Liturgy - Class 3 (Extra notes)

I’m “off the continent”, resting on a beach and listening to the ocean this week, so I missed tonight’s class. The notes for this post are from the third class.

 

The word Logos is from the Greek, and it means (wait for it) Word, as in the Word of God. Each Christmas Day the reading is from John, “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God and Word was God. We were asked what John meant: Is he speaking about Jesus?

 

For Mark, the image of Jesus is very human and the cross was a scandal. In John, written about 70 years after Jesus’ death, the image of Jesus is divine and the cross is like a throne. Of course the theology of Jesus was revealed and understood over time. John began his writing at the very beginning, the moment of creation, to make it clear that the Word was with God and the Word was God from the very beginning.

 

We may have parents, but each of us must recognize that we were created by the Word (Logos) of God. The relationship between God the Father and God the Son produces the Holy Spirit, which infuses everything! When God speaks something happens. When we hear good news we want to talk about it, and eventually the Good News was written down so that it could be shared.

 

Our instructor asked what the difference is between scripture and homily. One is written and one is proclaimed, and in some ways reading the stories is not as powerful as hearing the stories. It’s all about our relationship with the Logos, and in some ways this is what makes us different from the Baptists.

 

Hearing the Living Word of God proclaimed is part of what makes us a living community. For instance, proclaiming scripture on the radio is not liturgical because you are not there. Proclamation is not about reading out loud, it's about hearing and sharing it in community.

 

So what does this mean for your Parish?

 

Three things the liturgy committee needs to know: 1) The committee must understand the four parts of the liturgy; 2) They must pay closer attention to the calendar; and 3) They must encourage the assembly to participate.

 

Three things the lectors need to know: 1) They must pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit; 2) They must proclaim the Word carefully and with expression: and 3) They must recognize that each reading is part of the whole story.

 

Three things the Pastor needs to know: 1) He must understand what is happening at the specific Mass; 2) He must keep the homily simple; and 3) His talk must connect how scripture comes alive in this particular assembly.

 

Three things the assembly needs to know: 1) The assembly must come to Mass ready to participate; 2) They must listen attentively to all of the readings and the Homily: and 3) They must try to recognize how this affects them today.

 

It’s OK to hold our volunteers accountable, and there are lector resources that can help. Some Parish’s use a faith sharing process to help each lector prepare for their reading. It may be even more helpful to record a video of the lector and have them watch it. Usually they will improve overnight.

 

Like we’ve said before, each reading has a beginning, middle, and an end, and you must also recognize and emphasize the most important message in the reading. That important point may only be a half a sentence long, but it’s still important and it must still be emphasized.

 

Our instructor told us a story about a homilist that was really bad. Although it wasn’t apparent it turns out that he was a newly ordained Priest, and he was filling in for seriously sick Pastor. Our instructor had listened to quite a few of his homilies, all of which were less than adequate. Evidently he had worked for a construction firm before becoming a Priest.

 

One Sunday the Priest started his homily with a story about how he had been such a mean boss prior to becoming a Priest. It was very personal and almost like a confession, being poured out to the assembly. He skillfully connected it to the scripture readings for that day, connected to his own life and how it changed him, and made if very meaningful to the people. Our instructor contacted him and said that it was by far the very best homily he had ever heard.

 

The best way to help your Priest is to focus on the things that he does right. Be specific, give details, tell why you liked it, and explain the difference it will make moving forward. Of course you must know the elements of a good homily, but the Priest will move in the direction of encouragement.

 

The assembly expects a lot from the Priest, and they should. We should also expect a lot from the assembly. The homily should be a dialog, and the assembly should come prepared by having read the readings.
       
There is a source called “Fulfilled in Your Hearing” that has a process for faith sharing to develop themes for homilies. There is also a source called ‘Question of the week” that can be found at www.pastoralplanning.com/questionoftheweek.html that can be used to help the assembly reflect on the readings. It works through the questions, what did you see, what did you hear, and what did it mean to you?

My post to the class website:

 

I don’t normally appreciate experiential learning, which may be why I had a lot of trouble with chemistry. None of my experiments ever worked out “as predicted”, but that’s another story. I would prefer to sit quietly, listen intently, take notes, and learn through absorption, or osmoses, or subliminal suggestion. Nevertheless, I enjoy the small-group exercises that we do each week.

 

I've been thinking about our third class, in which our instructor asked us to examine a painting that looked like an icon. It was an image of a man bending over something round, and the person was holding dividers common to those used in ancient construction and navigation. He seemed to be doing something important, like centering, or holding, or measuring.

 

We were asked to reflect on what we saw in the painting, which is actually God the Architect of the World and the Creator of Life. It’s an image of God creating order out of chaos, with His foot just out of the frame of the painting to signify that He is too big to comprehend fully.

 

From that we considered the act of creation. The Creation story has a beginning (The earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep) during which everything is created; a middle (Let us make man in our image) which means that we too are too big to contain and we too are creators; and an end (The reward for trusting in him will be the salvation of our souls) after which we become one with God in Heaven. Over the last few weeks I've been surprised at how comforting this insight has been.