday, as John Paul II emphasises in Dies Domini: “is not only the first day, it is also „the eighth day”, set within the sevenfold succession of days in a unique and transcendent position which evokes not only the beginning of time, but also its end in „the age to come”. [...] Sunday symbolizes that truly singular day which will follow the present time, the day without end which will know neither evening nor morning, the imperishable age which will never grow old; Sunday is the ceaseless foretelling of life without end which renews the hope of Christians and encourages them on their way (No. 26).“
On the other hand eschatological dimension of the Eucharist, emphasised by the theology of the eighth day, expresses the very nature of a Christian existence on the earth. It is a privileged moment in which the Church experiences itself as „the pilgrim”. The Mass stimulates Christians to live in an eschatological way, as pilgrims, with their eyes and hearts turned upwards. Therefore the Sunday Eucharist should be a real celebration. Theology of the eighth day may be reflected concretely in the pastoral practice of a parish community. For the world does not need a parish in which you can find all sorts of convenient facilities, actions and entertainment which are produced and distributed by the world, but the place of a pilgrimage and joy. The place where one can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit and where someone coming for the first time is forced to notice something else and shout like those who were entering the first Christian communities Truly God is among you! (1 Co 14:25).

CHRISTIAN CULTURE OF CELEBRATION AND A CULTURAL IDENTITY OF EUROPE – CONTINUATION AND A BREAK-UP
Summary
The author’s reflection focuses on two major assumptions. First of all religious rituals and liturgies, which is a Christian culture of a feast and celebration, include a recollective, performative and identity-creating power. Second of all religious rituals have an impact on culture and therefore on a cultural identity. If today in Europe a new religious awakening is expected, then similarly to the past a special role in this process belongs to rituals. Christian culture of celebrating affects a universal culture by celebrating feasts as a “religious counterpoint”, which is opening our everyday life to a “different” and Divine time and a transcendent dimension, by emphasizing a human dignity of every person in the sacrament of baptism regardless sex or a social background and by a practice of humanism shown to the dying and the deceased. The author emphasizes that if at the beginning of the twenty first century religion is described as a cultural source of Europe, it is a Christian culture of celebrating that may become its communicator.

DIE SORGE VON JOHANNES PAUL II UM DIE RICHTIGE FEIER DER HEILIGEN EUCHARISTIE UND DIE VOLLE TEILNAHME IN IHR
Von Anfang an bemühte sich Johannes Paul II um den Verlauf der Feier der Eucharistie und um eine bewusste, aktive und volle Teilnahme der Gläubigen. In der Eucharistiefeier, die das Werk des ganzen Christus, seines Hauptes und Leibes ist, soll in der Liturgie jeder seine angemessene, zutreffende Aufgabe haben.
Die Messfeier wird durch den Priester geleitet. Der Verlauf der Heiligen Messe ist von der Kirche geordnet. Der Priester, der dazu geweiht wurde, muss seine Aufgabe nach dem liturgischen Recht erfüllen. Er hat keine Machtbefugnis über die liturgischen Handlungen und vorgeschriebenen Texte. Die Liturgie hat einen bestimmten, unveränderlichen Bestand-teil, über den zu wachen die Kirche verpflichtet ist. Die Gläubigen werden zur aktiven Beteiligung an der Eucharistiefeier eingeladen.
Ihnen können auch manche liturgische Funktionen anvertraut werden, z. B.: Lektor, Kommunionshelfer, Kantor u. a. Die Grundlage, auf der die Gläubigen manche liturgischen Funktionen ausüben dürfen ist die Weihe durch die Sakramente der Taufe und der Firmung zu einem heiligen Priestertum.