Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Liturgy - Class 4

As soon as class started we were divided into two groups; the Red Team vs the Blue Team. The plan was to take a few minutes to write down four questions that might stump the other team. We were playing for chocolates, so it was serious stuff.
 
Red Team’s first question was, “Name six things that are allowed on the alter?” Blue Team’s answer was, “The chalice, candles, corporal, pacificator, ciborium, paten, crucifix, wine, and bread”. Blue Team’s first question was, “What is the procedure for left over Precious Blood, and why is it important?” Red Team’s answer was, “It must be consumed, not disposed of, because it can’t be saved, and then the vessels must be purified”.
 
Red Team’s second question was, “When was communion under both species re-introduced?” Blue Team’s answer was, “The 1963 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy authorized the extension of the faculty for Holy Communion under both kinds”. Blue Team’s second question was, “Where and why should flowers and offerings be placed?” Red Team’s answer was, “Flowers should be placed at the base of the alter, or the base of the ambo, and the offering should be placed near the alter”.
 
Red Team’s third question was, “Do you have to have a closing song?” Blue Team’s answer was, “No, the recessional song is optional”. Blue Team’s third question was, “When is it most appropriate to celebrate the liturgy in Latin, and what songs are appropriate?” Red Team’s answer was, “When there are multiple languages spoken by the audience”. I tried to convince them that it was appropriate anywhere Latin was the native language, but they didn’t buy that. Red Team’s answer regarding the music was, “Suggested songs would be Gregorian chant”.
 
Red Team’s forth question was, “Why should you not use consecrated hosts from the Tabernacle during Mass?” Blue Team’s answer related to when you could use the previously consecrated hosts from the Tabernacle, and Red Team insisted that they did not provide the correct answer.
 
Blue Team’s answer should have been “People should understand that it is one body taken from the one sacrifice. It should not come from the Tabernacle because, although consecrated, it is not the work of the people in this Mass Celebration. There is value in the symbol of the host itself: Once consecrated it remains until it is no longer food. There is also value in the work of the people, who prayed over the bread and wine. It is important to respect the work of the people as much as the symbol of the host.
 
Blue Team’s forth question was, “What is intinction and who is allowed to do it?” Red Team’s answer was, “Intinction is dipping the host into the blood, and only ordained communion ministers can do it”.
 
Intinction cannot be done by lay people, although the cup minister should not be militant about this. It’s best to correct them at a more appropriate time. After all, Jesus put up with a lot of bad behavior in an effort to respect the dignity of the people.
 
After the break we worked on understanding the Eucharistic Prayer, which is the “source and summit of Christian life”. The Eucharistic Prayer is telling a story, and like a story it consists of many parts:
 
The Dialog, near the beginning, is the oldest part. The Priest begins, “The Lord be with you,” which is followed by our response, “And with your spirit.”
 
The Preface is to give thanks and has 86 different options for special occasions or ordinary time. Although the Priest can choose any preface that he wants, except when one is assigned for Feast Days, but the Liturgy committee should suggest a preface based on what we want to pray for on this Sunday; what are we thankful for and what preface reflects that?
 
The Epiclesis includes the calling down of the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands. The Institution Narrative might also be called the Supper Story, because it recounts what happened at the Last Supper. There is no specific phrase or word or time that the Consecration occurs, and the emphasis is on the words that Jesus said. It is the whole prayer together.
 
The Anamnesis is the memorial acclamation preparing us for the crucifixion. Anamnesis is the opposite of amnesia, it is bringing the past, present, and future together in memory of his death and resurrection. The reason we call it the Last Supper is that Jesus was going to die, it was His last supper, and it is celebrated so that people can know that Jesus died for them too.
 
The Offering is not just the offering of the gifts but it is an offering of ourselves. This is the moment of sacrifice. Together before the Lord we are creating community and communion as we enter into the Sacrifice.
 
The Intercessions are to remind us that Jesus makes us worthy and new. The Doxology is a statement of praise through Him, with Him and in Him. It is completed with the Great Amen, as we proclaim “I Believe”.
 
This Amen should be expressed enthusiastically because it is the glorification of God expressed and confirmed by the people.
 
Obviously Jesus did not leave us the Eucharistic Prayer as it is now, and in fact originally it wasn't written down. It was necessary to improvise this prayer, and you had to do it well if you wanted to become
 
a Bishop. As a result it developed unevenly over time, and sprang up in various forms as a reflection of the various cultures using it.
 
The Eucharistic Prayer is important because within it is the ultimate goal: Unity. God is inviting us to join with his Son, and the Holy Spirit, to break this (our) body that we might be united with Him in
Glory. It’s important to recognize that the Last Supper as depicted in the first three Gospels is re-presented in John’s Gospel. The washing of the feet in John is what it looks like to follow Jesus’ Word: “Take my Body and Take my Blood” for the sake of everyone around us.
 
My post to the class website:
 
I liked that idea that within the Eucharistic Prayer is the ultimate goal: Unity. God is inviting us to join with his Son, and the Holy Spirit, to break this (our) body that we might be united with Him in Glory. It’s also important to recognize that the Last Supper as depicted in the first three Gospels is recreated in John’s Gospel.
 
John's gospel is different from the other three in the New Testament, and that fact was recognized by the early church itself. By the year 200 John's gospel was being called the spiritual gospel, precisely because it told the story of Jesus in symbolic ways that differed sharply at times from the other three.
 
The washing of the feet in John is what it looks like to follow Jesus’ Word: “Take my Body and Take my Blood” for the sake of everyone around us. John's gospel is forcing us, dramatically and through storytelling, to think of Jesus as the Passover Lamb. In John's Gospel, Jesus doesn't eat a Passover meal, Jesus is the Passover meal.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Liturgy - Class 3

We began tonight’s class with another exercise: On the provided sticky notes, we wrote down one question and one insight from the assigned readings. After a few minutes we were asked to post the sticky notes on the white board, and we discussed them together.
 
One person asked, “Why is the first reading always from the Old Testament”? We all agreed that because Jesus would only have had the Old Testament, it is the connection between Jesus’ life and Jesus’ teaching.  We also talked about the New Testament as a fulfillment of the Old Testament.
 
It’s interesting to note that when the New Testament writers were studying the Old Testament they were not attempting to find or create these links. They weren’t trying to create a one for one typology in which the New Testament fulfilled the Old Testament. They were trying to understand where Jesus’ theology came from.
 
The next question was about the liturgy and whether solemn means dull or sullen? The answer of course was "No", Liturgy is supposed to be pure joy; it's being one with Christ.
 
Another question was. “Why are the readings introduced”? Some people liked this practice and other didn’t, but I think it enables and enhances understanding. This led to a discussion about whether the purpose of the liturgy is comprehension or celebration, and we agreed that its purpose is celebration. I mentioned how I think this is one of the reasons I like multilingual services. As someone that is limited to one language, for me it's more about celebration than comprehension.
 
My Insight was that I think my parish is doing a good job. Our instructor wanted to know how this related to the assigned readings, to which I replied that as I was reading about the proper way to celebrate the Introductory Rites and Liturgy of the Word I kept thinking that “we seem to be doing it right”. He agreed and responded with the idea that we shouldn’t just focus on what we're doing wrong, we should also notice what we're doing right.
 
My question was “When is simple too simple”? I was a bit confused by the idea that simple is better, thinking we might be asked to reduce the liturgy down to the basics. I worship in a building designed as a gym, that has always been a church, so I’m familiar with simple. Our instructor helped me understand that it isn’t about simple, as in removing all of the ornamentation, candles, music, and art, but it’s not about those things either.
 
There is a principle called progressive solemnity. Some liturgies are a bigger deal than other liturgies; for instance a daily Mass vs a Sunday Mass. Liturgy should be celebration in the midst of a noble simplicity to avoid excessive distractions. The goal is to engage our community to hear God's calling and to live the Word after Mass.
 
All of the assembly must pay attention to all of the Mass: Beginning, middle, and end. If it doesn't feel right the people will “check out”. Although good liturgy must tell a story, it doesn’t mean that the people as a whole are off the hook: The people must prepare themselves for the Celebration of the Mass by reading the Bible and by preparing for the Liturgy of the Word by reading their Missals prior to Mass.
 
We talked a bit about what to do when a lector is not affective (bad). Our instructor acknowledged that it's difficult to move volunteers from one ministry (lector) to another (Eucharist). The best practice is to be positive, as in “Your reading has improved but I think you would be able to reach many more people as a Eucharistic minister”.
 
The Ambo is the table of God. It should be used to declare the Word of God, but it should not be used for announcements. Casual greetings (by the Priest) should be avoided, because all language (in the Liturgy) is ritual language. A secular greeting is not appropriate.
 
The reason ritual language important is to encourage participation. We need the ritual to distinguish from the ordinary, and there needs to be an intention for it to be important. This is how we hand down tradition and we must hold on to it to unify our celebration and worship.
 
Ritual language can be recognized in the text, changes of posture, or it’s been heard before, or pronounced with authority. The intention of ritual language is praise and worship, it is not evangelization.
 
It’s important to remember that the homily is also ritual language. Its theme should be taken from the readings and integrated into the story of the community. The Liturgy of the Word should cause a response in us: Thanksgiving. The homily should lead this particular group to authentically move forward to receive the Eucharist, and it should only work this time, because the next time we'll be different people.
 
A homily is not a statement, or a collection of do’s and don’ts. It is a "you, who, do, through" prayer in the form of a message that is meant to change us in a fundamental way. A good homilist tries to link the readings to the lives of the community. Ritual language might use readings like the workers in the vineyard, and it shouldn’t be just social justice talk. It should be about connections and it should lead us to the Table of the Lord.
 
The homily should emphasize that the reading is just as important to this community as it was to the original community. Simply re-iterating or repeating the readings is not right, because it that won’t involve the necessary ritual language.
 
My post to the class website:
 
I am especially grateful for our discussion of “One question and one insight” that we had acquired from our reading assignment for this week’s class. One person asked, “Why is the first reading always from the Old Testament”? We all agreed that because Jesus would only have had the Old Testament, it is the connection between Jesus’ life and Jesus’ teaching.  We also talked about the New Testament as a fulfillment of the Old Testament.
 
I’ve always understood that, but for some reason I had never considered the idea that the writers of the Christian Scriptures, must have studied the Hebrew Scriptures prior to writing what we now call the New Testament. My admittedly undeveloped and unrefined notion was that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and, after careful consideration and an appropriate amount of time, produced and edited the documents that we eventually added to the collection of books we now refer to as the Bible.
 
There is no reason, of course, to believe that these documents were created without research or consideration of what was written before Jesus’ life. After all if Jesus had read those then why not the writers of the New Testament? It also makes sense that the writers were not attempting to manufacture the fulfillment of the foreshadowing they imagined in the Old Testament. They were simply trying to understand where Jesus’ theology came from.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Liturgy - Class 2

Tonight our instructor divided into small groups of four again, and then asked our group to write down some names and titles for God: My small group wrote down Creator and Almighty Father, although we also considered Yahweh. Along with the other three groups we put our two post-it notes on the wall. Our instructor then created a spontaneous prayer following the words on the four sets of post-it notes.
 
This form of prayer construction comes from the Jewish Berakhah prayer, which is the form of prayer that Jesus used during the Last Supper. It follows the form You, Who, Do. You (recalling that God has made us in his image); Who (what God has done for us); Do (the great things He will accomplish in us).
 
After the life and ministry of Jesus, Christians added a fourth part. Through (in the Name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit), or (I can do all things through Jesus Christ who saved me).
 
Someone in the class asked, "How is this prayer scriptural?”. We were told that, “First of all not all prayer is scriptural, but it is based on scriptural names and titles”. Our instructor asked us to look at a painting that was about 12” x 18”. It looked a bit like an icon, of a man bending over something round, with the dividers common to those used in ancient construction.
 
It turns out that this painting was used as an exercise in prayer form. We were first asked to reflect on what we saw in the painting: The person seemed to be doing something important, like centering, holding, molding, or measuring. It’s actually a painting of God the Architect of the World and the creation of life. It’s God creating order out of chaos, His foot is just out of the frame signifying that He is too big to comprehend fully, and Gods influence is dynamic.
 
From that we considered the act of creation. The Creation story has a beginning (in the beginning this there was nothing and void was upon the face of the earth) during which everything is created; a middle (He created man in the image of God)which means that we too are too big to contain and we too are creators; and an end (Jesus came to restore everything to God) after which we become one with God in Heaven.
 
Liturgy is supposed to be simple (elegant) and recognizable to the people. The simplicity should encourage participation, which is required.  All prayer is communal, including the Homily which must be given and received. Everyone has a role and the various ministries (music, collection, lectors) must be cooperative. All of the community is equally important and each person has a part; each must perform all but not more than their part for the liturgy to be successful.
 
The music should be simple and sing able to enhance worship. The vestments and art should be simple, noble, beautiful, reverent, and truly sacred. The environment should not appear to be more important than the function of the space. In other words, good liturgy is not the product of a well formed rubric; it is the result of a well formed heart.
 
Everything in the liturgy flows from the Word of God which leads to sacrament. It’s a two part action; Word or scripture are the stories about Jesus to teach us by example, and the Living Word which is God's voice in our lives, which also makes Jesus real and present to us as participants.
 
Liturgy is not a history test; it is the stories, pictures, sayings, and standards that are required for us to make Jesus real and present. These stories are our stories because this is what God did and this is what we are to do. The whole body of Christ is participating in the Liturgy of worship.
 
Catholics may not be able to quote Bible verses from memory, but they can tell the stories: like Jesus at the Jordon, The Prodigal Son, and Jesus healing the blind man. God's Word has an effect, it just doesn't sit there. Every time God speaks something happens; it creates community and brings us closer to God.
 
Ongoing transformation is what happens in the Sacrament that takes place during the liturgy. It's a living word that matters and the people need to hear it in such a way that it makes sense, so that we can understand it and so that we are transformed by it.
 
Learning how to ski is complicated, but once you do actually skiing is fairly easy. Learning how to paint might be complicated, but once you do something beautiful is created. Learning to do liturgy correctly may seem complicated too, but once we learn it will come naturally. If people with a basic understanding don’t get it, then it's too complicated.
 
Our instructor quoted someone who was trying to explain what we're doing when we try to do liturgy. His idea was that Liturgy leads us to the edge of chaos, and from this regular flirt with doom we comes a theology that is different from others (non-Catholic). Coming to the edge of chaos brings us closer to God by teaching us something we would not have otherwise understood.
 
Participating in liturgy changes us. Our understanding of God is the result of participating in liturgy. Our Theology is the result of liturgy because it causes a deep change in our lives. To detect that change is to discover where theology has passed us. Participation in liturgy changes us because the next time we participate in liturgy we are different then before and looking back at who we were tells us something about who God is.
 
The Road to Emmaus may be a good example of this. The two people walking with Jesus did not recognize him until later, after looking back at their journey. In both physics and liturgy there is a collision, something happens. Sometimes that collision is a violent force that causes us to change. This adjustment causes the next liturgy to be different. It's the adjustment that is develops the theology in us.
 
Liturgy should be the first place where we go to learn theology because it's in church that we first meet and come to know God. All theology is a reflection of what happens in liturgy where we see God. What the founding fathers said about God is second hand theology, what the Catechism says about God is third hand theology, but in liturgy we not only experience the reflection of God, it is the most power full source of who God is.

My post to the class website:

I have always had a sense of ongoing transformation in my life, which may be one of the reasons I am Catholic today. When I was growing up my Mom referred to something she called progressive revelation, suggesting that you would “hear” something different each time you heard or read a Bible passage because you would be a different person than you were before. This made sense to me at the time, but today I realize that the reason we are different is because of our exposure to the Word and to the Sacraments.

I also like the idea that Liturgy leads us to the edge of chaos, and from this regular flirt with doom comes a theology that is different from others (non-Catholic). This seems similar to stress, as applied to bio-organisms including humans, that causes adaptation and transformation of behavior.

Participation in liturgy has transformed my understanding of whom I am, which in turn has transformed my understanding of who God is. Coming to the edge of chaos in the liturgy brings me closer to God because each time I learn something new. Today my Theology is the result of my participation in the Liturgy because it has caused deep changes in my life.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Liturgy - Class 1

Our instructor began this evening by asking for our definition of liturgy. Various suggestions were made, such as “worship in public” and “what ties our religion”. A more official definition came from the Second Vatican Council, "Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows" (Sacrosanctum Concilium). Our instructor suggested that Liturgy is a bit like baseball, in that there is an underlying structure. Most people like baseball even though most people don't know as much about baseball as they might like.
 
Like baseball, the goal is to find a way to do liturgy so that even those who don't know what liturgy is can still participate and enjoy it. Every liturgy should have these four basic forms:  Word (scripture), symbol (environment), music, and movement. Also like a story, liturgy should have a beginning, middle, and an end.
 
Next, our instructor asked us to list what is required to create a good liturgy. The class came up with a lot of suggestions, which we eventually reduced to five things:  1) Creativity (resourcefulness), 2) reverence, 3) teamwork (cooperation and participation), 4) commitment, and 5) communication. I would have preferred resourcefulness rather than creativity, because to me it implies both creativity and boldness.
 
I’m not exactly sure how this is going to work, but the goal is to use these five qualities every week. I think we’re supposed to commit to doing the five parts every week to build a liturgy in your parish (?). He also mentioned that every week one of us should be prepared with a prayer.
 
Our instructors are actually a husband and wife team. The husband is from back East and when he was younger and working for the Newman Center they sent him to a liturgy workshop that turned his life around. Although he had grown up Catholic he really didn't get it until the workshop.
 
Long before this, someone named Virgil Michaels was a monk in the Mid-West who is responsible for re-creating (or re-invigorating) liturgy in the United States. He started a liturgy school at St. Johns that still trains Liturgists today.
 
We talked a bit about the class structure and use of the class website. The student learning agreement for the ILM program should be familiar to most students: Regular class attendance, keep up with the assigned readings, be open, practice mutual respect, and participate in discussions.
 
We were then challenged to go beyond this list because it's something we want to do: Obviously we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t. An educator named Martin Knowles was a college professor who worked with learning theory. He was fascinated by the different learning habits of teen agers and young adults, and he eventually discovered that asking students to come up with their own learning plan enhanced the learning process significantly. We were asked to create our own learning plans for this class using five questions:
 
Where have I been? – As an RCIA Team member from 2004 to 2008, I felt the program could be improved. After learning abou the ILM program I thought it might be an excellent way to learn about the Church and understand what changes might be helpful. So I asked to attend the ILM program.
 
Where am I now? – After graduating from the ILM program in 2013, I was actually a bit surprised to be asked to join the RCIA team. By then two things had changed, but most significantly was the fact that I felt the RCIA program in my Parish had improved significantly. What I didn’t realize until later was that I wasn’t being asked to be a team member, I was being asked to lead the program in my Parish.
 
Where do I want to go? – My goal is to continue to improve the RCIA process in my Parish.
How am I going to get there? – I believe that this Liturgy class will improve my ability to better involve the Parish community in the RCIA process of welcoming and strengthening new Catholics. As with my previous ILM classes, taking detailed notes that I can transcribe into paragraph form will re-enforce what I learn. I will share this process in posts to my this blog.
 
How will I know I have arrived? – I will be more comfortable when I can recognize the parts and feel the flow of the Liturgy, and I will be more confident when I can fold the RCIA process into our Liturgical services.
 
As you might expect, the writing assignment for this class can be found on the web site: Basically it breaks down to three choices: 1) Write and post 100 words weekly to the class web site; 2) write three 500 word reflection papers due incrementally; or 3) write one 1500 word paper due at the end of class.
 
Our instructor noted that each of us has a wealth of experience, and he wants us to come ready to talk and share. He is asking us to find and make connections that relate to the readings and class. He concluded the class by saying that like snow skiing, you can learn all about the mechanics of liturgy, but if you miss the beauty you are missing the point. It's about faith and about who Jesus is, and it's about making Jesus more real for people. This is the way we share faith with hundreds of millions of people every week. This is how we come together as community.

My post to the class website:

Tonight, our instructor talked a little bit about how Liturgy is like a story that has a beginning, middle, and an end. Rabbi Waldenburg, who is also an ILM instructor, talks about how everyone has a Master Story. For instance: The key to understanding Judaism is the Exodus from Egypt. As the story goes Moses led his people out of Egypt, breaking the cycle of slavery, and the Exodus event became their Master Story. Everything from that time forward is viewed in light of that event. Prior to the Exodus the people understood the gods to be a part of nature and after that event God was a part of their history. Mosses received the law from God and it is through him that the people entered into a covenant with God.

I found this connection interesting, because Rabbi Waldenburg influenced how I see my own journey in light of my personal Master Story. The point our instructor was trying to convey is that what makes catholic liturgy Catholic is the story. You can learn all about liturgy, but if you miss the beauty, you are missing the point. It's about faith and about who Jesus is and it's about making Jesus more real for people; because through Liturgy we share faith with hundreds of millions of people every week. This is how we come together as community.

The Gospel reading for Friday, January 10, 2014 was about Jesus curing a leper. Afterwards, although he was asked to keep it quiet everyone was coming to Jesus for help. During the morning homily it was noted that Jesus didn’t just restore this man’s health; He restored the man’s access to the community. I found this very interesting, because it’s a bit like going to confession. During confession we are not just restored from sin, or worry, or stress, etc., we are restored to the Kingdom of God.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

In God we Trust

You've heard the phrase, "Never say never". In my graduation post I said, "Well that's it! Our last class was two weeks ago, only this time it really is our very last class." You've probably also heard the phrase, to "turn up like a bad penny". The general sense of the phrase, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, is “the predictable, and often unwanted return of a disreputable or prodigal person after some absence.”
 
In this sense a “bad penny” is a person whose presence is unwelcome on any occasion, but whom fate perversely employs to torment you by making said person appear (“turn up”) repeatedly, often at the worst possible times. Ok, so thankfully I'm not a "bad penny" in the sense of a "disreputable or prodigal person", but my original plan was to end this blog after graduating from the ILM program: I guess that's still the plan but for now, like a bad penny, I'm back.
 
Today, pennies are viewed as nearly worthless by most of us, but when the term “bad penny” first appeared in the 18th century pennies were serious money. This made them ripe targets for counterfeiters, and to reach into your pocket or purse and discover that you had ended up with a “bad penny" was a depressing and annoying experience.
 
The only recourse available if you were stuck with a “bad penny” was to try to spend it as quickly as possible and hope that an inattentive shopkeeper would take it. But because everyone was trying to unload their “bad pennies” this way, your odds of encountering one or even the very same one you had gotten rid of a week earlier, were quite high. Thus “bad penny” became an idiom meaning “an unwanted thing that keeps showing up.”
 
According to an old wives tale finding a penny is supposed to be good luck, and if I have to identify with something that is nearly worthless I'd rather think of myself as a "good luck penny". Still, because pennies tend to be unwanted we find them abandoned everywhere, and I recently heard a story about stopping to thank God for your blessings when you find one.
 
The idea is that "In God We Trust" is printed on the penny, so when you find one you should trust that God has placed it in your way for a reason. Now, whenever I see a penny I think to myself "In God I trust” and I thank God for my many blessings. It's just another opportunity to "pray often" and I appreciate the reminder.
 
What I wanted to say in this post is that I started another class at ILM, titled Liturgy, which is one of the second semester electives for this year's third year students. As a graduate I can audit these classes, as long as I pay my tuition and purchase the required books. I was surprised that I didn't have to agree to the Learning Covenant, so I'm not sure if I get credit for the class or not.
 
As a third year student I elected to take other classes, but I heard from friends that this was an exceptional class which is why I'm here this semester. The good news is that it's interesting, taught well, and doesn't require a final paper to pass the class. The bad news is that it requires the usual amount of reading and it involves plenty of participation (experiential learning).
 
If you recall, immediately after last year’s graduation I was asked to take over the RCIA program at our Parish, and so far feedback from our Pastor and others suggests that the process seems to be working well; our Catechumens and Candidates are engaged and our team members and sponsors are involved. It's a team effort of course; so far so good. I was also asked to join the Finance committee which I am less qualified for, but I'm trying to contribute.
 
This year after my Pastor signed my ILM student form for the liturgy class; he looked at me with a smile and hinted that I would probably be asked to join the Liturgy Committee once I finished this class. As I mentioned in another recent post, 2013 turned out to be an exceptional year and 2014 is looking good as well. Pray for me as I watch for those lost pennies and remind myself, "In God I Trust"!