Samuel Wells offers some tremendous thoughts. Peter Leithart considers them one of the best answers to the "Why liturgy?"
Here's a taste . . . "You're in a hospital, you're holding the hand of an 82-year-old woman. All her family are around the intensive care unit, and you know that they've just unhooked the machines, so she’s got 45 minutes until she’s going to stop breathing. How do you fill that 45 minutes? That’s what you go to seminary for, to know how to fill that 45 minutes. . . ."
Here's a taste . . . "You're in a hospital, you're holding the hand of an 82-year-old woman. All her family are around the intensive care unit, and you know that they've just unhooked the machines, so she’s got 45 minutes until she’s going to stop breathing. How do you fill that 45 minutes? That’s what you go to seminary for, to know how to fill that 45 minutes. . . ."