Lessons on the Liturgy

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Saturday deprived me of what I thought was a valid complaint, reminded me of a few things I’d forgotten, and taught me that there’s a lot I don’t know about the Mass that I have been attending my entire life. All this came about in the course of a four-hour meeting of the diocesan Liturgical Commission that included a presentation by Father Rob Spaulding, director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Cheyenne and president of the Southwest Liturgical Conference.

Fr. Spaulding kept to the basics in his talk about the liturgy, quoting primarily the Vatican II document Sacrosanctum concilium (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), which has been around since 1963. I’ve attended Mass thousands of times and that, along with my theology studies, made me prepared for a rehash of what I already knew. What I got instead was a new appreciation for the celebration of the Eucharist and the awareness that I need to learn more about it. I also was disabused of the notion that I have the right, when I walk into church before Mass, to a few minutes of quiet personal prayer.

In my defense, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal states that “Even before the celebration itself, it is a praiseworthy practice for silence to be observed in the church ... so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred celebration in a devout and fitting manner.”

Fr. Christopher Gray, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Park City, suggests that this time before Mass also “is an excellent opportunity to do one of the most beautiful acts of charity – to pray for each other present. It is an opportunity to hold each other in prayer, a real openness, even more powerful than direct speech.”

Taking a few minutes to silently prepare myself to be reverent during the Mass or to pray for the others present is not the same as using that time to pray for my own intentions. Fr. Spaulding was adamant on this point, saying that the Mass “is not the place for private personal prayer. It is not a private collection of individuals who happen to be in the same place at the same time.”

Instead, “We are becoming the Body of Christ for the world … but we are not becoming it as private, individual persons,” he said. “We are transformed into the Body as a community of believers.”

Well, yes, I’m aware that Catholicism teaches that we are saved as a gathering of the faithful. I’m responsible for ensuring that my own actions will set me on the path to salvation rather than damnation, but I’m also called into relationships with my neighbors as well as the Almighty. God “does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges him in truth and serves him in holiness,” states Lumen gentium, also a Vatican II document.

Another of my habits that Fr. Spaulding disapproved of was making the Sign of the Cross in the direction of the tabernacle after receiving Communion. That gesture, which I had thought was reverential, has no meaning because, as Fr. Spaulding pointed out, at that moment the tabernacle is empty. Having just received the host, the True Presence of Christ, means that if I’m going to reverence anything right then, it should be that presence within me. Even better, I should follow the instructions of the GIRM, and with the community “praise God in their hearts and pray to him.”

Fr. Spaulding also said something I find challenging: “If we are not more bound to each other because of our decision to gather around this [Communion] table, then true transformation has not happened.”

On any given Sunday, I know very few of the people who sit with me in the pews during Mass. How am I to become more bound to them so that I can be more fully transformed into a member of the Body of Christ? This is a question I am now bringing to prayer.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.