By using the word "serve" in the Canon, commented the Pope, "this liturgical meaning of the word is somehow adopted in accordance with the news of the Christian cult. What the priest is doing at that time, in celebrating the Eucharist, is serving, rendering a service unto God and a service unto man. The cult that Christ rendered to the Father consisted in giving Himself up, through to the end, for man". And just "in this cult, in this service, the priest must finds his place". The word "serve" involves many dimensions. "Certainly explained Benedict XVI , it contains in the first place the right celebration of the Liturgy and all the Sacraments, accomplished with inner intensity of feeling". Hence the invitation to "learn to understand better and better the holy Liturgy, in all its essence, developing a lively familiarity with it, so that it will become the soul of our everyday life". "The art of celebrating" then comes to the fore. In this art, warned the Pontiff, "there must be nothing contrived. It must be one thing with the art of living straight. If the Liturgy is the priest’s central task, this means also that the prayer must be a priority to be learnt over and over again and more and more deeply at the school of Christ and of the saints of all times".
