Language and Symbolic Arts: Religious Adornments, Arts and Meaning in the Catholic Church Liturgy

Abstract

Language is a means, a tool or method, of verbal or non-verbal communication between humans using some forms of signs, and symbols such as letters of the alphabets in written form to make words used in speech that convey meanings. The use of these words is done following the rules of grammar. Every culture/race or people have their own language and symbols and the way they communicate. Language enables one to express feelings, thoughts, ideas and shared experiences. Symbols have mystical quality that conveys a sense of the sacred and gives nourishment to the physical. Through working with symbols the inner energy is harnessed or put in use; one thinks deeper than the ordinary. Unless these symbols are understood they make no meaning and therefore have no effect on the individual. Therefore religious arts and symbols are creative images designed to aid and inspire the individual to reflect in the spiritual. The Catholic Church is one Religious Institution that uses a lot of symbols and art in religious worship or liturgy. The Liturgy is the religious way of life which is centered in the Mass or Eucharistic celebration. Its religious arts-places, objects, arts, (icons, pictures), and adornments are dressing or vestments, vessels, and decorations (flowers, vestments seasons and colours). This article tries to explain briefly what language means. It also attempts to expose to the reader the uses of some of the symbols, arts and adornment in the Catholic Church, noting their possible meaning and how they affect the life of the faithful for spiritual enhancement or growth.