A young Sunday school student was asked for recollections of the homily from Mass, and provided this erudite summary:
"Fr. Charles was sick, Peter's mother-in-law was sick, and they were sick together."
February 9, 2009
On Being an Ordinary Eucharistic Minister
Yesterday I had this dialogue with a communicant:
Charles: The Body of Christ
Random Soul: Thank you
C: The response is 'Amen.'
RS: I'm sorry, Father, it's my first time.
C: (surprised) You're first time ever?
RS: (apologetically) No, but the first time in a long time.
C: (relieved) O.k.; The Body of Christ.
RS: Amen!
Then, seeing his thumb and forefinger set in the dreaded "pincers" gesture, ready to grab the host from me, I motioned it towards his mouth. He got the idea and received on the tongue.
It's funny; in my growing up in religious life I have often detected an indirect and largely unspoken doctrine that pastoral ministry is supposed to make you more loose about rules and less concerned about church teachings and procedures. In the place of these, you become more "pastoral." For whatever reason, this hasn't happened to me. Besides, I find this colloquial meaning of "pastoral" somewhat offensive.
My role as ordinary Eucharistic minister is a good example. My experience as a parish priest has made me more aware and strict about how I minister the host at Mass.
If someone does not respond to the address, 'The Body of Christ' with the 'Amen,' I don't give it to them until they do. I do not accept common alternative forms of the 'Amen,' such as "Thank you," and "Yes, Sir."
If someone does not present their hands at least above their navel, I act like I don't see them and try to communicate them on the tongue. I do the same thing when people present the "pincers," ready to grab the host from me. As one of my very first (and best) friar teachers liked to say, "Sacraments are given and received from one member of the Body of Christ to another. They are not grabbed, taken, or passed around in a circle."
I do not hesitate to leave my station and follow people if I don't observe some indication that they have consumed the host. I enjoy being known for my willingness to do this, and I hope it encourages people to consume the host promptly. After all, we are supposed to consume the host before we even turn around!
Apart from all these trials and difficulties, I continue to find this ministry nearly overwhelming in its depth and beauty. To look into someone's eyes and proclaim them the Body of Christ is an intense act of reverence and intimate regard. As I have written about before, I feel intensely privileged to be given the ministry of reverencing and offering to God all of the stories of joy and pain I see in each set of eyes and each pair of hands.
Charles: The Body of Christ
Random Soul: Thank you
C: The response is 'Amen.'
RS: I'm sorry, Father, it's my first time.
C: (surprised) You're first time ever?
RS: (apologetically) No, but the first time in a long time.
C: (relieved) O.k.; The Body of Christ.
RS: Amen!
Then, seeing his thumb and forefinger set in the dreaded "pincers" gesture, ready to grab the host from me, I motioned it towards his mouth. He got the idea and received on the tongue.
It's funny; in my growing up in religious life I have often detected an indirect and largely unspoken doctrine that pastoral ministry is supposed to make you more loose about rules and less concerned about church teachings and procedures. In the place of these, you become more "pastoral." For whatever reason, this hasn't happened to me. Besides, I find this colloquial meaning of "pastoral" somewhat offensive.
My role as ordinary Eucharistic minister is a good example. My experience as a parish priest has made me more aware and strict about how I minister the host at Mass.
If someone does not respond to the address, 'The Body of Christ' with the 'Amen,' I don't give it to them until they do. I do not accept common alternative forms of the 'Amen,' such as "Thank you," and "Yes, Sir."
If someone does not present their hands at least above their navel, I act like I don't see them and try to communicate them on the tongue. I do the same thing when people present the "pincers," ready to grab the host from me. As one of my very first (and best) friar teachers liked to say, "Sacraments are given and received from one member of the Body of Christ to another. They are not grabbed, taken, or passed around in a circle."
I do not hesitate to leave my station and follow people if I don't observe some indication that they have consumed the host. I enjoy being known for my willingness to do this, and I hope it encourages people to consume the host promptly. After all, we are supposed to consume the host before we even turn around!
Apart from all these trials and difficulties, I continue to find this ministry nearly overwhelming in its depth and beauty. To look into someone's eyes and proclaim them the Body of Christ is an intense act of reverence and intimate regard. As I have written about before, I feel intensely privileged to be given the ministry of reverencing and offering to God all of the stories of joy and pain I see in each set of eyes and each pair of hands.
February 6, 2009
Press Four
I love to find spiritual advice in unlikely places. One of my favorites is my voicemail menu. Each time I call the enthusiastic voice invites me to press four to "change my personal options." Of course this a faulty description. Within the voicemail I can adjust things for which there is an option, but I can't change the options.
Nevertheless, each time I check my voicemail I'm reminded that the gift of the spiritual life is to be able to do just that: to change one's personal options. Just because we can exercise choice in how we fulfill our particular seflishness and our patterns of venial (God forbid, mortal) sins doesn't make us free persons. Nobody who is truly free chooses what makes him miserable.
The spiritual life invites us to do more than exercise the options we have settled for with ourselves. We are invited to accept new options, to "change our personal options." This reminds me of one of my all time favorite quotes: "God did not invite the Children of Israel to leave the slavery of Egypt: He commanded them to do so." (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 110)
Nevertheless, each time I check my voicemail I'm reminded that the gift of the spiritual life is to be able to do just that: to change one's personal options. Just because we can exercise choice in how we fulfill our particular seflishness and our patterns of venial (God forbid, mortal) sins doesn't make us free persons. Nobody who is truly free chooses what makes him miserable.
The spiritual life invites us to do more than exercise the options we have settled for with ourselves. We are invited to accept new options, to "change our personal options." This reminds me of one of my all time favorite quotes: "God did not invite the Children of Israel to leave the slavery of Egypt: He commanded them to do so." (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 110)
February 4, 2009
Roman Breviary Help
Today I was delighted to come across a scan of Learning the New Breviary by Fr. Bernard Hausmann, SJ. There seem to be a growing number of good resources for learning the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (low Mass, specifically) but I haven't seen much for learning the 1962 Divine Office. I haven't heard it mentioned much, but Summorum pontificum art. 9 gives Latin rite clerics the general option of saying their prayers this way.
The copy that someone scanned is from the old Capuchin novitiate library in Milton, Massachusetts. Small world! Check it out over at Churchlatin.com. The book was published in 1961, which means it's in public domain unless the Jesuits renewed the copyright, which I doubt.
The copy that someone scanned is from the old Capuchin novitiate library in Milton, Massachusetts. Small world! Check it out over at Churchlatin.com. The book was published in 1961, which means it's in public domain unless the Jesuits renewed the copyright, which I doubt.
February 3, 2009
Believe in Now
Ok, I can't help but throw a rant about the Superbowl slogan, "believe in now." It is the nature of now that you don't have to believe in it; now is the given, the self-evident. A cat or an infant knows the now and they organize their lives in response to it, but they don't have to believe in it. It's a given.
The trick is to believe in the future, and the really special work is to believe in the future in such a way that it permeates and draws the now into it. That's what it means to believe in the seedling Kingdom of God, or in that classic sign and event of the end-times, the Resurrection.
The trick is to believe in the future, and the really special work is to believe in the future in such a way that it permeates and draws the now into it. That's what it means to believe in the seedling Kingdom of God, or in that classic sign and event of the end-times, the Resurrection.
February 2, 2009
Presentation
This feast of the Presentation/Purification of Mary/Candlemas is the conclusion of the Epiphany season in the traditional calendar. Back at the beginning of winter, at the darkest time of year we proclaimed the "true light, which enlightens everyone" which is "coming into the world." (John 1:9) Now, forty days after Christmas, at the midpoint of astronomical winter and the traditional beginning of Spring in some places, we return to a reflection on the Light arriving at the Temple.
For whatever reason I'm very fond of this feast. May the luminous cloud of God's glory fill us, his Temple, and make us into the Light of the world, the Body of Christ risen from the dead.
For whatever reason I'm very fond of this feast. May the luminous cloud of God's glory fill us, his Temple, and make us into the Light of the world, the Body of Christ risen from the dead.
Superbowl Party
The Superbowl party is to friar life as the celebration of Christmas is to the secular world. It is a required observance in which the correct rituals and menu are of paramount importance, but even passing concern with the actual event being celebrated is entirely optional.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)