Mystagogy

Do you like to travel? I love to travel and do you know what I like best? Looking at the pictures! The pictures of the places and the people help me to remember the trip and point out how the journey amazed me, challenged me and changed me.

Our newly initiated members are spending the Easter season reflecting on their faith journey, in particular, on the celebrations of Holy Week and the experience of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. They are remembering the images, the words, and the symbols they experienced. This process of reflection, officially called mystagogy, is a way of helping them to deepen their understanding of their experience. In the ancient Church, it was a way of teaching not only the newly initiated, but the whole community about the mysteries of faith.

Mystagogy isn’t only for the newly initiated. It is a powerful tool for everyone that can help one understand one’s faith in new ways. Take some time in the days ahead to remember the liturgies of Holy Week, Easter, or a Sunday Mass and discuss as a family. Here are a few questions to get you started: What did you see? What did you hear? What word or phrase captured your attention? What do you remember most? What touched you? What did it mean to you? What symbol stood out for you? If that symbol could have spoken, what might it have said? How did the liturgy challenge or affirm your perspective? How did it deepen your faith?

Mystagogy shows us how the liturgy teaches, reinforcing a key concept of the Second Vatican Council.

“Although the liturgy is above all things the worship of the divine majesty, it likewise contains rich instruction for the faithful.” Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy 33

For example, I remember when a visitor to our parish engaged in mystagogy without knowing it. He noticed that we prayed (in the General Intercessions) for those on death row. He was a lawyer who was all too familiar with criminal punishment. He was deeply moved by the prayer. It spoke to him about the abundance of God’s love and motivated him to seek a deeper understanding of our beliefs on capital punishment. His perspective about who Catholics are and what we believe was challenged and changed.

The liturgy teaches us a lot about our faith, but it requires that we come to Mass with eyes and ears wide open, with attentiveness and presence, ready to be amazed, challenged and changed.

I would like to invite you to share your experiences of the liturgies of Holy Week, of Easter or of a recent Sunday Mass by emailing me at kkuczka@sta.org. These comments will then be published in next weekend’s blog. I too will share my experiences of the liturgies of northern Italy. Sharing our experiences can help us to learn from one another and can lead us to a deeper faith in the Risen Lord, which is what mystagogy and Easter is all about.

The First Day of the Week

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John disagree on the circumstances surrounding the Resurrection of Jesus, but they all agree that the Resurrection and post-Resurrection appearances took place on the first day of the week.

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. Matthew 28:1

Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. Mark 16:2

When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Mark 16:9

But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. Luke 24:1

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. John 20:1

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19.

On the first day of the week, Jesus encountered the disciples. He broke open the scriptures for them and ate and drank with them. It naturally flowed that the first day of the week, later to be called Sunday, became the day for Christians to worship.

More than 2,000 years later, we too gather on this, the first day of the week. On this day, as he did with the first disciples, the Lord reveals himself to us. On this day, he breaks open the Scriptures. On this day, he eats and drinks with us. This is why every Sunday is called a little Easter. This is why we cry out with the psalmist, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.” On this day we are reminded that we are to live in the light of Christ and in the newness of the Resurrection, not only on Sundays, but on every day of the week.

Taizé

Every year on Good Friday at St. Thomas Aquinas, parishioners mark the day by participating in the Seven Last Words of Christ, prayed in the style of Taizé. If you have not participated in this prayer, you may be familiar with songs like, “Jesus, Remember Me,” “Eat this Bread,” or “Ubi Caritas,” all of which were composed at Taizé.

Taizé is an ecumenical community that takes its name from the small village where it is based in Taizé, France, in the country’s Burgundy region, minutes from Cluny, the site of Europe’s largest and most famous monastic abbey before its destruction during the French Revolution. The Taizé Community was founded by Roger Schüz, later known as Brother Roger, at the beginning of the Second World War. Brother Roger, the son of a Reformed Protestant Pastor, was studying theology at a college in Switzerland when he felt called to help war refugees as his grandmother had done during the First World War. In 1940, he bought a small house in central France that sheltered refugees, primarily Jews, which would later become the home of the Taizé Community. After the war, Brother Roger, who had long been drawn to a monastic way of life, founded a community of brothers which was open to men of all Christian faiths. Men from his own Reformed tradition began to join him followed by men from the Anglican and Catholic traditions. Brother Roger was passionate about the unity of Christians and had a deep desire as Jesus did, that all would be one. He often said, “Christ did not come to earth to create a new religion, but to offer to every human being a communion in God.” As an observer at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, with its concern for the restoration of Christian unity, he had hoped he would see the unity of Christians in his lifetime. He believed that life lived out in community could be a symbol of that reconciliation and unity called for by Christ and he never tired of working toward that goal. Today, the Taizé Community includes nearly 100 men of both Catholic and Protestant traditions who come from nearly 30 countries. Most of the brothers live at Taizé, but some live among disadvantaged communities around the world. The community at Taizé lives together, works together and prays together in simplicity, in peace and in poverty. They do not accept donations or gifts of any kind, but rather make their living solely from the work they do: Making pottery, writing books and welcoming tens of thousands of pilgrims to Taizé every year.

Young People at Taizé

Young people in particular are attracted to Taizé and tens of thousands come from all parts of the world each year to spend a week living, working, and praying alongside the brothers in the community. On a visit to Taizé over Palm Sunday, I was able to speak to several of them.

For 22-year-old Milena Vontottleben from Freiburg, Germany, Taizé is a familiar place. She has been here nine times and this time, she brought a large group of friends. Milena is a Christian who grew up in the German Baptist Tradition and she said she wanted to share what she calls “An environment that is as welcoming as she has ever experienced.” She said, “Being at Taizé inspires me to make a difference in the small things, to try to find unity in diversity even in my small group of friends.”

A change in plans due to the pandemic sent 20-year-old Carl Voigt from Germany to Taizé to volunteer for a period of seven months before entering college. He says the trip not only

changed his life, it changed his vocation, “I actually found the faith which was always there since my childhood but I didn’t open up for it. I didn’t want to have anything to do with Christianity to be honest and here I learned that I can have a place and that I can call myself a Christian and this changed my life forever.”

Fernanda Ortiz is a 23-year-old Catholic from Mexico who just graduated from college, packed up her life and came to Taizé to help the community welcome refugees from Ukraine. She said she has found unity in diversity here, “I love that we can pray together, even though we are from different denominations.”

Taizé Prayer

Morning, noon, and evening, the bells on the hill of Taizé ring out, calling everyone to communal prayer, which includes Scripture that is proclaimed in many languages, silence and simple short chants sung over and over again. The songs are not sung in the style with which today’s youth would be familiar meaning you won’t find any Christian Contemporary music at Taizé. The music, simple, meditative and repetitive, is meant to help everyone easily participate, to avoid distraction and to draw one inward. Brother Roger believed that the more accessible the prayer, the closer the encounter with God.

It was during an evening prayer on August 16, 2005, when Brother Roger, at the age of 90, was mortally stabbed by a woman later deemed mentally ill. Despite the grave loss, the community embraced the woman’s family with a spirit of forgiveness and mercy. Before he died, Brother Roger appointed his successor, Brother Alois Löser, a Roman Catholic from Germany, who remains the Prior of Taizé.

Mask Ministry during COVID-19

Parishioners at St. Thomas Aquinas are fighting the coronavirus pandemic one stitch at a time. Dianna Malta is one of several in our community who have been making cloth masks. She first saw the need for the masks on a social media post from the wife of the doctor who is in charge of the ICU Unit at WellStar North Fulton Hospital. Hospital employees have been in desperate need of cloth masks to wear over their N95 Masks. The N95 Masks are considered disposable but health professionals are reusing them because they are unable to get more. The cloth masks provide added protection. Soon after Dianna read that post, she did some research, created her own pattern and went to work.

Dianna and another parishioner, Joellen O’Neil, became part of a group who call themselves “The North Fulton Masketeers.” This group, now with almost fifty members, has made hundreds of cloth masks for the hospital’s employees. They are one of several Atlanta area sewing groups that have formed to create thousands of masks for employees of Grady Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, and the Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Georgia, among others.

The Masketeers have created two different types of masks, an N95 Mask cover for healthcare workers and a pleated mask (which resembles a surgical mask) for the general population. Each mask requires fabric that is 100% cotton, as well as elastic or some kind of tie. The N95 Mask also requires a wire that helps it to rest on one’s nose. The fabric for every mask is washed before being sewn and then again before the first use. It takes an estimated 30 minutes to make a mask from start to finish.

When the North Fulton Masketeers fulfilled the request for WellStar North Fulton Hospital, they began making masks for the Military Police Corps at Dobbins Air Force Base, for the Milton Fire Department, for senior care facilities and for children with autoimmune diseases. Some members of the group have even been giving masks to neighborhood grocery store workers.

While many in the group sew the masks, others donate fabric, ties, Ziploc bags and other notions. Still others drop off and pick up donations and completed masks.

Always eager to help, Dianna said, “I started to think that there must be people at St. Thomas Aquinas who need to be in public and who need masks.” So the group’s next step is to make masks for family and friends and that prompted her to consider her parish family.

Up to 25% of those infected with the coronavirus may be asymptomatic, which is why the Centers for Disease Control recommends that everyone wear a mask when going to public places.

If you would like to participate in a ministry to make masks, if you need a mask, or if you would like more information, please send an email to stareply@sta.org

We thank Dianna, Joellen and the numerous other “Masketeers” who have generously offered their time and talents for those who have needed it the most.

Holy Week Amidst Covid-19

Despite the coronavirus, Holy Week has come. While each Holy Week is unique, this one will be far different from any we’ve known before. We will not be gathering as a community for the Triduum at the church. Instead, most of us will watch these sacred liturgies from the comforts of our own homes, surrounded by our immediate families. This experience echoes that of our ancestors who, before churches were erected, gathered in homes to hear God’s Word and to celebrate the sacred meal. In a sense, we have been forced to return to a time that was fittingly called “The Domestic Church.”

Families who watch this year’s Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday liturgies will not see the elaborate ceremonies common to the Triduum. Vatican directives have simplified these celebrations, stripping them of much of their decorated splendor. Many of the rituals such as the washing of the feet have been omitted. The rites of initiation and most of their accompanying symbols will be absent. Even so, the symbols and rituals that normally hold pride of place during the Triduum can still be performed by families at home. Here are a few ideas.

Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper

On this night, the Church commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Lord’s command to be charitable. At home, families can imitate the intimacy that Jesus shared with his disciples at supper by breaking bread together. You can wash each other’s feet as a sign of love, as Jesus did.

Good Friday – Stations of the Cross

To contemplate the passion of Jesus families can pray the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. Many and various stations written around particular themes can be found online. Since this devotion traces the steps of Jesus on the road to his crucifixion and is usually prayed by moving from place to place, you are encouraged to make the stations a spiritual pilgrimage by walking as you pray.

Good Friday -- Celebration of the Passion of the Lord

The high points in this liturgy consist of the proclamation of the passion according to John, the extended intercessions and the veneration of the cross. Families can read John’s Gospel together at home: John 18:1-19:42. You can discuss how the passion according to John differs from the other gospel writers. You can talk about the love that is revealed by the death of Jesus. You can pray for your needs and for the needs of others by speaking the prayers aloud or by writing them down on a piece of paper and placing them in a bowl or basket near a lighted candle. You can take a cross or crucifix and venerate it with a touch or a kiss.

Holy Saturday-The Easter Vigil

This night is the high point of the liturgical year! It typically begins after nightfall with a blazing fire. The Vatican has omitted the fire this year, but in the home families can light candles as a reminder that Jesus is the light of the world. This is a night for remembering the presence of God throughout salvation history, which is why Scripture passages such as the story of creation, the sacrifice of Isaac and the exodus are proclaimed. In reflecting on these texts, you could discuss or even create a timeline portraying the experiences when you most felt God’s presence.

This is a night to celebrate baptism, and though baptisms will not take place at this year’s Easter Vigil, there are other ways families can honor the first sacrament. Gather mementos from each person’s baptism: a baptismal certificate, baptismal clothing, the baptismal candle, pictures, and/or religious articles. Tell the story of your children’s baptisms. Connect with your godparents via skype or facetime. Renew your baptismal promises. Discuss what it means to be part of a faith community. Share what it means to be a child of God. Give thanks for the gift of water and for the gift of baptism. Bless one another with water!

This Holy Week, we all have an opportunity to create new rituals and new traditions. Our faith, after all, isn’t confined to the church. It begins at home and is meant to be lived in the world.

St. Thomas Aquinas will be live streaming the events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. See the website or t