"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Would you like to get more out of Mass this Sunday? I would suggest that if you want a more engaging Mass experience, you can’t do better than to spend some time with the Mass Readings beforehand.
Last week, Brant Pitre, one of my favourite theologians started a video channel to talk about the Readings for the upcoming Sunday. Enjoy đ
Today I would like to discuss briefly a liturgical question of our time: should the congregation hold hands during the Our Father? In 1963, the Beatles sang “I wanna hold your hand”. Well, that’s all fine and good, but there’s a time and place for everything…
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a link to an article which argues why the congregation should not hold hands during the Our Father. Broadly speaking, I agree with the arguments made in the article. However, when people bring up this subject, I often take a different tack to the explanation presented in the article…
Today I would like to reflect a little more on the development of liturgy following the Second Vatican Council. In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (“Sacrosanctum Concilium“), the Council called for the laity to have “fully conscious, and active participation” in the liturgical celebration.
As someone who grew in the post-concilliar Church, I have often felt that there was an attempt to respond to this call of the Council by simply giving the laity as many jobs as possible. Tasks previously performed by priests and deacons in the Liturgy were now given to those who sat in the pews.
While I appreciate what was being attempted, I have recently been thinking that the implementation of the Council’s teaching contained rather flawed logic. After all, if “fully conscious, and active participation” necessitates that I have some kind of liturgical role at Mass, what about those who don’t get assigned a job that week? There are only so many things that need doing! We can’t have everybody read the Readings or bring up the gifts! If participation requires a job, does that mean that those without a job are not participating in the Liturgy? Obviously not.
Lord, save us from priests with a sense of humour… đ
A while back I was involved in a discussion over at another blog which I thought was interesting. The post asked the question: After Communion is it better to sit, kneel or stand?
I think the Eastern Church has a very interesting perspective to bring to this question, particularly since we never kneel during our Sunday worship.
I came across this very cute little video…