Irénée- Henri DALMAIS: Introduction to the Liturgy1The author. Although the author belongs to the Roman rite, he is an expert on the oriental traditions of theChurch. He is a member of the Dominican Order, a liturgical and ecumenical scholar and is therefore an au-thority in this subject. The foreword is written by Frederick R. Mc Manus. The book is well divided in a lo-gical and clear order. There is an author index, unfortunately no subject index.Chapter 1. Liturgical RealityWhat is Liturgy? Liturgy in the widest sense is the expression and experience of the relationship of the indi-vidual and the society to God. The human spirit manifests itself through the body, so also the body particip-ates to the worship. Liturgy is a part of human nature, by nature man acts liturgically.Liturgy and community. Etymologically, liturgy is 'the work of the people'. A people is a organized socialorganisation, conscious of its unity, strengthening it by the use of 'myths'2. Nothing better than liturgy givespeople the ability to realise and express themselves as a people. It enforces its unity.Liturgy and human actions. There is no authentic human activity without expression in gesture3. Man ex-presses himself and communicates with God and other men through the body. So liturgy is first a matter of(ritual) gestures. The most universal gesture is the communal meal. Certain gestures are common to all men.In every liturgy we see sacramentalism: a sacred use of things (light, colour, sound, time, elements such aswater, oil). Everywhere we see an awareness of the sacredness of nature which reveals God existence. But, toreveal God's transcendence, conventional gestures, borrowed from etiquette (of royal courts), are required.By these rites liturgy becomes human.The forest of symbols. In liturgy, the symbolical value of gestures is more important than the natural one.Liturgy transcendents the present time: it looks also to the (primordial or historical) past and the (eschatolo-gical or at...