Preparing Children for Advent & Christmas

It seems to me that children's books dealing with faith and church have been getting better. Perhaps more than any other season, the Advent-Christmas cycle provides fertile ground to capture the imaginations of children with some quality books. I asked an expert--my wife--to put together a very short list of her favorites. I have added links to Amazon.com so that you can learn more.

The Donkey's Dream by Barbara Helen Berger (especially good for Advent)

How Jesus Came by Thomas Wahl, OSB (especially good for Advent)

B is for Bethlehem by Elisa Kleven

Jesus The Word by Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones, illustrated by Shelly Hehenberger

What Star Is This? by Joseph Slate, illustrated by Alison Jay

The Animals' First Christmas Adapted by Gaby Goldsack, illustrated by Linda Clearwater (especially good for toddlers and preschoolers)

Who Is Coming to our House? by Joseph Slate, illustrated by Ashley Wolff (especially good for toddlers and preschoolers)

Enjoy!

U.S. Bishops Approve Final Missal Texts

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is meeting this week in Baltimore. The Conference has embraced communications' technology and has a webpage dedicated to the meeting and streaming video is available. You can also follow this on Facebook and Twitter. With all of this technology you can follow the latest debate on their discussion of end-of-life issues, the sanctity of marriage, or "Hotel's choice of muzak makes for some odd juxtapositions with the bishops. This morning: Livin' la Vida Loca" (posted this morning on Twitter). If only Twitter had been around during the Second Vatican Council!

In liturgical matters, the bishops approved several components of the translation of the Roman Missal including the Proper of Saints, the Roman Missal Supplement, the Roman Missal Commons, Propers for the USA, and USA adaptations for the Roman Missal. All of these will be sent to Rome and must receive the recognitio (confirmation or ratification) of the Holy See.

More on Catholics with Disabilities

Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people" (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their baptism.

In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit... (C0nstitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 14; emphasis added)

Over the years I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on this particular paragraph of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. "Participation" is a loaded word, and we learn more about it as time marches on. We have come to recognize that our participation has both external and internal components. The external both shapes and expresses the participation of the spirit. This can be done through singing, listening, kneeling, or even sitting in silence.

The baptismal rights and duties of Catholics with Disabilities often are not a parish priority, even though the participation by all the people is called for by the very nature of the liturgy itself! There are many practical issues surrounding making worship accessible, but the vast majority of the parishes tend to quietly set these aside rather than taking time to work with people with disabilities to come up with solutions. We are fortunate in this country to have the National Catholic Partnership on Disability. Their knowledgeable staff and useful website provide resources for all Catholics. The Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions also has published an excellent resource, Guiding Principles & Strategies for Inclusion in the Liturgy of Catholics with Disabilities, which can be downloaded from their website.

Today the Holy See announced that it will host a conference, Effata! Deaf people in the life of the Church, in the Vatican's new synod hall November 19-21. A press release from the Vatican News Service said that this conference "arises from the need to promote and improve commitment in this field of disability in order to achieve true integration for deaf people."

We have done some work with deaf ministry in this diocese. This has been accomplished because of some very dedicated lay people and their unwavering support of deaf people. St. Joseph Parish in Madison has become a home of sorts for this ministry. St. Joseph and St. Dennis Parishes in Madison each have a signed Mass each week. A priest who is fluent in American Sign Language occasionally comes from the Green Bay diocese and meets with the deaf community and celebrates the Sacrament of Penance, counsels people as needed, and celebrates the Mass.

While this small band of dedicated ministers do so much, there is much more to be done. The first step always is to ask! Consult those with disabilities in your parish and get input on how we can make our parishes and the Sacraments accessible so that all of the baptized may exercise their right and duty of participation!

Solemnity of Christ the King

We are approaching the end of our liturgical year, the Solemnity of Christ the King. Its position on the liturgical calendar helps remind us that all that we do as Christians leads us into the Kingdom of Christ, one with God the Father.

The feast was established only 84 years ago by Pope Pius XI, partially in response to the ongoing celebration of the sixteenth centenary of the Council of Nicea (325) which defined the dogma of the Son and the Father "of one being," (consubstantial) and added the words "whose kingdom shall have no end" to the Profession of Faith (still known as the Nicene Creed).

In the years following the First World War, Pope Pius XI was concerned that the great devastation brought by modern warfare had taught nothing to nations and peoples. In his encyclical Quas Primas (December 11, 1925) he began:

Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord. (Quas primas, 1)

Rather than commissioning studies or convening a conference, Pope Pius XI determined that the best way to help people understand the concept of Christ's sovereignty was by commemorating it in the liturgy.

For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart... (Quas primas, 21)

He declared the final Sunday of October to be the date of this feast's observance. He believed that it would provide a fitting introduction to the Feast of All Saints, who considered Christ their glory. He also felt that this date, late in the Church year, vividly expressed "the crowning glory upon the mysteries of the life of Christ already commemorated during the year." (Quas primas, 29)

With the reform of the liturgical calendar after the Second Vatican Council, the solemnity was moved to the last Sunday of the Church year.

Primary source: The Liturgical Year: Its History and Its Meaning After the Reform of the Liturgy (Adolf Adam, tr. Matthew J. O'Connell), Liturgical Press.

Veterans' Day

God of power and mercy,
you destroy war and put down earthly pride.
Banish violence from our midst
and wipe away our tears
that we may all deserved to be called your sons and daughters.
We as this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
--From the Sacramentary, "Mass in time of war or civil disturbance"

Ninety-one years ago today the hostilities of the war to end all wars ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month with an armistice. In our country, of course, this is Veterans' Day.

We owe a great deal of thanks to all veterans who have protected and defended our nation. Perhaps the greatest thanks we can offer is our own heroic efforts to promote peace and to love one another as members of the heavenly household--God's sons and daughters.

The Communion of Saints

In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle; we sing a hymn to the Lord's glory with all the warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Christ, until He, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with Him in glory. (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 8)

One of the frequent criticisms of the way we celebrate the reformed liturgy is that it lacks reverence or that it has lost its sense of the mystery. It's a criticism with which I tend to agree (at times). However, the critique often goes on to disparage the liturgical reform, liturgy in the vernacular, communion in the hand, and many other things that have become common place since the reform. These are criticisms which I heartily reject!

The "Mystery" of course, refers to the Paschal Mystery. We don't use the word mystery as Agatha Christie does. We won't ever have enough clues to "solve" this mystery. Instead, it is "mysterious." It is hidden. It is something we can never fully comprehend. No matter how much we study, how intensely we pray, or how often we go to church, this is not something that can be grasped by mere mortals!

November seems like an appropriate time to speak about the heavenly nature of the liturgy. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy says that through our participation in our parish (earthly) liturgy we take part in a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy. These are difficult words for me to grasp, because our earthly liturgies often seem anything but heavenly! In the earthly liturgy the choir may sing out of tune, the organist forget the key signature, the lector may mumble or mispronounce "brazier" in a way that makes you giggle, the priest may preach too long or never really prepare, there are people present whom we don't like, it may just be plain boring. Surely this is not what the heavenly liturgy is like!

I often like to "translate" the phrase of paragraph 8 cited above to say that the liturgy gives us a "glimpse" of heaven. While glimpse doesn't necessarily do justice to "foretaste," I think it can foster a meaningful reflection. Every parish church is somehow (mysteriously) present at the heavenly altar, praising the Father through the Son in unity with the Holy Spirit and with the angels and saints. I like to consider looking up at the ceiling and seeing it as a window to heaven. The alternative is imagining a mirror on the ceiling, so that instead of seeing heaven we only see ourselves with all of our shortcomings!

The glimpse that we have is imperfect as is our own participation. However, by seeing what is really there, we see through the earthly things to the heavenly realities.

For example:

• God gathers a people to himself, not just the ones I would invite to church but even people I don't like (gasp!).
• Christ speaks to us in the Holy Scriptures. We don't just hear about events in salvation history or about Christ. God isn't bound by time and space like we are! They are made present for us now! That is why in the Exsultet we sing "This is the night" rather than "That was the night."
• Having prepared us with his word, Jesus Christ feeds us with his very own Body and Blood. Pope Benedict XVI made the keen observation,

If man eats ordinary bread, in the digestive process this bread becomes part of his body, transformed into a substance of human life. But in holy Communion the inverse process is brought about. Christ, the Lord, assimilates us into himself, introducing us into his glorious Body, and thus we all become his Body. (General Audience, 10-Dec-2008)

Could this be what heaven is like? Perfect reconciliation, perfect praise, perfect union with and in Christ? These are but a few of the things which we glimpse in our liturgy.

While many critiques of contemporary liturgical practice in our country are legitimate, I have to say that getting in touch with the mystery goes far beyond language and other actions. At its core is how we participate in the liturgy and how well we look for glimpses of heaven!

Sing to the Lord Workshop

The Office of Worship is presenting a workshop for liturgists and musicians on Saturday, November 14 at Saint Mary Parish in Platteville.

The U. S. Bishops’ document, Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship will be the focus of the morning’s discussions. The workshop will cover both theological and practical information about music in the liturgy.

Please pre-register for this workshop by visiting www.madisondiocese.org/worship or by calling the Office of Worship at (608) 821-3080. A registration fee of $5 per person ($15 total for three or more people from the same parish) is requested. Copies of the document Sing to the Lord ($10) may be purchased when you pre-register. Purchasing this document is recommended but not required. They are available as supplies last.

Saint Mary Parish is located at 130 West Cedar Street in Platteville. It is wheelchair accessible. If you have other special needs, please contact the Office of Worship.