Bishop Snyder High School Opens - St. Augustine Catholic

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What’s New About CELE BRATING MASS By Father John Phillips Special This fall Bishop Victor Galeone has asked that all clergy of the diocese as well as parish directors of music and liturgy to attend one of two workshops to prepare for the changes that will take place in celebrating the Eucharist. The workshops, scheduled for Aug. 30 at Holy Faith Parish in Gainesville and Sept. 5 at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in Jacksonville will review the revisions to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) and reexamine why and how we celebrate the Eucharist – the very center of our Catholic identity and life. I have highlighted the following five principles found in the General Instruction, which guide our worthy celebration of the Mass. The revised Instruction has not been officially translated into English so (GIRM) citations are from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Study Translation” (July 2000). 10 ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2002 www.staugcatholic.org
1PRINCIPLE 1 The Eucharistic Celebration manifests the Sacrifice of Christ and thus shares in God’s sacrificial love. The General Instruction most often describes the Mass as the eucharistic sacrifice: the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which the Mass perpetuates and celebrates under sacramental signs. “[T]he sacrifice of the Cross and its sacramental renewal in the Mass…are one and the same…” (GIRM 2) The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the meaning of this sacrifice of the cross is sacrificial love. “It is ‘love to the end’ that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value…He knew and loved us all when he offered his life” (CCC 616). Everything that we do in the celebration of the Eucharist should manifest this love and be guided by this self-giving love. Again, the Catechism says, “Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1394). More than simply a set of rules, the General Instruction highlights the sacrificial love we share in the Eucharist: God’s sacrificial love in Christ through the Spirit which unites Christ’s body the church. 2PRINCIPLE 2 The eucharistic celebration is the prayer of the church. The Instruction affirms the communal nature of the Eucharist: the celebration of the Mass “by nature…has the character of being the act of a community” (GIRM 34). The Mass is not the private prayer or sole work of the priest or the music or liturgy director or any other individual. The people of God have a right to the prayer of the church – to the way the Catholic Church, governed by the bishops in communion with the Holy See, intends the Eucharist to be celebrated. This fact protects the celebration from being held hostage “to [the] personal inclination or arbitrary choice” of any one person (GIRM 42). Flexibility and adaptations in the celebration are permitted in certain instances, especially by the priest celebrant; but the Eucharist expresses our common faith and care must be taken that this prayer is indeed the faith of the entire church (GIRM 2). Therefore, the church (through its legitimate authority) “gives directions about the preparation of the sentiments of the worshipers, the place, rites and texts for the celebration of the Eucharist” (GIRM 1). 3PRINCIPLE 3 The eucharistic celebration requires the full, active and conscious participation of everyone. The Eucharist as the prayer of Christ and his church means that everyone is to participate actively in the Mass. Active participation as described by the Instruction involves singing, times of silence and times of ritual responses, and common actions, gestures and postures. These outward actions are meant to promote the most essential kind of participation, the spiritual. This also is not subject “to personal inclination or arbitrary choice.” We are not to pick and choose what we will do or won’t do in the Mass, for this is to be self-centered and would not be the communal selfoffering called for in the eucharistic sacrifice. “The importance of active participation by all (not just the priest and the choir) is repeated over and over again in the General Instruction. This demonstrates how important this principle is in the church’s teaching and practice. “The entire celebration is planned in such a way that it brings about in the faithful a participation in body and spirit that is conscious, active, full, and motivated by faith, hope, and charity. The Church desires this kind of participation, the nature of the celebration demands it, and for the Christian people it is a right and duty they have by reason of their baptism” (GIRM 18; emphasis added). 4PRINCIPLE 4 The eucharistic celebration is a united celebration of diverse ministries. The Instruction affirms that every baptized person has a ministry and a role in the Mass: “all, whether ordained or Christian faithful, by virtue of their function or their office, should do all and only those parts which belong to them” (GIRM 91). The Eucharist can be described as a communion of diverse ministries. There is the ministry of the assembly, actively participating in the Mass, and who “give thanks to God and offer the victim not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him and learn to offer themselves” (GIRM 95); there are the essential ministries of the bishop and his coworkers the priests; the ministry of the deacons; the ministries of acolytes, readers, servers, hospitality ministers, choir and cantors, among others. The celebration of the Eucharist celebrates both the diversity of these ministries, as well as their unity in Christ and the Spirit. The General Instruction takes care to safeguard both this diversity and this unity in the celebration of the Mass. No one ministry should obscure or usurp the other ministries normally exercised in the eucharistic sacrifice. 5PRINCIPLE 5 The eucharistic celebration requires reverence. Reverence is an attitude of deep love and respect, first for God and the ways God is known in humanity, creation and culture. It is wonder and appreciation for God’s loving action and presence in the sacred action of a sacred people united to Christ in the Spirit. Practically, we can ask if all that we do and use in the Mass is good (the best we have to offer), true (genuine), and beautiful, thus inspiring this reverence. Reverence in the Eucharist first of all recognizes Christ’s real presence in the paschal meal (GIRM 3); it also recognizes Christ’s presence in the holy assembly of the baptized and in the sacred minister and in the sacred Scriptures (GIRM 21). Therefore, all are to have a “deep reverence for God and…charity towards [their] brothers and sisters who share with them in the celebration” (GIRM 95). Reverence in the eucharistic celebration cautions against haste in what we do (GIRM 56). “Sacred music” and also more times of “sacred silence” are mandated (GIRM 115 and 45). Everything is to be done with dignity (GIRM 22) and everything “should be truly worthy and beautiful, signs and symbols of heavenly realities” (GIRM 288). In conclusion, by keeping in mind these five principles, among others, we can appreciate the purpose of the newly revised General Instruction. As the Instruction states, “the current norms…are fresh evidence of the great care, faith and unchanged love that the church shows toward the great mystery of the Eucharist” (GIRM 1). ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2002 11
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Bishop Snyder High School Opens - St. Augustine Catholic

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