26. Wonder is an essential part of the liturgical act because it is the way that those who know they are engaged in the particularity of symbolic gestures look at things. It is the marveling of those who experience the power of symbol, which does not consist in referring to some abstract concept but rather in containing and expressing in its very concreteness what it signifies.
In other words, it’s not some vague sense that we should be perceiving something, but the experience overwhelms. Liturgy should lead us somewhere. It’s not an end to itself.
The full document, copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione – Libreria Editrice Vaticana is here on the Vatican site.
Catholic Sensibility 