Constitutions 1 And 2

Constitutions 1 and 2 INCIONG NABONG MAGAT OLIVIA KIM

SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on

the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963. As is customary with Catholic documents, the name of this Constitution, "Sacred Council" in Latin, is taken from the first line of the document: => next page

This sacred Council has several aims in view: it

desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church. The Council therefore sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy.

Wherefore the Sacred Council judges that the

following principles concerning the promotion and reform of the Liturgy should be called to mind, and that practical norms should be established. Among these principles and norms there are some which can and should be applied both to the Roman rite and also to all the other rites. The practical norms which follow, however, should be taken as applying only to the Roman rite, except for those which, in the very nature of things, affect other rites as well.

Lumen Gentium Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution

on the Church, is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council. The Constitution was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964, following approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,151 to 5. As is customary with significant Roman Catholic Church documents, it is known by its first words, "Lumen Gentium", Latin for "Light of the Nations".

 One of the key portions of Lumen Gentium is its second chapter,

with its declaration that the Church is "the People of God":  At all times and in every race God has given welcome to who so ever fears Him and does what is right. God, however, does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased Him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness… Christ instituted this new covenant, the new testament, that is to say, in His Blood, calling together a people made up of Jew and gentile, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit. This was to be the new People of God. For those who believe in Christ, who are reborn not from a perishable but from an imperishable seed through the word of the living God, not from the flesh but from water and the Holy Spirit, are finally established as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people . . . who in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God". (LG 9)