Monday, November 21st, 7:00 pm,
Conference #2
for Eucharistic Recommitment
O
Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all Praise, and all Thanksgiving, be
every Moment Thine!
I confess that I
am stretching it or cheating a bit in order to get the Diocesan Program: Set Ablaze UNLEASH THE
FIRE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - Planning a New Structure for our Diocese, to fit as a
topic to discuss during our 40 Hours. I am doing it with my added subtitle: “Set Ablaze” – Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment.
I think I am justified in doing so, because faith in Christ’s Presence at Mass in
the Blessed Sacrament and our ironclad commitment to worshipping Him really and
truly present there on the altar especially by way of our participation at
Sunday Mass is the heart of the matter which is the Catholic Church.
Some years ago
I was visiting with one of my mentors among our diocesan clergy. Twenty years
older than me, he has passed away in the meantime. Some years ago at lunch on
the occasion of one of my visits home, he mentioned that he had told his
brother the surgeon, that when he could get away to their lake cottage for a
long weekend, he should not feel obliged to drive into town for Sunday Mass. I
said to him, “Monsignor! My mother would never agree with that advice.” He
looked sort of shocked and so I explained that as my mother clearly understood
the key to our Catholic identity is not our words, the line we preach or
profess but the fact that we get up on Sunday morning and move across that
threshold to participate at Mass. To quote Saint Justin Martyr: We cannot live
without Sunday. Or as Vatican II put it: The Mass, the Source and Summit of
Christian Existence.
My suspicion is
that the biggest question you might have is where does the word “recommitment” in
my title for this talk come from? A simple answer would be that faith demands commitment
from us, that we invest something, more than something of ourselves personally
and as a parish in the Holy Eucharist, which as the II Vatican Council taught,
I repeat, is the Source and Summit of our Christian existence. You cannot claim
to believe without taking a stand. I cannot really recite the Creed at Mass or
the Apostles’ Creed at the beginning of the recitation of the Holy Rosary
without thereby taking a stance. Professing the Creed is an essential way for
me as an individual or for us as a group to declare where we stand. I believe,
or we believe, that you cannot make a profession of faith without a personal
investment. The recitation of the Creed cannot just be mouthing words;
professing the Creed must have consequences for my life.
So! Back to
“Set Ablaze”! Its main focus in this early phase, in which you are all invited
to get involved, is on discussion of what the diocesan website calls the Current
Reality. The internet page includes tables of Population Demographics,
Parish Data, Priest Data, and an initial proposal for How to Plan for
the Future including Maps of the proposed 27 pastorates being
planned to group together for the next 10 years the present 118 parishes of the
diocese. Nothing is fixed in stone, if you will, changes in the formula are
always possible. I have heard stories from other dioceses using similar
programs, which are still making adjustments after 5 years, or which have not
been able to fully implement their plan. We will have to see how it goes here
in Eastern South Dakota.
Madison is
supposed to be part of a 1 priest pastorate, including the parishes of Epiphany,
Howard, and Ramona; basically, that is one priest for two counties of the State.
That is one priest for four parishes, with a maximum of three Masses per
Sunday. You do the math in terms of what that means for your parish which
presently has its own pastor and provides a Saturday vigil Mass and an 8:00 and
10:00 on Sunday morning! I hope that will explain why my focus this evening is
going to be on Eucharistic Recommitment. Your present convenience may soon be
history and practicing your faith will require more of you. “Set Ablaze” is
asking for your insights, your prayer, your readiness to contribute to the
project, and I am saying that at the heart of it all is your and your family’s
commitment to the Holy Eucharist, come what may.
Just as was
noted in my first talk about the studies especially in the United States pointing
to a crisis of faith among Catholics concerning their belief in Christ’s real
presence in the Eucharist, so here too the charts and tables show that the
Catholic population of Eastern South Dakota has not kept pace with the growth
of the State over the last 10 years. The report very optimistically pegs new
priestly ordinations at 1.5 per year for a total of 15 in the next 10 years,
while calculating with retirement at age 70 that during the same time period there
will be 29 priests going into retirement and hence (if we get the 15 new ones) 14
fewer priests to serve the diocese’s 118 parishes.
The Set
Ablaze Prayer on the diocesan website is also very inspiring.
Heavenly Father, Send forth your Holy Spirit!
Set our hearts, minds, and wills ablaze with the fire of your Divine Love. Help
us to receive your love, delight in that love, and then share it with others.
Renew us and our diocese through a great outpouring of your Holy Spirit as we
seek to know and embrace your holy will. As we share our ideas for the future
of our diocese, guide our thoughts, words, and actions so they reflect your
goodness in all things. May we trust and rely more fully upon You, so that your
holy will is accomplished in and through each of us as your beloved sons and
daughters. May we be led with faith, hope and charity as we discern new ways to
live as Catholics. Inspire us to live as dynamic Lifelong Catholic Missionary
Disciples, so we can assist You in passing on our beloved Catholic faith to
present and future generations. Amen
What
is this outpouring of the Holy Spirit supposed to look like? What are we
waiting for from God? What can we hope for in terms of new ways to live as
Catholics? How is this inspiration to live as dynamic Lifelong Catholic
Missionary Disciples going to work out?
The
other day I watched a short historical documentary on some of the transformations
which have taken place in the Windy City (Chicago) since the great Chicago fire
of 1871: wooden houses lost in the fire gave way to a millionaires’ row, which
was soon replaced by all sorts of factories, now replaced by business towers
and high rise luxury apartments. All very radical changes, which probably
brought with them the rise and fall of no small number of parish churches and
schools. One of the nice things about living in South Dakota is that presumably,
nothing quite so stark or radical will be expected of us or our descendants. All
well and good, but that is all the more reason for us not to neglect the
spiritual dimension of it all and, yes, to focus on what I call Parish Goals
for Eucharistic Recommitment.
Some
years ago, a group of Irish priests flew me from Bern, Switzerland, to Ireland
and took me to the Marian Shrine at Knock in the western part of the Emerald
Isle for an overnight. I gave two talks to the priests, one the first evening, and
a second after breakfast in the morning, and then I presided over a closing
Mass in one of the Shrine’s chapels, before they brought me back to Dublin. My
assigned topic was reverence in the liturgy. These priests were from every age
category and fairly equally divided between young, middle aged, and older. Most
of them were regular parish priests, but all of them felt their people and they
themselves were starving spiritually due to the lack of reverence in the way
Holy Mass was being celebrated by a lot of priests in Ireland, and because of
the difficulties they themselves experienced in trying to get a handle on that
problem in their various assignments. Very few of them knew the slightest about
the Traditional Latin Mass and I still remember the excitement of one of the
younger men at his first experience (there was no congregation in Knock, just
us priests) of us all concelebrating, facing the altar and the Crucifix (we call
that celebrating “ad Orientem”, toward the east, focused on Christ, Who will
come from the East on the clouds of heaven, to judge the living and the dead).
Much
of the burden, though not all of it and not entirely, for a worthy and reverent
celebration of Mass rests on Father’s shoulders. He has to know how to carry
himself, how to speak, and he has a big part in the preparation for the
liturgy, in terms of the disposition of the sanctuary, of vestments and sacred
vessels, but also in terms of training servers and seeing that they are there
to assist him, and of training lectors in particular. You have to support him
in his efforts and help him out as you are able.
Two
little stories about servers! A few years back, I was in the parish church in
Kreuzlingen in the eastern part of Switzerland, not far from the borders with Germany
and Austria, just above Lake Constance. In the sacristy there must have been a
dozen servers of all ages, all smiling, dressed and ready to go. Besides
lectors and sacristans, there were some other adults there too. Just as the
pastor came through the door, I announced to all present that for me a goodly
number of servers is a sign of a good pastor. And he smiled and shouted, Look!
Here come four more!
When
I was a child, serving Mass was something you as a child or a youth took on
very much by yourself. Nobody much had weekend plans except to go to Mass on
Sunday and maybe for Benediction and Confessions on Saturday evening, or Stations
of the Cross on Friday evenings during Lent. Most of us could walk or bike up
to church. During the school year, among 8th grade boys, we took
turns for a week at a time of being sacristan. I would walk up to the Cathedral
from home to be there at 6am on school days to set up for the first Mass at 6:45,
then serve the private Mass of the priest in charge of Catholic Charities, and
then set up for the sung High Mass of the pastor. In our more mobile society, sometimes
even if parents like and trust their priest, they won’t accept a commitment on
the part of children, either to Sunday, let alone to weekday Mass, as it might
cramp their calendar plans for a weekend getaway or for sporting events and the
like. “Set Ablaze” – Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment?
The
other story is more recent. I was visiting with one of our parish priests in
Sioux Falls who was pointing out how different two parishes in the same town
could be. Years back he had inaugurated the practice of having black shoes in
the various sizes available for those servers to wear, who did not have their
own black shoes. The idea was to avoid the distraction for people in church of
having to look at all the possible combinations of footwear which might
otherwise be seen on the altar. In the former parish it was no problem and yet
today, after three or four intervening pastors, that is still the custom:
servers wear black shoes on the altar. In his new parish he tried to inaugurate
the practice and got pushback from parents. The thought never crossed my mind
back in my talk to the priests in Ireland, but avoiding neon sneakers, flipflops,
and more just might be a way to add to the decorum conducive to a reverent
celebration of Holy Mass. We all have our part and it can be more significant
than at first glance.
Yesterday
in my talk, I complimented Father on his generous schedule of confession times.
He’s done his part and you need to do yours so as to be worthy of the reception
of Holy Communion. Given the way confession has been practiced in the Western
Church since the re-evangelization of continental Europe by the Irish monks in
the 7th Century, you can use confession not only for absolution from
sin but as a source of spiritual direction, for your growth in holiness and
commitment to Christ present in the Holy Eucharist.
In
connection with my suggestion about choosing the more reverent practice of
receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, I mentioned the chewing gum thing and
our obligation to keep the Communion fast. Present church law requires that we
fast from solids and all liquids except water for one hour. For the priest that
means for one hour before Mass and for the faithful one hour before Holy
Communion. Basically, what that means is that unless Father really preaches
long on a Sunday, you can’t take your latte and donut along in the car to
church. Offer it up and frankly consider freely taking on some additional
penance to demonstrate your love and reverence for your Eucharistic Lord. It
may be a signal grace if you are able to accept the reduced schedule of Sunday
Masses here in the parish which may come as soon as next summer.
When
I was a child, if there was a funeral Mass on a given day, the daily Mass fell
out in favor of a Communion service, because Father could not binate, that is celebrate
two Masses. Trimming back your Mass schedule and sharing your priest with three
other parishes will cost you a much more radical commitment to get to Sunday
Mass. It is something we all need to pray about, and which ultimately will
serve to underline and strengthen whatever we may undertake as a Eucharistic Commitment
or Recommitment. Do it!
I cannot quite decide whether my duty in
this talk is to lay out a comprehensive program or not for “Set Ablaze” –
Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment. I would encourage you to do so in
your personal life and to the extent possible discuss something like that as a
parish. There is nobody here present who would be capable of convincing me that
at the heart of the matter is not our faith in Christ really and truly present in
the Eucharist.
O Sacrament
Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all Praise, and all Thanksgiving, be every
Moment Thine!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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