Rector claims that ministry at the altar is priestly, but I think he’s mistaken. Before Vatican II, ministry of servers (and choir, BTW, though it was largely ignored) was considered priestly and thus not open to females. Since Vatican II, such ministries are seen as lay, and in 1983 the Holy See decreed that females were permitted to be altar servers. It has since been clarified that no priest is required to allow female servers.

Story here.

The way the Chrism Mass is celebrated in some dioceses distorts its ecclesiology. Even though the entrance antiphon refers to all of the baptized as priests (“Jesus Christ has made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father: glory and kingship be his for ever and ever. Amen.” [Rev. 1:6]—also the second reading of the Mass), the procession is often made up of clergy only. ALL of us are this kingdom of priests and all of us should be in this procession.

(By the way, the Psallite collection has a glorious setting of this antiphon at A-124.)

A processional emphasis on the clergy can distort the meaning of the collect as well: the “us” in “you have given us a share in his consecration to priestly service in your Church” is ALL of us, and not just the ordained. (The old collect was : “Lord God, to regenerate Your people You make use of the ministry of priests; grant us faithfully to observe Your plan of salvation so that by the gift of Your grace the people dedicated to You may in our time increase both in merit and number.”)

The nuptial imagery in the first reading (diadem, oil of gladness, glorious mantle), the gospel, and the communion psalm is often ignored. Jesus recites the Canticle of Isaiah, the nuptial hymn that begins with Isaiah 61:1 and ends at Isaiah 62:5 (“as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you”). The communion psalm sings the bridegroom portion of the wedding psalm.

The new rubric (“8. After the reading of the Gospel, the Bishop preaches the Homily in which, taking his starting point from the text of the readings proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Word, he speaks to the people and to his Priests about priestly anointing, urging the Priests to be faithful in their office and calling on them to renew publicly their priestly promises.”) is much better than the old (“In his homily the bishop should urge the priests to be faithful in fulfilling their office in the Church and should invite them to renew publicly their priestly promises.”)—but will bishops even notice?

The insertion by Pope Paul VI of the Renewal of Commitment to Priestly Service skews the liturgy in the direction of the ordained. Some dioceses still insert renewals of commitment to diaconal service, religious service, seminarian commitment, lay leadership, and the like. The loss of the universal prayer is a further deterioration in the role of the lay faithful at the Chrism Mass.

The current translation of the hymn for the procession of the oils hides the inclusive nature of the Latin text. [Has anyone access to the new translation? I can't find it.]

The preface of “the priesthood of Christ and the ministry of priests” does mention the royal priesthood but then emphasizes the ministerial priesthood. The ancient preface was much more inclusive:

It is truly fitting and proper, right and profitable to salvation to call upon Your goodness with suppliant prayers so that You may make of this Chrism, Your creature, an effective sign of life and salvation for those who are to become new creatures in the sacred font of baptism. So that the corruption belonging to original birth being destroyed, each of them, sanctified by this anointing, may give forth, as from a living temple, the pure odor of a life pleasing to You. Invested with the dignity of king, priest and prophet, by the sacred rite which You have instituted, by Your gift, may they be clothed with the garment of immortality; through Christ our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise Your majesty, the Dominions worship You, the Powers are in awe before You. The Heavens and the heavenly Hosts and the blessed Seraphim join together in a hymn of praise. We pray You that our voices, too, may be joined with theirs as we sing with humble praise:

Dietmar Neuwirth wryly commented on Iby’s controversial statement, “Bishops tend to become particularly courageous just before or sometime after their retirement.”

This raises a question. How many ministers in the Catholic Church, bishops or priests or deacons or lay ministers, feel they must say things they don’t believe, or not say things they do believe, out of obedience? I mean it as a serious question and I honestly don’t know the answer. Does our hierarchical system ever oblige ministers to ignore their conscience, say, on issues of discipline or pastoral practice which don’t touch defined dogma?? If so, what does this do to their personal sense of integrity and vocation? These strike me as terrifically important questions.

awr

The first national symposium on “lay ecclesial ministry” was held in Collegeville in 2007 – see a report on it here.

The conference began yesterday with the following prayer which was said by the participants of Vatican II at the beginning of each session.

We stand before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we gather in your name.
Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.

Give us light and strength to know your will,
to make it our own,
and to live it in our lives.
Guide us by your wisdom;
support us by your power;
for you are God,
sharing the glory of Father and Son.

You desire justice for all:
enable us to uphold the rights of others;
do not allow us to be misled by ignorance
or corrupted by fear or favor.

Unite us to yourself in the bond of love
and keep us faithful to all that is true.

As we gather in your name,
may we temper justice with love,
so that all our decisions may be pleasing to you,
and earn the reward promised
to good and faithful servants.

You live and reign with the Father and the Son,
on God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Coming from the Midwest, I had heard stories of clergy shortages and a service called “Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest,” but I did not know much about either subject. The most I ever heard about this ritual was that we “shouldn’t do it” and well, I am not sure having over 400 priests in my home diocese can be considered a shortage in light of my current experience.

Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest (SCAP) is a reality for our diocese whether I like or not. I certainly have been told I shouldn’t like it. I was not prepared to understand the complexity of the situation or even the structure of the ritual text in graduate school or in my previous ministerial experiences.

When I started this position, the diocese was preparing to implement the 2007 text. As our liturgical commission discussed the issues and the pedagogy for training leaders, I sat in awe at the various issues I had never even considered.  These issues ranged from poor catechesis (or the lack of catechesis) to fear that people would leave for the LDS Church, to fears of young people losing the faith and tradition of the community. Many argued, “We can’t get rid of the entrance procession because our young people won’t know how to serve when Father comes” or “if it doesn’t look like Mass our kids will be confused with the responses when Father comes.” These are simple, but real concerns for our missions which have few resources and little expertise.

I quickly had to learn more about this service in order to help prepare over 50 lay leaders. I soon realized what a daunting task this was going to be and naïvely moved forward. Then, in the summer of 2009, before we implemented the 2007 text, I had the opportunity to lead four SCAP services in four of our missions. Each place I traveled had between 30 and 50 people who faithfully attended. As I led these assemblies in Sunday Prayer, I became aware that they didn’t even know the ritual. They were unfamiliar with the responses, the Act of Thanksgiving, and most importantly that this wasn’t Eucharist. They also didn’t realize there were options in the ritual for the celebration of Morning or Evening Prayer. I was stunned! How can these places who primarily celebrate SCAP not know the ritual? It seemed they were only concerned about receiving Holy Communion and that the younger generations knew the responses to Mass. Certainly these are good thoughts and I’d bet there’s something deeper happening there that they may not even be able to name. What I did learn from these communities is that they are faith-filled people who long for a deep communion with Christ. I learned that in these times of hardship they longed to gather, whether out of duty or love, to keep the “family” together. I learned that even though they didn’t have resources, like musicians, they still attempted to sing and sang with confidence.

I left these services disliking them even more, but realizing their importance to nurture the faith in these small and humble communities. As the liturgical commission finalized some plans for the training, we decided to focus on Morning/Evening Prayer as the primary liturgy for SCAP services in our diocese. This was a shock to many of the people and our deacons. Nothing has been forced on these communities, but all our training is helping prepare our lay leaders to go back to the missions and teach the community about the Liturgy of the Hours, Psalmody, the importance of the Word proclaimed, and singing. It’s not a well-tuned instrument yet, but we continue to learn on the job the best way to serve those who lead SCAP, and especially our communities who celebrate SCAP. We continue to catechize on the Eucharistic Liturgy and the Liturgy of the Hours so people understand their roles in the liturgical life of the Church. I continue to ponder how I can best serve these communities with the resources I have available. I also wonder how willing some of these communities are to participate in ongoing formation. I guess we will discover that as we continue the struggle of implementation.

One of my fears, which I haven’t thought through too much, is that SCAP services with distribution of Holy Communion can lead to the reification and privatization of Communion. There is a sense that one must “get” communion at these services and if they don’t, somehow their gathering was in vain. A goal we have as a commission is to help people reclaim the Church’s rich Eucharistic teaching. We need to help people understand that what happens at SCAP isn’t Eucharist and that Eucharist invites and challenges us to action.

Obviously, these few comments are just a terse look at a real pastoral dilemma. There are no easy solutions, but I do think teaching these communities to gather for the Liturgy of the Hours is a start to helping them understand liturgical prayer. I also think our beginning efforts to recatechize about the Eucharistic liturgy are crucial so that Holy Communion doesn’t become merely an object to be obtained, but an encounter with the Risen Christ who nourishes us and invites us to deep communion, and challenges us to proclaim the Good News of Salvation.

Two final thoughts:

1. How will the new Missal be received in parishes that rarely celebrate Eucharist?
2. Will there need to be a third edition of the SCAP ritual since the current Prayers for the Day come from the current Sacramentary?

I am convinced we need to help people learn the liturgy of the hours and pray them well.

I’d be curious to hear about some of your pastoral situations, methods of catechizing, fears, successes, questions, etc.

Timothy Johnston

I wanted to share an experience of something that worked well in a parish setting to prepare these ministers for their once-a-year service as distributors of ashes.

We met as a group a day or two before Ash Wednesday for some spiritual preparation as well as a rehearsal. Here is the outline, with some explanation of how it worked.

Prayer (This sets the tone, and can be as simple or elaborate as you wish. We used a combination of sung and spoken prayer.)

Introductions (Some did not know each other, so this was important not only so that they could work  in teams, but also to establish a sense of community among the ministers for the event.)

Faith sharing (The participants were invited to reflect on two questions: What does the ritual of ashes mean to you personally? and What do you think it means to the various people who come to receive ashes? They shared their responses in small groups for about 5 minutes. Then a few insights were named in the large group.)

Input (Very brief, highlighting the connection between this ritual and the Lenten observance, and perhaps sharing a personal story, drawing attention to the paschal mystery.)

Rehearsal (Practical matters were clarified such as making sure everyone knows their stations, when they are to come forward, what text they will use, how to handle clean-up, etc.)

Setting aside time for preparation, and above all grounding the experience in prayer and shared reflection, allowed the ministers to be more centered and recollected in their service. I also believe this is a natural moment for liturgical catechesis and community building around a specific liturgical event. The feedback was very positive!