Citation: Sawa, Przemyslaw. 2023. Theology and Liturgical Principles at the Service of Evangelization—Towards a Catholic Renewal. Religions 14: 480. https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel14040480 Academic Editor: Klaus Baumann Received: 4 February 2023 Revised: 15 March 2023 Accepted: 30 March 2023 Published: 3 April 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). religions Article Theology and Liturgical Principles at the Service of Evangelization—Towards a Catholic Renewal Przemyslaw Sawa Faculty of Theology, University of Silesia, 40-007 Katowice, Poland; przemyslaw.sawa@us.edu.pl Abstract: Evangelization is not only about the preaching of the kerygma (prophetic evangelization) but also has a liturgical tone (priestly evangelization) and a charity aspect (royal evangelization). When looking for ways to conduct new evangelization, we cannot neglect the liturgical aspect, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and dynamics of the church year. In this respect, the article presents the basic opportunities created by the liturgical reality for the evangelization of both the faithful and others who happen to be present at a celebration, or watching it. The article shows what tensions exist between the liturgical regulations and requirements of evangelization, but also points to various moments in the Eucharist, liturgy of sacraments or various aspects of the liturgical year which have been left unexploited. The author identifies specific challenges for liturgical evangelization and points to how to deal with them in practice. This expresses the eucharistic and liturgical spirituality of the postconciliar renewal of the Church. Keywords: liturgy; Eucharist; evangelization; active participation; renewal of the Church 1. Introduction The call for a new evangelization can be clearly heard in the Church. Pope John Paul II understood it as engagement in the unchangeable mission of the baptized in a changing world, with new ardor, methods and expressions 1 . This is clearly a task of all the baptized, irrespective of their vocation or function. It involves the faithful acting on their own and as a community, i.e., with other people and on behalf of the Church. In this respect, it is still a challenge to have a deeper experience of the liturgy, in particular the Eucharist, which has an evangelizing potential and is inseparable from other dimensions of evangelization. However, do the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, and the course of the liturgical year offer space for evangelization? To answer the question properly, one should first define the terms used, then present celebration and mystagogy as spaces for first and permanent evangelization, and finally ponder upon the possibilities for using the dynamics of the liturgy to proclaim and experi- ence the Gospel: “The liturgical celebration becomes therefore the continuing, complete, and effective presentation of God’s word. The word of God constantly proclaimed in the Liturgy is always, then, a living and effective word through the power of the Holy Spirit. It expresses the Father’s love that never fails in its effectiveness toward us.” (General Introduction to the Lectionary, no. 4 (The Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship 1981)). It is not only the word that matters, however, but also the signs, the space and all the rites. An analysis of the source literature leads to the conclusion that in-depth studies of liturgical evangelization are rather scarce. The numerous publications on liturgy and sacraments, whether in the field of theology or rituals, do not always answer the question (see O’Malley 2014). Having analyzed the documents of the Teaching Office of the Church and the basic rules of the liturgy, I seek to show in this article the evangelizing elements of various liturgical forms. Religions 2023, 14, 480. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040480 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions