{"id":55980,"date":"2015-08-01T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=55980"},"modified":"2015-08-01T15:42:28","modified_gmt":"2015-08-01T22:42:28","slug":"participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2015\/08\/01\/participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fully conscious, active participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>“<\/em>), the Council called for the laity to have “fully conscious, and active participation”<\/span><\/em> in the liturgical celebration.<\/p>\n

\"Participation\"<\/p>\n

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\u00a0the laity as many jobs\u00a0as possible. Tasks previously performed by priests and deacons in the Liturgy were now given to those who sat\u00a0in the pews.<\/p>\n

While I appreciate what was being attempted, I have recently been thinking that the implementation of the Council’s teaching contained\u00a0rather flawed\u00a0logic. After all, if “fully conscious, and active participation”<\/span><\/em> necessitates that I have some kind of liturgical role\u00a0at 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\u00a0everybody<\/strong>\u00a0read the Readings or bring up the gifts! If participation requires a job, does that mean that those without a job<\/strong> are not participating<\/strong> in the Liturgy? Obviously not.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mother Bates<\/h2>\n

I grew up in a musical household. I played the trumpet, but my sister\u00a0Helen\u00a0was the one with real musical talent, excelling in both the piano and violin. Like most schools, my sister’s school often had end of term concerts. I was recently reminded of one such concert which took place towards the end of my sister’s schooling. She had\u00a0been working on a particular piece for months, since it was not only the work\u00a0she was to perform that night, but it was also the main piece for her music board exam a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n

My Dad was out of the country so I accompanied my mother to see her\u00a0perform.\u00a0When it came time for my sister to play,\u00a0Mum was a little agitated. She knew that my sister’s performance was a big deal and that it would have a big\u00a0impact on her confidence going forward into\u00a0the\u00a0exam. I squeezed Mum’s hand and gave her a big smile.<\/p>\n

As my sister began playing, my mother was right there with her, note for note.\u00a0Mum\u00a0knew that piece\u00a0thoroughly, having heard it repeatedly during the preceding months of rehearsal at home. Mum\u00a0knew the parts of it my sister liked and the parts which she sometimes found difficult.\u00a0As Helen\u00a0journeyed through the piece, my mother journeyed with her. I could always tell when my sister was\u00a0approaching one of the\u00a0tricky parts of the piece, as my mother’s grip on my hand grew to\u00a0herculean strength.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0the applause began and I tried to regain circulation in my right hand, my mother’s face flushed with emotion, flooded\u00a0with a mixture of joy and relief.\u00a0During the entire experience, my mother may have been sitting next to me in the audience, but really she was\u00a0with my sister on the stage. That’s where her entire focus was: spirit, heart and mind. For\u00a0the eight minutes or so\u00a0of my sister’s performance, my mother’s participation in the music could not have been more “full”<\/span><\/em> or “active”<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mother Mary<\/h2>\n

I often find that when I pray the Stations of the Cross, my mind is constantly drawn to think of another mother, Blessed Mary. Although the Scriptures doesn’t record her\u00a0saying a word, she was with her Son every step on His way to Calvary.<\/p>\n

During that terrible journey, there was nothing Mary could do. There was no job she could get on with. All she could do was be present with the Son whom she loved so dearly. Although it was Jesus\u00a0being physically tortured, she no doubt suffered along with Him, participating in His Passion. As the whip cracked across His\u00a0back\u00a0and nails were driven into His hands, Mary\u00a0was there. The\u00a0“sword”<\/span><\/em>\u00a0which had been spoken of by Simeon years before slowly piecing\u00a0her heart.<\/p>\n

Mother Church<\/h2>\n

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wanted the laity to be fully involved in the celebration of the Mass. While\u00a0liturgical reform can have a great impact on lay engagement, I think this is actually only a small part of the story.<\/p>\n

Having “full, active participation”<\/span> <\/em>in the Mass does not\u00a0require me to be assigned a job. It is possible<\/strong> for me to be fully involved in the Mass even if I don’t read a single bidding prayer or take up any\u00a0gift in the Offertory.<\/p>\n

Meaningful participation in the Mass simply requires love and understanding. The more we can do to foster love of Jesus, love of the Eucharist and understanding of the Liturgy, the greater will be the participation of\u00a0the laity in the Eucharistic celebration,\u00a0so that when the priest says “Lift up your hearts”<\/span><\/em>\u00a0we can all truly say\u00a0“We lift them up to the Lord!”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2969,91,223,1784],"class_list":["post-55980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","tag-featured","tag-liturgy","tag-mass","tag-second-vatican-council"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Banner.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55980"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58486,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55980\/revisions\/58486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}