Graduate School of Liturgy

Almost fifty four after its promulgation on December 4, 1963, the Vatican II Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the Sacred Liturgy remains to be a distinct and powerful voice that sounds off the singular place that the liturgy occupies in the life of the Church. “The liturgy,” the document affirms, “is the summit toward which the Church’s activity is directed and the font from which all her power flows” (SC 10). Asian and Filipino Christian spirituality and religiosity, moreover, are marked by a special fondness for celebrations, both liturgical and extra-liturgical. Liturgical life, however, is one of the areas of Christian life where a continuous process of renewal is felt needed on account of the common tendency to separate worship from the totality of life, among other factors (cf. PCP II, 167). It is to help in this regard that the San Beda University Graduate School of Liturgy (GSL) offers a program of studies through which members of the clergy, religious, and laity can obtain further formation in liturgical ministry and education.

With its academic programs of liturgical studies, GSL takes part in San Beda University’s realization of the Benedictine motto Ora et Labora in its educative endeavor. Together with the regular fare of monastic and campus liturgical celebrations, the task undertaken by the GSL brings out the distinctive Benedictine charism of prayer and worship in the University. Being the only graduate school of liturgy in the country, the GSL welcomes in its program of studies those among the clergy, the religious, and the lay faithful who have the requisite theological foundation and who are relied upon by their respective dioceses and religious communities to undertake specific roles and ministries in the area of liturgy. By this, SBU-GSL wishes to help in realizing the vision of the liturgical renewal set in motion by Vatican II.