Advent

This Advent, unlike any other in our lifetime, we find ourselves betwixt and between.

We are betwixt and between Iife as we knew it pre-COVID-19, and life as we hope to know it post vaccine. We are betwixt and between living with the cautions that advise us to not move about, to not travel, and to not gather, and living with the freedom to move about, to travel, and to gather.

For most of us this period of being betwixt and between has proven to be painful. It has meant waiting in the midst of days that are chaotic, disordered and unpredictable. We are, after all, creatures of habit and of comfort. We order our daily agendas in ways that protect us from the unknown. We program our GPS in order to avoid the risks of wandering off the beaten path. We surround ourselves with people who make us feel safe. We create for ourselves the illusion of being in control, of ordering our lives to be predictable. But nothing amazing or wonderful generally emerges from business as usual.

Waiting, while painful, can also bring newness-new perspectives, new ideas, and new ways of being. Consider the new perspectives we’ve gained about ourselves, about each other, and about society over the past year. Consider the new ideas that have been born in medicine, in science, and in technology. Consider the new ways of being students, teachers, workers, advocates, neighbors, community and church that have taken place since the pandemic began.

Waiting and the newness that comes as a result is what Advent is all about. In Advent, we are betwixt and between the coming of Christ in history and the coming of Christ at the end of time. In Advent, we are betwixt and between the season of Ordinary Time and the season of Christmas. While much of society would prefer to rush into Christmas, the Church encourages us to embrace the waiting so that we can experience newness-new perspectives, new ideas, and new ways of being. We are called to wait this Advent and to endure the pandemic as people of hope, to trust that all times and seasons are in the hands of a God who loves us more than we can imagine.

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

Popular Devotions and the Mass

Popular Devotions

Growing up in a small town inhabited by European immigrants, I was immersed in the rituals of popular devotions. As a young child, I participated in Stations of the Cross, Forty Hour Devotions and  “never-fail-novena” prayers, where (I thought) I was promised whatever I wanted just for showing up nine Tuesdays in a row. So I asked for a horse! I loved horses and thought this was the way to get one. After all, there was a contract involved, and I held up my end of the bargain. I never did get a horse, but, what I did get was a sense for different forms of worship outside Mass.

What are popular devotions?

Unlike Sacraments, popular devotions can’t be traced back to the Scriptures. Most developed gradually over centuries as people in different cultures looked for different ways to pray their faith. Some examples are: pilgrimages, novenas, processions, the veneration of relics, the Stations of the Cross, the rosary and celebrations in honor of Mary, the blessing of medals, scapulars, statues, sacred pictures and Advent wreaths.

There are as many reasons why devotions came to be as there are devotions themselves. Some have their roots in the Middle Ages and the Baroque period. Others came to be as a result of changes that took place within the culture and within the church.

Eucharistic devotions, such as the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, for example, are rooted in the Middle Ages. By the 9th Century, people were speaking their native languages, and it became less common for them to speak or understand Latin, but the Mass was still prayed in Latin. As a result, communal participation in the Mass declined. People stopped going to communion because they believed the priest received for them. At the same time, it became popular to elevate the host during Mass, both just before communion and after the words of consecration. Looking at the host gave people a moment to adore and acknowledge the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. And because many were no longer going to communion, looking replaced eating and drinking. This led to a change in the way people understood Eucharist. Without sharing in the meal, more and more people began to see the Eucharist as a devotional object, something to be looked at and adored. Because people were encouraged to look and adore during the Mass, they started to do the same thing outside of Mass. 

Pilgrimages were another way our Christian ancestors expressed their faith. They traveled to holy places for a variety of reasons, to seek a cure from an illness or simply to get closer to God. Early pilgrims sought to see the places where Jesus and the apostles lived, which meant journeys to the Holy Land and retracting the final steps of Jesus toward Calvary. These pilgrims often came home wanting to recreate their experience for those unable to travel to the Holy Land. This practice eventually took the form of the fourteen stations that are found today in nearly every Catholic church.

What is the relationship between popular devotions and the liturgy?

Devotions are still a part of the faith life of many Catholics, but they aren’t as popular as they were before the Second Vatican Council. The Second Vatican Council reminded us of the central  role of the liturgy.

Every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the Priest and of his Body, the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its effectiveness by the same title and to the same degree. Sacrosanctum Concilium 7.

Devotions should “harmonize with the liturgical seasons.”  They should flow from and lead back to a fuller participation in the liturgy.

Devotions, like the liturgy, are seen not as the end, but as the means to an end--a means to conversion of heart and a greater practice of charity.  When devotions truly flow from the liturgy, they prevent us from turning in on ourselves in an exclusive private way, but, rather move us outside of ourselves to be in a new and deeper relation with Christ and others.

Then, they will lead us back to the liturgy--especially in the Eucharist--back to an intimate union with God, with our brothers and sisters and the new life which that union brings.