How can we celebrate more fully the season of Easter?

Q: Dear Father John, The wonderful season of Easter is upon us. Lent has been a great time to prepare for the victory of the cross over death. Thank-you Jesus Christ, Holy Redeemer. What are appropriate things we can do to celebrate Easter, especially for the entire season?  

A: I love this question! Ever since I was ordained, I have been struck every year by the decrease in daily Mass attendance as soon as Lent ends. I am not trying to say that everyone is obliged to go to Mass on a daily basis (though it’s certainly not a bad idea, if you can work it out), but I often wonder if the benefits of our Lenten spiritual disciplines are sometimes eviscerated by our Easter laxity. Lent, after all, is only six weeks long, while the liturgical season of Easter lasts for eight weeks. What would happen if we lived the Easter season with as much fervor as we live Lent? Your question gives us a chance to reflect on this.

The Color of Easter

Every liturgical season has its color – both physically (violent for Lent, white for Easter, for example, as shown in the sacred vestments used for Mass), but also spiritually. Trying to echo in our own spiritual lives the color of the seasons is a wise practice. For the saints, it happens almost without thinking – they are simply in tune with the spiritual rhythms of the Church. For the rest of us, a concerted effort can help.

The color of Easter is joy, the joy of the definitive victory. Christ has taken all sin and evil into his own soul, in a sense, and done away with it. God’s mercy has shown itself infinitely stronger than the devil’s poison. This is the message so beautifully expressed in the Easter Sequence, sung before the Gospel is read for the Mass of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

What can we do to color our spiritual lives with Easter joy during this liturgical season? I will offer three suggestions, but I also invite our readers to share their own personal and family traditions, and any experiences that have helped them make this season fruitful for growing in holiness.

Liturgical Connection

First, stay connected to the liturgy. The readings for daily Mass during Easter take us on an exciting journey through the Last Supper discourse and through the amazing and frightening experience of the early Church. We should spend time reading commentaries about these biblical passages, meditating on them, and allowing God to speak to our hearts through them. The main message of the liturgical readings throughout Easter is that Christ is still among us, even after his Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, and he is among us precisely through his Church. I always find it deeply encouraging to read a book or two about the history of the Church, or about the life of a saint, during Easter. It reminds me that my own Christian journey is a part of a much bigger story, and that I am not alone in my defeats and victories.

Rejoice!

Second, find ways to rejoice. This time of year tends to be quite busy – especially if you have kids in school. Make a point of doing some things that you enjoy. Just as in Lent we denied ourselves some legitimate delights as a way to unite ourselves to Christ’s self-sacrifice, so during Easter we should intentionally enjoy the good things of life, as a way to unite ourselves to Christ’s victory and triumph. We always have a victory celebration when our team wins the championship – well, Jesus has won the eternal championship, and we are on his team; we need to celebrate that.

Obviously, I am not recommending that you dive into sinful pleasures, or that you over-indulge in self-centered activities. But I am recommending that we intentionally look for ways to rejoice, to enjoy God’s goodness such that joy overflows from our spirits, into our emotions, and even into our bodies. Why not make Sunday lunch a truly festive occasion for your family and friends every Sunday of Easter (different family members can be in charge of the menu each week)? Why not make a special trip or two to your favorite museum or take some extra time to enjoy your favorite music or a favorite author? Why not carve out some extra time during Easter for your whole family, or a few of you, to enjoy some activities that you haven’t had a chance to do for a long time? Why not reflect Easter joy in your wardrobe when you go to work (tastefully, of course)? If we surround these activities with a spiritual and prayerful intention – celebrating Christ’s victory – they become more than vacation activities; they becomes means of worship. God rejoices to see his children rejoice.

Spread the Light

Third, reach out. Jesus taught us that “there is more joy in giving than receiving” (Acts 20:35). Like the candlelight service during the Easter Vigil, we can share with others the light of Christ’s victory that we have received, and roll back the tattered shadows of the kingdom of darkness. Renewing our efforts to bring others closer to Christ, to help others who are in need – those close to us or those far away – can color our lives with Easter joy, if we season those efforts with prayer and faith. Christians should smile more during Easter, because true joy draws forth joy.

I hope these thoughts will inspire you to make some Easter resolutions. Why should Lent be the only time we make resolutions? God has graces in store for us this season, just as he did during Lent. We only need to keep our eyes peeled so that we don’t miss them.

What “Easter resolutions” have helped you in the past? Let us know!

Finding the truth about liturgy…

Dear Friends,

You wouldn’t know it by the content of this site, but I love the liturgy of the Church. I have prayed the Liturgy of the Hours since becoming Catholic. I am often mesmerized by every movement at Mass. I love the rhythm of the Church – the music – the seasons – the feasts – the solemnities. I am moved by the thought that as I engage in the liturgy I am engaging with billions of people both inside and outside of time who are joining together in worship that is not bound by time and space. I am awestruck by the idea that we meet Christ Himself every time we receive Him in the Eucharist. Still, I avoid the topic as a normal course on this blog.

Why? Because like me, the topic gets under your skin. And when it gets under the skin of a writer, and under the skin of the readers, and under the skin of responders, fights break out in the comboxes and divisions emerge; ugly and shameful divisions. The good news is that very little of that has happened here – my goal is to keep it that way.

Liturgy is just hard and challenging to deal with. So, instead of covering it on this site in a less-than-helpful way (at least not as a primary focus) I want to point you to a rock solid and trustworthy source on the subject, the Adoremus Bulletin.

For those of you confused, saddened or just positively curious about what you have experienced, Hellen Hull Hitchcock and the team at Adoremus will provide a light of clarity and precision. For those of you who love what is good, true, and beautiful, you will be deeply encouraged and reinforced in your love for Christ in the liturgy of the Church. For those of you who energetically agree with me about liturgical matters, but who will be far more effective when you clearly understand the mind of the Church on these matters, you will be blessed and armed for the necessarily gentle but persistent battle to restore a proper sense of reverence and awe in our worship of the God of the Universe. If you love the liturgy, please visit Adoremus… subscribe, learn, support. You won’t be sorry.

Dreading an irreverent and careless implementation of the new missal translation… What do I do?

Q:  Dear Father John, I am looking forward with dread for the new missal translation in our parish. Our priest doesn’t take the liturgy very seriously and, well, I don’t think it is going to be good. Can you provide some practical insight into how I should look at all of this and prepare my heart?  I really care about how we honor Christ in Mass and already struggle a lot with the lack of reverence that I see.

A: First of all, for any of our readers who aren’t familiar with what the new missal translation is, I want to recommend a couple of resources.  The new English translation of the missal (the book containing the prayers, antiphons, and responses of the Mass) goes into action on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011.  What is this new translation and why is it being instituted and what’s it all about?  Here are some worthy (in my opinion) explanations:  Life Teen’s video; The Bishops’ Conference videos (longer and less flashy than the Life Teen video; EWTN’s discussion with Fr. Mitch Pacwa (hour-long video interview).  And if you prefer to read about it, here are a few of the best resources:

National Catholic Register

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Now on to your question.

The Perfect Prayer

Clearly, you care deeply about the Mass, the perfect prayer, the origin of all Christian prayer, and the central act of worship of all time.  Your concern and even anxiety about careless or irreverent celebrations of the Mass come across strongly in your question.  But that concern can work against you.  Even if a priest appears to you to be celebrating the Mass irreverently, the Mass still remains the Mass.  Even if he is sloppy and blasé, the Church is still praying through him and Christ is still offering himself to the Father through him.  And this is really the main point about praying at Mass: it is our objective worship.  Of course we would love to be emotionally (as well as spiritually) uplifted by the external beauty of a papal Mass every day, but even when the externals are sub-par, the reality remains exactly the same.

Room to Grow?

If our devotion to Christ in the Mass, therefore,  is easily disturbed by a sloppy or irreverent priest, then we know that our faith has room to grow.  Are we truly seeking to please God, or are we seeking the sweetness of consolation for ourselves?  If we seek to worship God, then sometimes the less glorious liturgies are even better than the glorious ones.  Not because Christ doesn’t always deserve our very best – he does.  And the liturgy of the Church should shine with reverence and beauty and respect and mystery (this is one of the reasons we have a new translation coming).  But if true worship is about our trusting in God in spite of everything, just as Jesus trusted in his Father on the Cross, then we can actually exercise our trust even more when the externals of a particular celebration of Mass are rather mundane.  To pray devotedly in that situation requires a more mature faith, a stronger faith.  We have to truly believe that God is working through his Church, through his priest, even when the appearance of things seems to say something else.

I am not encouraging priests to be sloppy – every priest will have to answer to God for how he cares for the sacraments.  And believe me, that is a harrowing thought.  But as long as the priest isn’t making up his own Mass or otherwise being sacrilegious – as long as he is celebrating the Church’s Mass, then Christ is truly, objectively there.  And that should be enough for us.

The Mass is not primarily about me.  The Mass is the prayer of the Church, the prayer of Christ.  So if I don’t like my priest’s style, that’s a secondary thing.  The primary thing remains.

Getting Personal

In my personal journey into the Catholic faith, this realization played an important role.  Before being Catholic, when moving into a new area I would shop around to find a church I liked.  When I began to be drawn into the Catholic faith, I realized that Catholics don’t do that – they don’t need to do that.  They just go to their parish.  I still remember moving into a new apartment about a year before officially becoming Catholic.  I was so excited to find out what was to be my parish.  I called up the diocesan office, told them my address, and they told me which parish I was in.  And I went to Mass there.  No shopping required!  What a relief!  The externals, including the notably eccentric style of the priest, were quite different from the beautiful Masses I had attended in Italy during the first stage of my conversion.  And yet, the structure and the substance was the same.  And I knew that by attending that Mass I was plugging into something much bigger than me, much bigger than that particular priest, much bigger than my own preferences and comfort zone.

Preparing Our Hearts

The advent of the new translation of the missal gives us all a chance to renew our deep faith in that which is “much bigger” than all of us.  And this, I think, is the best way to prepare our hearts to receive the new translation: activating anew our faith in God’s action through his Church, through his sacraments, through his very human and very imperfect instruments.  The Mass transcends styles and preferences.  The Mass gives us something we desperately need in today’s world, which is so focused on personal feelings and subjective fulfillment.  It gives us a chance to enter into something not of our own making, and to unite ourselves to an objective act of worship that is Christ’s own prayer, his own sacrifice, his own act of worship, really made present for us – whether or not we happen to feel any spiritual warm-fuzzies, and whether or not we happen to like the way our priest celebrates.

Getting Practical

On a practical note, though, I want to assure you that you don’t need to stay stuck at a dead end.  If the style of celebrating Mass at your parish consistently makes it impossible for you to pray during Mass and to appreciate what is really going on, you are not required to stay there.  The Church only requires that we attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, preferably in our own parish.  But we are free to go to other parishes if there is a good reason, or to a nearby monastery or convent.  Likewise, if real and serious liturgical abuses have crept into your parish, you have the right (and the duty) to inform your bishop.  It’s his job to care for the sacraments as celebrated in his diocese, and to assure that the faithful have access to the liturgical life as the Church intends it.

One more thing.  Your question reminds me of a startling quotation from the patron saint of parish priests, St. John Vianney, and I would like to close with it: “There are no bad parish priests; there are only parish priests whose parishioners don’t pray enough for them.”  Please keep praying for us priests!!!

PS: I am sure our readers could also provide some suggestions on how they deal with these challenges in a positive and constructive way…

The New Roman Missal Translation In a Nutshell

Just to be clear, when I say in a “Nutshell,” I am not calling Mark Hart a “nut.” Mark is one of the best modern communicators of our faith. This video is by far the best summary I have seen on the new translation. It was created for teens but the humorous approach should make this interesting for anyone. If you like it, pass this post along to help others gain a better understanding of the changes that are just around the corner.

PS: In anticipation of complaints from those who love the Liturgy as I do, I am most definitely not a fan of how I have seen the so-called “LifeTeen Mass” implemented. However, I believe that Mark’s involvement with Life-Teen will result in significant improvements. The purpose of this post is not to discuss LifeTeen but to rejoice in the new translation… my combox moderation will be consistent with this intent. I pray that all in the English speaking world with be profoundly blessed by this significant improvement in our translation.

Why Genuflect? Kneeling in Mass and Adoration

When a man is proud, he stands tall; his posture reflects his self-perception. When a good man (one who is not suffering with excessive pride) is in the presence of greatness, he knows to humble himself whether it be in posture or expression.  His instinct is to lower himself and he, in some way, knows to acknowledge the greatness before him and to adjust his heart, and height, downward.  The difficulty with modern culture is that without Kings and Queens, we don’t know what to do with this instinct.  As well, we are taught from our youth to be independent, to question authority, to never consider another as more important than we are – never to bring ourselves low as Jesus did when he washed the disciples feet.

The only place in modern western culture (outside of Church) where we still occasionally kneel is when men propose marriage (though it seems even this noble custom is fading).  Why does a man do this?  Because he knows that this posture expresses reverence and love toward his desired bride.  It communicates that he holds her in high esteem and is willing to lower himself to her judgment, to serve her, to honor her.

So, when we kneel in Church the sentiment expressed in this gesture should be in keeping with all of these good instincts. Stop for a moment and imagine if you were suddenly drawn into the presence of the King of Kings.  What would happen to the heart, soul, and body of any person of good-will? Scripture indicates that even holy men are inclined to fall to the ground in the face of Ultimate Holiness or its representatives. Scripture also points out that eventually “every knee shall bow…” (Romans 14:11) whether now, or at the final judgment.

With these perspectives in mind how should we practice kneeling or genuflection in a way that is consistent with our understanding and desire?

It is pretty simple really.  When we are in a Catholic Church, we are in the presence of  the King of Kings; so, we should act like it. In that light, would a sweeping mindless and lighting fast non-committal bend or quick jerk of the knee toward the floor suffice? The key question for all of us really is, what would we do if we really believed what we were in the presence of God Almighty?

As with everything in our lives, we can use our circumstances, our gifts, our work, or any capability we have to bring us closer to God.  The key is the disposition of our hearts and the commensurate exercise of our will. Here’s a proposed approach for the next time we walk into a Church:

1. Approach the sanctuary slowly – don’t rush in to find a seat – instead enter in to worship.
2. Recognize where you are and focus on that reality.  Look to the tabernacle and acknowledge you are before the King of Kings.
3. Move your body in a way that expresses what is real in your heart and mind – or at least what you desire to be real. Stop and kneel – right knee – all the way down to the floor and pause for a second.  Say a prayer honoring Him – the “glory be” is good prayer, or just say “thank you Lord, help me know and honor you.”  Make the sign of the cross, and slowly rise and then kneel again in the pew to further prepare your heart for your encounter with God.

With respect to norms, the Church provides us with several opportunities to practice reverence and prayer in this way before, during, and after each mass (at least for those who are physically able):

Always Before the Blessed Sacrament:

The Ceremonial of Bishops states it beautifully and simply (CB 69).

“A genuflection, made by bending only the right knee to the ground, signifies adoration, and is therefore reserved for the Blessed Sacrament, whether exposed or reserved in the tabernacle…”

Inaestimabile Donum also reflects on this beautiful expression and the related disposition of the heart (ID 26)

“This venerable practice of genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament, whether enclosed in the tabernacle or publicly exposed, as a sign of adoration, is to be maintained. This act requires that it be performed in a recollected way. In order that the heart may bow before God in profound reverence, the genuflection must be neither hurried nor careless.” (ID 26)

Before and after Mass – It is the norm to genuflect when passing before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle (every time before mass).  The Ceremonial of Bishops (CB 71) says,

“No one who enters a Church should fail to adore the Blessed Sacrament either by visiting the Blessed Sacrament chapel or at least by Genuflecting. Similarly those who pass before the Blessed sacrament genuflect, except when they are walking in procession.”

The simple act of bending the knee, when turned from an empty motion into one that expresses heartfelt reverence, will properly guide our hearts to worship in a way that is personally fruitful and truly pleasing to Him. As well, it will aid in the proper disposition of our hearts to be better prepared to receive the greats gifts He has in store for us in the mass or adoration.