The Law of Prayer = The Law of Faith
A pope in the 5th century, in the course of a famous controversy,
pronounced the following words which have been regarded, ever since,
as an axiom of theology: Legem credendi lex statuit supplicandi
(let the law of prayer determine the law of faith) -- in other words,
the liturgy of the Church is a sure guide to her teaching.
Above all else, the Church prizes the integrity of the faith of which
she is the guardian: she could not therefore allow her official prayer
and worship to be in contradiction with her doctrine. Thus, she has
ever watched over the formulae of her liturgy with the utmost care,
correcting or rejecting anything that seemed to be in any way tainted
with error.
The liturgical books are, therefore, an authentic expression of the
Catholic faith, and are, in fact, a source from which theologians may,
in all security, draw their arguments in defense of the faith. The liturgy
holds an important place among the loci theologici (theological
sources), and in this respect its principal representative is the Missal.
The latter is not, of course, a manual of Dogmatic Theology, and it
is concerned with the worship of God and not with the controversial
questions. It is nonetheless true that in the Missal we have a magnificent
synthesis of Christian doctrine -- the Holy Eucharist, Sacrifice, prayer,
Christian worship, the Incarnation, and Redemption -- in fact, in it all
dogmas of the Faith find expression.
--Dom Fernand Cabrol, 1885-1937 (quoted from the
Introduction to the Cabrol edition of The Roman Missal)
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