Sr. Thea Bowman on Holy Week

Let us resolve to make this week holy by claiming Christ’s redemptive grace and by living holy lives.

The Word became flesh and redeemed us by his holy life and holy death. This week especially, let us accept redemption by living grateful, faithful, prayerful, generous, just and holy lives.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by reading and meditating Holy Scripture.

So often, we get caught up in the hurry of daily living. As individuals and as families, reserve prime time to be with Jesus, to hear the cries of the children waving palm branches, to see the Son of Man riding on an ass' colt, to feel the press of the crowd, to be caught up in the "Hosannas” and to realize how the cries of acclamation will yield to the garden of suffering, to be there and watch as Jesus is sentenced by Pilate to Calvary, to see him rejected, mocked, spat upon, beaten and forced to carry a heavy cross, to hear the echo of the hammer, to feel the agony of the torn flesh and strained muscles, to know Mary’s anguish as he hung three hours before he died.

We recoil before the atrocities of war, gang crime, domestic violence and catastrophic illness. Unless we personally and immediately are touched by suffering, it is easy to read Scripture and to walk away without contacting the redemptive suffering that makes us holy. The reality of the Word falls on deaf ears.

Let us take time this week to be present to someone who suffers. Sharing the pain of a fellow human will enliven Scripture and help us enter into the holy mystery of the redemptive suffering of Christ.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by participating in the Holy Week services of the church, not just by attending, but also by preparing, by studying the readings, entering into the spirit, offering our services as ministers of the Word or Eucharist, decorating the church or preparing the environment for worship.

Let us sing, "Lord, have mercy," and "Hosanna." Let us praise the Lord with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength, uniting with the suffering church throughout the world -- in Rome and Ireland, in Syria and Lebanon, in South Africa and Angola, India and China, Nicaragua and El Salvador, in Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Mississippi.

Let us break bread together; let us relive the holy and redemptive mystery. Let us do it in memory of him, acknowledging in faith his real presence upon our altars.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy within our families, sharing family prayer on a regular basis, making every meal a holy meal where loving conversations bond family members in unity, sharing family work without grumbling, making love not war, asking forgiveness for past hurts and forgiving one another from the heart, seeking to go all the way for love as Jesus went all the way for love.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy with the needy, the alienated, the lonely, the sick and afflicted, the untouchable.

Let us unite our sufferings, inconveniences and annoyances with the suffering of Jesus. Let us stretch ourselves, going beyond our comfort zones to unite ourselves with Christ's redemptive work.

We unite ourselves with Christ's redemptive work when we reconcile, when we make peace, when we share the good news that God is in our lives, when we reflect to our brothers and sisters God's healing, God's forgiveness, God's unconditional love.

Let us be practical, reaching out across the boundaries of race and class and status to help somebody, to encourage and affirm somebody, offering to the young an incentive to learn and grow, offering to the downtrodden resources to help themselves.

May our fasting be the kind that saves and shares with the poor, that actually contacts the needy, that gives heart to heart, that touches and nourishes and heals.

During this Holy Week when Jesus gave his life for love, let us truly love one another.

Entering Holy Week

Holy Week has arrived.  As we enter the week in which we commemorate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus we pause to remember what it is all about.  This video is from Busted Halo, a great site for young adults.

Sir, We would like to see Jesus

In today's Gospel, some Greeks came to Philip with the request, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."  Who introduced you to Jesus?

The Gloria in Ritual Masses

As we continue to get acquainted with the new Roman Missal we uncover more changes to the way we celebrate the liturgy.  It is good to see that so many of those who plan liturgy are carefully reading the rubrics of the Missal and discovering the change there.  Jerry Galipeau commented on this at his "Gotta Sing, Gotta Pray" blog. 

As many of you know, I volunteer on the liturgy committee at my parish, Saint James, on the near South Side of the city of Chicago. We had our final "touching bases" meeting last night, talking about some of the details of our Triduum liturgies.

Something really struck me during the meeting, and it did not have to do with the actual words in the new English translation at all. At several points during the meeting (in discussion about the "stripping of the altar" and the incensation of the Blessed Sacrament on Holy Thursday), people kept asking, "Well what does the new Missal say?" I kind of sat there chuckling to myself because, at least in my past experience, very few people would say things like, "Well, what does the Sacramentary say?" The questions usually asked at liturgy committee meetings were along the lines of, "Well, what did we do last year?" I have been in parishes, my own present parish included, where some kind of innovation during the Triduum developed over time and most people just assumed that the practice was embedded in the liturgical books. Case in point for me is the "stripping of the altar." The first time I attended Triduum at my parish, this "stripping" actually took on more significance than the footwashing (actually we washed hands that year-thank God that misguided practice was short-lived!) During the stripping, there was a song of lament sung and a dramatic reading of a psalm. I sat there and kind of wondered where it all came from. The answer was two-fold. There had been some innovation with the "stripping" in the parish in the past, as well as in the past life of the director of worship. The two strands came together and the result was something never envisioned in our current liturgical books.

So, I do think that the advent of The Roman Missal, Third Edition has been a good thing for liturgy committees like ours at Saint James. We are actually looking at the Missal as a primary source, the first place we go for answers, rather than to a history of liturgical innovations that may have meant that we strayed from the intentions of the official liturgical books.

Hardly a week goes by that I don't get a call in the office about some change or another.  This week it is the use of the Gloria at Confirmation.  In fact, I had just reviewed the recent Newsletter of the Bishops' Committee on Divine Worship where they give an update on this question.

In the Roman Missal, Third Edition, the rubrics call for the Gloria more frequently than before. Nine out of the ten Ritual Masses prescribe the Gloria, the only exception being the Mass for the Institution of Lectors and Acolytes. These Masses are all treated as if they were Feasts, and the Gloria is used for them even when celebrated during Advent or Lent. Thus for example, Masses for Confirmation, Holy Orders, or Marriage would include the Gloria, even when they occur during Advent or Lent. (It should be noted, though, that Ritual Masses are prohibited on Sundays of Advent and Lent.)

So, both Confirmation and Marriage both include the Gloria in a sung or recited form. 

The mornings of the Triduum

What does your community do on the mornings of the Triduum.  Most parishes have a regular and faithful group who comes for daily Mass and they miss gathering on those days.  Our parish has begun doing Morning Prayer on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning.  We use the format found at ebreviary which is simple to use and is available in easy to print format.  We sing the opening hymn and recite the psalms and other prayers.  A community might also want to sing the Canticle of Zechariah.  I encourage you to give it a try.  It is a wonderful way to introduce this official prayer of the Church into a parish community.

The Prefaces for Lenten Sundays

The Missal contains special prefaces for the Sundays of Lent.  They are found with the other presidential prayers for the Mass.  On the third, fourth and fifth Sundays the prefaces are based on the Gospel readings for Year A which are also read when there are scrutinies as part of the RCIA. 

On those Sundays in the other years one of the prefaces for Lent are used instead of these Gospel-specific prefaces.  Or you may want to take the opportunity to use one of the Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation.

Also, although they are optional on weekdays, the Prayer over the People are to be used as part of the Final Blessing and Dismissal on the Sundays of Lent. 

Where can I find that in the Missal?

As we continue to become familiar with the new translation and layout of the Roman Missal we are discovering that some things are not in the places we have come to expect them. 

For example, many of the date or feast specific prefaces are found with the other presidential prayers for that Mass.

Today a pastor called wondering about where to find the Sprinkling Rite which can replace the Penitential Rite.  It is found in an appendix in the back of the Missal beginning at page 1453.  (Isn't it nice to have the pages match in all of the editions of the Missal?)