The Liturgy of the Word

Article 4 based on the book, Liturgy Made Simple,

by Mark Searle

Printed in bulletin  3/18/07

The liturgy of the Word builds on the Introductory Rites. As a people, we enter into a living dialogue and relationship with our God.

Some people think the Mass consists of just one thing coming after another with no apparent rhyme or reason. The proclamation of the Word in liturgy is not to remind us of what happened centuries ago but to engage us in the present and in the works of salvation.

The conclusion of each reading gives us a clue. “This is the Word of the Lord,” the reader says. “Thanks be to God,” we reply. This is the Word of the Lord: not instruction about God, but the Word of God, the Word addressed to us by God himself.

But how does God speak to us? We usually assume that it is the scriptural message that has just been read: the actual text. But it is well to remember that all Bible text, songs, wisdom sayings, etc. are oral stories handed down.

God communicates with us, not by putting thoughts in our head, but by doing significant things in human lives. The Scriptures are derived directly from the person of Jesus: who he was, what he did, how he died and how he had an impact on other people’s lives. The New Testament writings in their own different ways, record and reflect upon the person of Jesus and his life and death.

The Scriptures are also the written record of the Church and the reflection on the acts of God in the past. Why should we remember the past? The remembrance of the past is the key to understanding the present. The Scriptures are read to make the present intelligible and to help us understand our own lives and interpret the significant events in our lives and in our world as “Word of God.”

The Old Testament reading (First Reading), followed by the New Testament reading (Second Reading), gives us a sense of perspective which does not end with the Gospel but which runs from the past, through the present, and into the future.

After each reading there is a prayerful silence to allow the Living Word to take root in our whole being.

The psalms are God-given songs that express the faith and feelings of God’s people over the centuries and are selected by the Church to express an appropriate response, whether of wonder and praise, repentance and sorrow, hope and trust, or joy and exultation.

The Gospel Acclamation begins with signing a cross and making a promise to:

+Keep the Word in our minds.

+Say the Word with our lips.

+Live the Word in our hearts.

The Gospel tells us what Jesus said or did so we can apply this to our daily lives. The Homily then shows how the Word is indeed alive in the midst of the people today. It is a living explanation of the Word of God and encourages us to assimilate the Word and apply it in our daily lives.

When we profess the Creed “We believe in God…” we are giving full assent to the living Word of God. We respond to God’s works, as proclaimed in the readings, by an affirmation of faith in all God has done, is doing, and will yet do.

The General Intercessions are addressed to the assembly to pray not just for our own needs but also for the world, for civil authorities, for those oppressed by any burden, and for the local community.

Our prayers represent a raising of our eyes to the larger world of which we are a part and in which we have a role to play: a role of bringing the compassion and the healing of God himself to the whole human family.

The Readings, Psalms, Gospel Acclamation, Gospel, Homily, Creed, and General Intercessions lay the foundation for the next article: “The Eucharistic Liturgy”.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist

 Article 5 based on the book, Liturgy Made Simple,

by Mark Searle

Printed in bulletin 3/25/07 

The Liturgy of the Eucharist consists of The Preparation of the Altar and the Gifts, The Eucharistic Prayer, and The Communion Rite.

In the early church, putting the bread and wine on the table was a significant event. Even today, men and women talk of their struggle to put bread on the table. At the Presentation of Gifts, representatives of the gathered community bring the bread and wine to the altar.  That is how Jesus identified himself: under the forms of bread and wine, as the man who not only lived for himself, but died for others, that through his self-sacrifice others might have life.   

This, too, is the point in the Mass when the collection is taken up at the same moment that the bread and wine are being placed on the table. Why? For many centuries it was not only bread and wine, which were brought up. People brought corn and oil and eggs and cheese and spare clothing-whatever they had that they didn’t need for themselves. It was the moment of redistributing the wealth of the community, so that no one grew fat while another starved, and no one kept coats in the wardrobe while others shivered in the cold.

We are now ready for the Eucharistic Prayer. The entire prayer is seen as the center and summit of the entire celebration. All its parts are seen as vitally important. It is the prayer of the Church by which we manifest who we are and what we believe. It sums up our entire Christian lives.

The Eucharistic Prayer starts off with a blessing or praising of God: “Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks…” Then, according to the occasion, different memories are evoked as motives for this thanksgiving. We remind God and ourselves that we are doing this because Jesus himself told us to do it in his memory, and we ask God to send his Spirit upon us and upon our gifts that we may be drawn more and more into unity with Him and with one another.

Having taken the bread and cup, Jesus said a blessing.  He did not bless THE bread and the cup, but blessed God His Father over the bread and the cup. The Eucharistic prayer is that blessing and makes it clear that the whole Eucharistic celebration is the celebration of Christ’s sacrifice.

The Eucharistic Prayer consists of the Preface, the Sanctus (Holy, Holy), the Consecration, the Memorial Acclamation and the Amen. There are four main Eucharistic prayers and the one chosen is the one most appropriate to the Scripture readings. The pinnacle of the Eucharistic Prayer is the transformation of the bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ. Let us remember that the prayers not only commemorate the sacrifice; they are meant to draw us into the pattern of self-offering so that we become increasingly conformed to the will of God and His plan for us.

The Communion Rite is composed of the Lord’s Prayer, sign of peace, breaking of the bread, communion, song of praise (or silence), and prayer after Communion. We will discuss the Communion Rite in the next article.

The Communion Rite

 Article 6 based on the book, Liturgy Made Simple,

by Mark Searle

Printed in bulletin 4/1/07 

The Communion Rite is composed of the Lord’s Prayer, sign of peace, breaking of bread, communion, a time for silence, and the Prayer after Communion.

The Our Father (Lord’s Prayer) is the prayer Christ taught us and is the prayer that prepares us for that union with God. The Our Father teaches us to speak of God as our common Father and pray for our daily bread, the support of life, of which the Eucharist is a symbol. But then the Lords Prayer reverts to the theme of reconciliation and unity: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us: It is a prayer of surrender. Since we are surrendering our lives to God, we hold our hands in the orans style a position of surrender. Holding hands at the Our Father puts emphasis on our relationship with one another rather than with God. It is good to respect those who do not hold hands during the Our Father. Remember that our relationship with one another in Christ occurs when we sing together during communion.

After the Lords Prayer we exchange the sign of peace. This is not simply a gesture of love or friendship. It is, more specifically, an act of reconciliation. There is no union with Christ, which can take place while excluding any other members of his Body. The exchange of peace is the final step before the breaking and sharing of the one bread.

When Jesus came to the table with his disciples, He took bread, broke it, and said, “This is my body which will be given up for you.” And then, when the meal was over, He took a final cup of wine and passed it to his disciples, telling them, “Take this all of you and drink of it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and lasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for the whole human race for the remission of sins. Do this in memory of me.”

At this point in our Liturgy, the breaking of bread for sharing, represents a sign of unity given us in Christ, a unity that triumphs over all human differences, prejudices, and inequalities. The breaking of bread is a sacramental sign of the irrelevance of our divisions and classes. It means living as if there were no differences or barriers between people. It means dropping our grudges and our suspicions and our prejudices. The wine has associations of joy and festivity, so that drinking from the cup is a sacramental anticipation of our participation in the banquet in the Kingdom of God. It looks forward to the joy of everlasting life with God and his saints.

The act of Communion here means that the disciples received the body and blood of Christ within and were now ready to spread the Word to others. And so it is time for us to experience the body and blood of our savior Jesus Christ. It is time to celebrate our participation in the dying and rising of Jesus Christ. It is time to nourish our body and soul and remind us what it means to follow in His footsteps. We know in our heart that this Body and Blood will sustain us until we meet Him face-to-face and can walk hand-in-hand throughout eternity. So, with great anticipation we receive the Body and Blood of Christ and are nourished and ready to face the days ahead until we meet again.

After the distribution is over, there is a time for silence, a time for reflecting on the Communion of which we are one with others in Christ. This silent prayer is gathered together and summed up in the post-Communion prayer.

The post-Communion prayer is the point where the Mass is essentially over. The Concluding Rites provide us with a transition from prayer and celebration to our daily lives: Community business, blessing, dismissal and exit.

As we leave Church we start to think about others who need our thoughts and prayers: What about those who have never been part of a Christian family? What about those who have tasted the Body and Blood and now are unable to because of divorce or sinfulness? What about the indifferent who do not need any religion? What about those of us that feel we are not worthy to receive the Body and Blood or are concerned because we have not had an epiphany (experienced a vision of God)?

Vatican II speaks of the liturgy only as the “source and summit” of Christian living, admitting that there are many other things to be done in between. Such things might be the men’s and women’s retreat, or small church group participation. There are also over 80 ministries in our parish  in which we can participate.

Our faith journey thru liturgy doesn’t end here. It is just beginning. Each time we attend church we are reminded of our role in the Christian community: to acknowledge the work of God in human life and to cooperate with the purposes of God in human history.

This concludes this series of articles on the book “Liturgy Made Simple, by Mark Searle”