Where is My Mind?

To sum it all up, what generally happens during the Rite of Communion?

Once the priest(s) and other ministers (ordinary and/or extraordinary) make their way to their stations of distribution for communion, the congregation flows in an orderly and respectful way to the front of the church where they receive the Eucharist.  This should be done in a very reverent and prayerful way so that we can prepare our hearts and minds on our way up to receive the Risen Christ in the Eucharist.

How do we make sure we are reverently and prayerfully processing?  Well, for the most part, that’s between you and God.  Just talk to Him and ask for the gift of recognition of the gifts and blessings that come along with receiving Christ truly present in the Eucharist.  However, I CAN point out that a good way to DISTRACT yourself from what’s going on is to shake hands with and wave to everyone you see on your way up.  If you’re reading this, and you’re an usher at a church that uses ushers to guide each individual pew up to communion (which, for the record, seems a TAD unnecessary...most people sitting on the ends aren’t completely oblivious as to what’s going on with the pew in front of them…but that’s just my opinion—like so many other things I’ve said in this blog), PLEASE note that being an usher isn’t meant to be an easy way to mingle and say “hello” to everyone you see going up to communion.  Ushers shaking hands with people going up to communion is incredibly distracting to not only the people having their hands shaken, but also those who witness the conversation happening right in front of them while they’re trying to be prayerful.  It’s also distracting when you feel “obligated” to shake hands with an usher because you happen to know them and would normally shake hands with them under normal circumstances.  Just sayin’…

So once we prayerfully, reverently, and hand-shaking-less-ly make our way up to the Ordinary or Extraordinary Minister of Communion, this is where it gets back into our “lack of official guidance” category.  In the area I happen to live in, the norm directed by our neighboring archdiocese is that once you come face-to-face with the Minister of Holy Communion, you should bow to the Eucharist before you receive it, then once the minister says “The Body/Blood of Christ,” you respond, “Amen.”  After that, you consume the Eucharist, then make a sign of the cross (if you so desire), and make your way back to your pew to follow whatever post-communion activity your parish happens to partake in (see Too Much Confusion, I Can’t Get No Relief for that spiel). 

The Eucharist is regarded by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the “source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324)  The graces that are attached to receiving the Eucharist that were promised by Jesus are way too numerous to mention in this blog, but I’d encourage you to do a bit of reading on your own.  (The link to the Catechism of the Catholic Church page on the Eucharist above is a good start.)  With all the graces that come from the Eucharist, it’s important that we make sure our minds and hearts are in the right place when we go up to receive the sacrament.  If not, we fall into the general concept of the “vain repetition” St. Paul talked about in 2 Timothy 2:16.  We need to be ACTIVELY participating in the liturgy so that we don’t just “go through the motions,” but we fully understand and realize what blessings we’re receiving by participating in the liturgy.  Don’t forget, the Eucharist (paired with the Penitential Rite and a repentant conscience) forgives venial sins.  (Check out Please Forgive Me, If I Can't Stop Lovin' You for a refresher on that concept.)

So just remember next time you’re going up to communion, that who you see along the way is not at all important.  What’s important is what you’re about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen….wow…that just sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?  Anyway, what’s important is what you’re about to receive in the gift of the Eucharist.  Think about that, and ONLY that on your way up to communion, and you’ll be on your way to getting the most out of your Mass.

Too Much Confusion, I Can't Get No Relief

If you go to a different church parish for the next 8 weeks, you’ll probably see 8 different ways the congregation handles the whole process of receiving Communion and returning to their pews.  And since Christmas will be in that mix, you’ll have those twice-a-year Catholics who only go on Christmas and Easter that are going to make this process a REAL mess.  So what should and shouldn’t happen during this time?  To quote Spud McConnell, "Get a cup of coffee, we gotta talk:"

Some congregations all get up right when the priest and any other ministers come down to distribute Communion, and stay standing until they return to their pews, then kneel until priest sits down, and they, in turn sit down.  Other congregations kneel until the pew in front of them gets up to receive Communion, then they get up, but stay sitting on the edge of their pew like they’re perched and ready to strike until it’s their pew’s turn to go up, then they come back and kneel until the priest puts the remaining Eucharistic Hosts in the Tabernacle, then they sit.  Still Other congregations all stand at the beginning of Communion and stay standing until the Prayer After Communion. 

So who’s right?  Well, they all are…..and none are.  I’ll explain by first giving you the General Instruction of the Roman Missal’s guidelines for when to kneel, stand, receive Communion, kneel again, and sit again; then I’ll give you MY take on the whole thing.

So here’s the GIRM’s guidance for how to handle the flow of Communion…ready?  Here it is:

Ok, got that?  Now there should be no question about how to handle Communion, right?  Oh, wait, you didn’t see any guidance?  No, it’s not an “Emperor’s New Clothes” sort of deal—there IS no guidance.  Well, almost none.  There’s a short reference in GIRM 43 that says, “The faithful should sit, on the other hand, during the readings before the Gospel and the Responsorial Psalm and for the Homily and during the Preparation of the Gifts at the Offertory; and, if appropriate, they may sit or kneel during the period of sacred silence after Communion.”  This, however, HARDLY clears anything up.

Ultimately, it’s left up to individuals, congregations, or even the bishop to establish a “norm” for the flow Communion.  So before I go any further, let me throw a disclaimer out there:  the rest of this post is my PERSONAL thoughts on this matter.  This is in no way, shape, or form reflective of what the church officially says SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be the way to handle the flow of Communion.  It’s just what I find makes the most sense.

First, let’s take the “standing the whole time” route.  Our posture (the way we situate our whole bodies) at Mass are directly reflective of the level of respect and honor we give to what’s happening at the time.  The Eucharist, being the source and summit of the Christian life, should be given the utmost respect and honor.  For practical purposes at Mass, we best show respect for the Eucharist in the form of kneeling.  So while I understand and appreciate the goal of everyone standing the entire time—that being that it is the only way to have everyone do the same thing the entire time as one body and one community—I believe that it lacks the level of respect we should be showing God and his gift of himself that we get to experience in the Eucharist.  Nice thought, but I’d argue that it’s not the “best” option here.

The other options are all fairly similar in that you begin by kneeling, then at some point you stand, follow the line to receive Communion, and then return back to your pew to kneel until some later time in the Mass.  Whether everyone stands all at once or stands row-by-row really doesn’t bother me, although if I had to pick one, I’d say that kneeling longer and getting up row-by-row would be “best.”  (Again, this is just my opinion, and in no way reflects any “official position” of the Catholic Church...because there IS no “official position” on this subject.)  Either way, you go up to receive Communion, then return to your pew and kneel for a time of private prayer. 

The next big question is when to get up after your time of private prayer following Communion.  Again, there is absolutely no guidance on this, so we have to think it through and decide what makes the most “sense.”  To me, if we’re deciding the best time to get up from our kneeling posture, we should pinpoint why we were kneeling in the first place.  The answer is the Eucharist.  So it seems fair to say that the point we should stop kneeling is the point when the Eucharist is no longer present.  Now, theologically, this is an incredibly tricky concept, because technically (and realistically), God never “leaves” the room just because we lock up the Eucharist in the Tabernacle for safe and respectful keeping until the next Mass.  God is always present.  But it’s not realistic to think that we should go through life constantly on our knees.  If that’s what God wanted, why would he have given us feet?  For our purposes, though, I’d say that the separation of events at this point in the Mass happens when the Priest takes the remaining Eucharistic hosts over to the Tabernacle, closes it, then genuflects.  The priest getting up after genuflecting is what I’d say is our signal to break that kneeling posture and sit back down in our pews.  Plenty of churches I’ve been to wait for the priest to sit down in the presider’s chair before sitting back down.  To me, this seems like we’ve been giving the respect to the PRIEST the whole time, and that now that he’s decided to sit, we can do the same.  Don’t get me wrong…I like priests…but I like the Eucharist more.  It just doesn’t make sense to make the priest sitting down our cue to do the same.  Even worse is when the “norm” for the parish is to sit when the priest does, but people can’t even seem to make it that far, so they just start randomly sitting down when the priest is walking to his chair.  Wouldn’t those congregations feel a little ridiculous if they THOUGHT he was walking to his chair, but he took a quick detour to the Sacristy to get a sip of water?  So my summarized suggestion is to kneel until your pew gets up for Communion, receive Communion, then go back to your pew and kneel in silent prayer until the priest genuflects after reverently storing the Eucharist in the Tabernacle.  Again, there is no official guidance from the church on how to handle this…this is just my suggestion as to what makes the most sense.  And if you couldn’t tell by the slight presence of frustration in my tone, I (usually) attend a church that kneels when the priest is on his way to his chair to sit down after all this goes down, and I’ve never been ever to figure out the reasoning for this.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember to have a REASON for doing it OTHER THAN the sheer fact that it’s what everyone else does and has been doing for as long as you can remember.

Oh My God, We're Back Again

Ok, I fully understand that I am the worst blogger in history: 1 post in late November, NONE in December, and finally getting back into things 1/3 of the way through January.  What can I say?  Life.  Anyway, let's just jump right in and pick up where we left off, shall we?

Now that the Priest has received Communion, it’s our turn.  First of all, you may have noticed a few people from the congregation get up from their pews at some point between the Rite of Peace and the Priest receiving Communion and move to some spot near, in, or around the Sanctuary.  These people are called the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

Ideally, the people who should FIRST be distributing Communion are priests, and then deacons.  In reference to the Eucharist, these guys are the “Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion” because they are ordained through the Sacrament of Holy Orders with the mission of doing so in one form or another.  Let’s say for argument’s sake that your church is a small, modest, country church, and you have very few members of the congregation, one priest, and one deacon at Mass.  It might be easy to have everyone receive the Body of Christ from one ciborium (go back and read You Never Even Call Me By My Name if you just made a completely puzzled expression at the sight of that word) from the priest and the Blood of Christ from one chalice ministered by the deacon.  No issue here.  Now let’s imagine you’re at an ordination, and there are about 800 members of the congregation, a bishop or two, about 3 or 4 dozen priests, and another few dozen deacons in attendance.  No shortage of Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion here, but there are way too many people in the congregation to think that one ciborium and one chalice are going to cut it.  There’s absolutely no problem with multiple ciboria (yeah, that’s the right ending) and multiple chalices.  These should be ministered by priests and deacons if at all possible, but should be carefully handled so that you don’t have an absurd number of “cups & bowls” scattered throughout the church.  We’re here to experience the miracle of the Risen Christ here…not get in and out as quickly as humanly possible just to satisfy our “Sunday obligation.”  If it takes more than a few minutes to distribute communion, that’s fine.  It just shouldn’t take so long that people are distracted from prayer because of how slowly this part of the celebration is moving.

Now here’s that issue that MOST churches face:  average-sized congregation (200-500), one priest, and no deacon.  It’s obviously not feasible for the priest to distribute both kinds of Communion to everyone by himself.  The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) says:

The priest may be assisted in the distribution of Communion by other priests who happen to be present.  If such priests are not present and there is a very large number of communicants, the priest may call upon extraordinary ministers to assist him, e.g., duly instituted acolytes or even other faithful who have been deputed for this purpose.  In case of necessity, the priest may depute suitable faithful for this single occasion. (GIRM 162)

Redemptionis Sacramentum, an instruction on the proper way to celebrate Mass in the Roman Rite issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2004 also addresses lay (not ordained bishops, priests, or deacons) people as ministers of holy Communion by saying, “Only when there is a necessity may extraordinary ministers assist the Priest celebrant in accordance with the norm of the law.” (RS 88)

So let’s say you’re at that “average” parish, and you need 5 or 6 Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in addition to the priest celebrant/Ordinary Minister of Holy Communion.  When should these Extraordinary Ministers go up?  You might be surprised to find that your parish isn’t doing things exactly “by the book” (“the book” being “the GIRM”).  The GIRM says that Extraordinary Ministers “should not approach the altar before the priest has received Communion.” (GIRM 162)  Some might argue that going up and standing 10 feet or so away from the altar does not count as “approaching” the altar, because there’s still a significant distance between them and the altar…but come on, we know what’s going on.

Many (if not most) of you are probably sitting there reading this and are thinking, “What’s the big deal?  Is God going to strike the entire congregation dead because the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are a couple feet closer to the altar than they should be before the priest receives Communion?”  Ok, I’ll grant you: probably not.  But let me spin that back on you:  Am I proving that I’m not doing anything wrong just because God doesn’t “strike me dead” after I punch someone in the face?  No.  Maybe God’s not entirely concerned with the smaller details of the Catholic Liturgy, but remember…we’re Catholic.  The word catholic means, “universal.”  One of the most amazing things about the Catholic Church is that it’s the same wherever you go in the world.  Different languages, sure, but the same basic elements are there in their proper orders.  There are slight differences between countries and cultures, sure.  But there has to be a line when “this is the right way” meets “this is good enough.”  Who decides that line?  You?  Me?? Well, I know it’s definitely not me, and it’s probably not you, either.  Who does, then?  Well, it’s those guys in the black outfits with the white collars.  What makes them so special?  How about an indelible mark on their souls?  Good enough reason?  Don’t know what an indelible mark is?  We’ll get to the rest of the sacraments soon enough, and we’ll explain that during our discussion on Holy Orders.  For now, how about we just look at the fact that those guys have studied WAY more than the average Catholic, and devote their entire lives to learning more about our faith and why we do what we do, and what God is asking of us in our lives in today’s world.  Plus, they’ve got the backing of 2,000 years of learning, conversation, reading, reflecting, and most importantly, prayer to back up the decisions they make…much more impressive than my 28 years here on earth so far…especially since I couldn’t talk for the first year, and couldn’t really understand what was going on in church for the first 10 or so of those years.  So let’s say I’ve got a solid 18 years of understanding what’s happening in Church.  I didn’t really care until I was about 19, so I’ve really only got about 11 solid years of understanding AND truly caring.  11 years of sporadic questioning and finding answers…or…2,000 years of nothing BUT questioning and finding answers?  I don’t know about you, but I’m siding with the Church on this one.  So let’s just go with it.

There’s one more thing to mention in this post, though.  Although some things are pointedly spelled out in the GIRM, one thing is spelled out in the first two paragraphs of Chapter IX of the GIRM:

386. The renewal of the Roman Missal carried out in our time in accordance with the decrees of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council has taken great care that all the faithful may display in the celebration of the Eucharist that full, conscious, and active participation that is required by the very nature of the Liturgy and to which the faithful, in virtue of their status as such, have a right and duty.

However, in order that such a celebration may correspond all the more fully to the norms and the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy, certain further adaptations are set out in this Instruction and in the Order of Mass and entrusted to the judgment either of the Diocesan Bishop or of the Conferences of Bishops.

387. The Diocesan Bishop, who is to be regarded as the High Priest of his flock, from whom the life in Christ of his faithful in some sense derives and upon whom it depends, must promote, regulate, and be vigilant over the liturgical life in his diocese. It is to him that in this Instruction is entrusted the regulating of the discipline of concelebration (cf. nos. 202, 374) and the establishing of norms regarding the function of serving the Priest at the altar (cf. no. 107), the distribution of Holy Communion under both kinds, and the construction and ordering of churches (cf. no. 291). It is above all for him, moreover, to nourish the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy in the Priests, Deacons, and faithful.

So while the GIRM gives the formal path to follow, the bishop is the authority in each diocese and has the ability to make minor changes, or make official decisions on normal procedures for items that have multiple options.

Man, I love soapboxes.  Next post we’ll talk about OUR participation in receiving Communion and what we should/shouldn’t do between the time we get up from our kneelers to the time we get back in the pew.

It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding

Why do we go to Mass?  The answer, of course, is because either our parents make us, or because our parents made us when WE were younger, and now we get to make OUR kids sit through it. 

Obviously neither of those is a good reason.  I’d say that the best reason for going to Church isn’t even because God commanded us to “Keep Holy the Sabbath Day.”  (Don’t worry, I’ll unpack each commandment in its own post later.)  I’d say that the best reason for going to Mass is so that we can be a witness to the ever-present sacrifice of Christ’s death on the cross, in which he gave up his own body and blood as a sacrifice in atonement for OUR sins, and so that we can receive the Body and Blood of the Risen Christ in its true substance in the physical guise of what looks like ordinary unleavened bread and ordinary wine.  How do we experience this?  Through the Eucharist.

At this point in the Mass, we come to Communion.  We jumped the gun a little in the last post, mentioning the silent prayer the priest prays, asking God to prepare his spirit for receiving the Eucharist.  After this silent prayer, the priest holds the Body of Christ up over the Chalice filled with the Blood of Christ (or over the paten), so that the congregation can see the true presence of Christ in their midst.  He then says:

Current Text:

This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  Happy are those who are called to his supper.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.  Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

We respond:

Current Text:

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

We’ve already talked a good bit about Jesus as the Lamb of God.  We mentioned in ‘Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part V that the title “Lamb of God” is reminiscent of the ancient Jewish ritual (prescribed by God in the Old Testament) of sacrificing an animal in atonement for sins.  The basic idea was that it’s easy to sacrifice pocket lint or a dust bunny or something else that has no value and we don’t want to keep for ourselves, anyway, but sacrificing an animal—a GOOD animal—was a real sacrifice for the Jewish people.  They relied on these animals for food AND drink (they milked goats the way we milk cows today).  They could also use these animals to trade for other goods they needed.  It was a real sacrifice to offer God one of your better animals, but this was a good way of showing God that you were really sorry for what you did and you wanted to be back in a solid relationship with him.  So it’s very fitting that when the priest shows the newly changed Body and Blood of Christ to the congregation that he would take a moment to remind us that what we’re looking at IS Jesus—the Lamb of God—who was sacrificed in atonement for our sins. 

Then he says something a little interesting: “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”  I know we’re about to go and “eat” the Body and Blood, but should we go so far as to call it supper?  I mean most people go to Mass even before lunch time on Sunday morning.  Why would we call it supper if we’re eating it between breakfast and lunch?  Shouldn’t we call it the “Brunch of the Lamb?”  Well, not exactly.  We get this term from the Book of Revelation.  In Revelation 19:9 John writes, “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These words are true; they come from God.’” 

So if the Mass is a wedding feast, who’s the happy couple?  Well, interestingly enough, the wedding is that of Christ and the Church.  Bear with me for a second, here…In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws a parallel between the relationship of Christ and the Church (the entire group of believers in and followers of Christ…not the Church “building”) and that of a husband and his wife.  It’s the whole “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands, as to the Lord,” (Ephesians 5:22) line that you often hear at weddings, although it’s been neglected in more recent weddings because women don’t like to hear that they should be “subordinate” to their husbands.  (There’s that whole “women’s lib” issue that arises with this passage.)  The problem many people have with this passage (like many other passages from the Bible) is that they stop reading when they hit something they don’t like.  If you KEEP reading past this line, you read the REAL heart of this passage: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)  Now that’s good stuff, right there.

The Eucharist is that ever-present proof of the sacrifice of Christ for his church.  He handed himself over to be sacrificed like a lamb of the old Jewish traditions, so that we could be cleansed of our sins.  In the Eucharist, we are forever joined to Christ on earth that foreshadows the relationship we’ll have with God in heaven.

So now the Priest takes the Eucharist and prays a little prayer:

Current Text:

Before Receiving the Body of Christ: May the Body of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Before Receiving the Blood of Christ: May the Blood of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Before Receiving the Body of Christ: May the Body of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.

Before Receiving the Blood of Christ: May the blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.

Next time we’ll talk about who distributes Communion and why.  Peace out!

Who Can Forgive Forgiveness Where Forgiveness is Not? Only the Lamb White as Snow

Moving along with the Mass, the Fraction of the Bread (a.k.a. “Fraction Rite”) comes next.  The word fraction (for all you non-math whizzes) refers to pieces broken apart from a whole object, or a partial amount of something.  In this case, we’re talking about the priest breaking apart the main Eucharistic Bread that has now become the Body of Christ into many pieces.  He sometimes does this with the help of a concelebrating priest, or of a deacon if necessary.  This is a direct reflection of Christ’s actions at the Last Supper (the meal he shared with his apostles the night before he was crucified), and his action of breaking the bread, which he referred to as his Body, and sharing it with his apostles gathered there. 

In the Mass today, we have such large congregations gathered together, that it’s not entirely practical to have a piece of bread large enough for everyone to share.  We believe, though, that God’s power transcends the fact that we don’t all eat from the same “large piece” of bread, and that we spiritually partake of the one bread that St. Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 10:17: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”  So don’t go nuts…I’m sure God’s happy enough for having so many people wanting to have a relationship with him by attending Mass that it doesn’t much bother him that we each have our own, individual pieces of bread that have been consecrated and have had their substance changed to the Body of Christ.  It’s just one of those practical things we’ve evolved to over time.

After breaking the bread (Body of Christ), the priest then breaks off an even smaller piece that he places into the chalice of the Blood of Christ to show the unity of the sacrifice of Jesus’ Body and the Blood.  And speaking of the sacrifice of Jesus, while this Fraction of the Bread is going on, we all sing (or recite together, if there’s no music at the Mass) the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) supplication (which is a fancy word for a humble prayer to God).  It goes like this:

Everyone says together:

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

The “…have mercy on us” line is said at least twice, but can be repeated as many times as necessary (but be reasonable about it) to give ample time for the fraction rite.  The “…grant us peace” line is said only once, and is said at the end of the supplication.  Why three times with the third time having a different ending?  I’d love an answer if anyone has one (and preferably a source of your information, too). 

Now, I want to note here, that this is one of those times you may look around and see people inserting their own little gesture of making a fist and beating their chests.  They don’t have something caught in their throat that they’re trying to dislodge, they’re crossing into “rubrics” territory.  Rubrics are the little directions in the Sacramentary (soon to be the Roman Missal) that give the priest directions as to what to DO while he’s saying the things it tells him to say.  The word rubrics comes from the Latin ruber, meaning “red,” and directly refers to the color of the words in the book…not very creative, I know, but true.  Anyway, the rubrics here call for the priest to “strike his breast”—meaning make a fist and hit the chest—while saying, “Have mercy on us,” and, “Grant us peace.”  Over time, people in the congregation noticed and figured they should do it, too, and it just spread and stuck over time.  Nowhere does it say, however, that the congregation needs to do this, and we need to remember that we shouldn’t mindlessly add our own little nuances to the Mass wherever we feel like it—ESPECIALLY if our only reason for doing it is that “everyone else does it.”

After the Agnus Dei, you might notice that the priest stays quiet for a moment.  He’s not just taking a break; he’s praying a silent prayer that prepares him to receive the Eucharist.  That prayer goes like this:

Current Text:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world.  By your holy body and blood free me from all my sins and from every evil.  Keep me faithful to your teaching and never let me be parted from you.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit, through your death gave life to the world; free me by this your most holy Body and Blood from all my sins and from every evil; keep me always faithful to your commandments, and never let me be parted from you.

OR

Current Text:

Lord Jesus Christ, with faith in your love and mercy I eat your body and drink your blood.  Let it not bring me condemnation, but health in mind and body.

Beginning Advent 2011:

May the receiving of your Body and Blood, Lord Jesus Christ, not bring me to judgment and condemnation, but through your loving mercy be for me protection in mind and body, and a healing remedy.

Don’t you just love those little tidbits you don’t catch at Mass being brought to light?  But we’re about to cross over from the Fraction of the Bread to the Communion Rite, so we’ll stop here (even though we sort of already did cross over with the Priest’s preparation for Communion).  Be back next time with the Communion Rite.

All We are Saying is Give Peace a Chance

Alright, so we’re truckin’ right along with our quick (ha!) look at the Mass.  Next up after the Lord’s Prayer is the Rite of Peace.  But before we start running around church kissing hands and shaking babies (that joke was for me), the priest prays a Prayer for Peace that goes a little sum’n like this:

Current text:

Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you.  Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom, where you live forever and ever.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will.  Who live and reign forever and ever.

Naturally, we all respond, “Amen,” ‘cause that’s just what we do.

Jesus did, in fact say these words to his apostles, but when did he say them?  Let’s mosey on over to John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world give do I give it to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” The footnote associated with this verse in the New American Bible says that the peace Jesus gives is different than the peace the world gives, because Jesus gives the peace of salvation, which is the ultimate peace.  What could put a person more at peace than knowing that they have the opportunity to be in heaven?  (Nothing, that’s what…in case you were having trouble with that brain-buster of a question.)  Notice, if you read the context of that verse, it’s said during the Last Supper (the last meal Jesus ate with his apostles), and fittingly, we go through this peace exercise right before we receive the Eucharist.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Speaking of peace, it’s time for the actual Rite of Peace.  As I mentioned in the last post, the Rite of Peace is where we as a united Church ask for peace and unity throughout not only those gathered, but all of humanity (the universal Body of Christ).  We greet each other in a peaceful manner; here in the United States, that usually means a handshake, but could also be a hug, or a kiss (depending on your relationship with the person).  The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) leaves the manner in which the congregation is to normally greet each other with a sign of peace up to the bishops of individual dioceses in order to allow local customs to dictate the actions so that people are not made to feel awkward or uncomfortable.  Immediately before we give the sign of peace, the priest grants us peace, we return it, then the deacon (or priest if there’s no deacon) invites us to greet each other:

Current Text:

Priest: The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Congregation: And also with you.

Deacon: Let us offer each other the sign of peace.

Beginning Advent 2011:

(our part changes from “And also with you” to…) And with your spirit.

Remember that this isn’t a free-for-all where we should be running across the church to shake hands with or hug someone sitting 24 pews behind us and across the center aisle.  The GIRM says that we should offer the sign of peace only to those nearest to us and do so in a “sober” (calm and heart-felt) manner.  See, if you greet the 5 or 6 people around you, and they greet the 5 or 6 people around them, eventually the whole congregation is connected in unity.  It’s not necessary for you to shake hands with every member of the congregation to accomplish this.  It’s also good to remember that if the guy sitting in front of you just cut you off on the highway on the way to church, or just sued you for pain & suffering from a car wreck, or burst his pimples at you and called your door opening request a “silly thing,” he’s still your brother in Christ, and we should forgive others of their trespasses so that we can be forgiven in a similar way and be better prepared to receive Christ in the Eucharist…which is what we’re about to do at this point in the Mass.

When I Say that Something, I Want to Hold Your Hand

After the Embolism, the people respond with the Doxology, which goes, “For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.”  Simple enough to take at face value, right?  “The Kingdom” is the “Kingdom of Heaven,” but not just what we think of as heaven after death.  We’re referring to all of creation as the Kingdom, because the King (God) totally has dominion over all his creation on both heaven and earth.  Obviously all power and all glory also belong to him.  But what I REALLY want to talk about in this post is what we’ve been doing with our hands all this time we’ve been praying the Lord’s Prayer at Mass.

If you’re like me, you’ve been to plenty of different churches in plenty of different cities, in plenty of different states, in plenty of different countries.  To me, one of the best things about the Catholic Mass is that no matter where you are in the WORLD, the Mass is the same.  It might be in a different language, but the order and the content is the same.  There’s really no time in the Mass when you have no clue what to do….no time, that is, except for when it comes time to say the “Our Father.”

Do we hold hands?  Do we open our hands?  Do we hold hands across the aisles? Do we keep our hands to ourselves?  Pretty wide range of options, here!  Thoughts on what the congregation should do here are so different that even neighboring parishes less than a 10-minute drive from one another can do completely different things.  So what’s the official answer?  What SHOULD we do during the “Our Father?”

The most common practice I find these days here in southern Louisiana is to hold hands.  This practice apparently grew in wide-spread popularity by the early 1990s.  However, there is no official guidance from the Church that says that hand-holding should be the norm during the praying of the “Our Father.”  A revision of the Sacramentary (book which denotes what to do and pray during the Mass) in the ‘90s by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) was discussed by the United States Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy (BCL) who recommended specifying that the “orans” position (Latin for “prayer”—position of holding hands out as if pleading) be made the official norm for the “Our Father.”  For the sake of history, it’s important to note that when the Holy See came out with the new Roman Missal in 2000 (making its appearance in 2002), not only did they replace this Sacramentary revision, they officially rejected it.

Confused yet?

Ok, let’s make it worse…

See, there’s an intellectual feud that’s been going on for quite a while in the church as to the use of the orans position by the congregation.  Those who are in favor of the orans position make the argument that it was used by the earliest Christians, and so our use of it now keeps us in union with our earliest roots.  Those who oppose its use claim that it is a depiction of Christ crucified, and that, during the liturgy, it should be performed only by the Priest, who is acting In Personae Christi (in the person of Christ).  Judging by the responses of the Church through its wording of the 2000 edition of the Roman Missal and the accompanying General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), both and neither side is correct.  As for the holding of hands, some schools of thought say that the most intimate moment of the Mass is the Rite of Peace, which immediately precedes the Eucharist.  The Rite of Peace is explained in the GIRM as follows:

The Rite of Peace

82. The Rite of Peace follows, by which the Church asks for peace and unity for herself and for the whole human family, and the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament.

As for the sign of peace to be given, the manner is to be established by Conferences of Bishops in accordance with the culture and customs of the peoples. It is, however, appropriate that each person offer the sign of peace only to those who are nearest and in a sober manner.

 

So the Rite of Peace (not the “Our Father”) is supposed to be when the congregation shows their communion & mutual charity.  Think back to the last Mass you went to.  Other than your family members who either got a hug or kiss (or both), what did you do with the people around you during this time?  Most likely, you just shook their hand.   Now give this a little thought:  what’s more “intimate”?  A quick handshake, or holding someone’s hand for about a minute?  Most people would say that the “hand hold” rather than the “hand shake” is the more “intimate” action.  So the argument could be made, then, that holding hands during the “Our Father” can detract from the communal nature of the Rite of Peace.  (Please note: “sober manner” doesn’t mean that the people shouldn’t be drunk when they give a Sign of Peace…of course, they SHOULDN’T be drunk at church, but that’s another matter…it means that you should exercise reasonable judgement and not let yourself go overboard with your Sign of Peace.)

So what SHOULD we do during the “Our Father”?  There’s actually NO mention in the GIRM of what the congregation is supposed to do during this time.  There’s no mention in the Sacramentary, either, by the way, nor in the newly revised Roman Missal that will be coming into mandatory use in Advent of 2011.  It is important to note, that the GIRM does leave certain things up to variation to be ordered by either the local Conference of Bishops (in our case in the USA, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—USCCB), or to each individual bishop; however, the mandate of what the congregation should do with their hands during the “Our Father” is not on that list of items, so a congregation should NEVER feel pressured or obligated to situate themselves in any particular way (other than standing).  The simple answer is this: whether you hold hands, stand in the orans position, or (like me) just keep your hands reverently to yourself (which seems to lend itself to the LEAST theological friction), be sure you remember WHY you do what you do and try to make sure you don’t making others around you uncomfortable, which can distract them from prayer.