A Liturgical Workout

Gyms are busier than normal this month, filled with people who promised themselves a better body in 2016. Everyone who has attempted to bench press, Zumba, or kickbox their way to a new figure knows that getting in shape and staying in shape takes much more than simply showing up at the gym. A good workout begins with an adequate warm-up to prepare the muscles for intensive exercise. The workout itself should be a challenge. As my friend once said, “Don’t be afraid to sweat.” After the workout, a cool-down is necessary to return heart and breathing rates to normal. But staying in shape is as much about what happens outside the gym, e.g., eating the right foods and making other healthy choices.

Whenever we celebrate the liturgy, we exercise our spiritual muscles. Like a physical workout, a productive liturgical workout depends on much more than simply showing up at church once a week.

Getting the most out of liturgy depends first on an adequate warm-up. The liturgical documents tell us that we should come to Mass with “proper dispositions,” with hearts ready to pray, with minds focused to pay attention, and with spirits hungry to feast on the living God.  Here are a few suggested pre-Mass warm-ups:

Read the Scripture readings beforehand.

Allow yourself and/or your family enough time to get to Mass.

On the way to Mass, think about everything for which you have to be thankful.

When you get to church, welcome any newcomers you might notice.

Reach out to someone who is going through a tough time.

During Mass, participate with your whole being. Sing the songs and pray the prayers with passion. Listen attentively. Allow the readings, the music, the symbols, and the rituals to engage your spirit, move your soul, soften your heart, and transform your way of being.

For a cool-down after Mass, reflect on what the liturgy meant to you. Think about the reading, the music, the symbol or the ritual that affected you the most. Discuss the question of the week. Sing the psalm refrain.

Exercise those spiritual muscles outside the liturgy. Pray in the Church’s morning or evening prayer. Celebrate weekday Mass. Read the daily Scripture readings. Study your faith. Take an adult education class. Practice the Works of Mercy.

A good physical workout leaves us exhausted but exhilarated, with a sense that we have accomplished something. A good liturgical workout also leaves us exhausted but exhilarated, with a sense that God has accomplished something in us.

The Shape of Baptism

For many people, Christmas is over. The Christmas trees that once adorned the corners and lit up the windows of houses have been picked up or packed away. Christmas carols that not long ago resounded through shopping malls and car radios have now yielded to elevator music or to today’s top hits. The Church, on the other hand, has continued to celebrate Christmas up to and including today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Jesus came to the River Jordan to receive from John a baptism of repentance and conversion. Though Jesus had no need of repentance or conversion, he chose to place himself alongside sinners as a sign of solidarity. That’s one reason Jesus’ baptism gives meaning to our baptism, a meaning that has often been expressed in our baptismal fonts.

Throughout the centuries, baptismal fonts have come in an assortment of shapes and sizes and have helped to shape our beliefs about baptism:

“The font is a symbol of both tomb and womb; its power is the power of the triumphant cross; and baptism sets the Christian on the path to the life that will never end, the ‘eighth day’ of eternity where Christ's reign of peace and justice is celebrated.” Built of Living Stones

That’s why some of the earliest fonts were pools designed for immersion and built in the shape of a cross to symbolize that baptism is an immersion in the death and resurrection of Jesus. These pools often included three steps leading both into and out of the font to signify that the person would be baptized in the name of the Trinity. Other fonts were eight-sided, expressing the “eighth day,” or day of resurrection and re-creation.  Many fonts were shaped like either a tomb or a womb, symbolizing death and rebirth.  As infant baptism became more prominent, the size of fonts diminished.

No specific shape is required for a baptismal font being built today, but fonts must be able to accommodate the baptism of both infants and adults.  Fonts must be visible and accessible to all who enter the church and they must be located so that the entire assembly can easily participate in the celebration of baptism.

No matter what the size or shape of a baptismal font, when we bless ourselves with the water it contains, we remind ourselves that baptism shapes us into a holy people who celebrate God’s life-giving love, not just at Christmas, but all year.

Incense

One of the best parts of the holiday is the aroma that comes from the kitchen. The savory scents wafting     through the house help anticipate the feast that is to come.  Smells not only complement our holiday gatherings, they also enhance our worship. Scents like the balsam in the Sacred Chrism used recently to anoint our young people in the Sacrament of Confirmation appeal to our olfactory senses and become a fragrant symbol of the divine. One of the most common scents used in the liturgy is incense.

Since ancient times, incense has been burned for its perfume and used in worship. The sweet smell of incense came to symbolize an offering that was pleasing to God. The rising smoke became a sign that prayers were ascending to God.

There are several references to incense in scripture.  In the book of Exodus (chapter 30), Moses prepares an altar for burning incense as an offering to God. In Psalm 141, the psalmist prays, “Let my prayer come like incense before you,” and in the book of Revelation (chapter 5), a vision of heavenly liturgy includes bowls filled with incense “which are the prayers of the holy ones.”

Incense can be used at any liturgy but it is typically reserved for more solemn occasions. At a funeral, for example, the remains of the departed are incensed as a sign of respect.  During solemn exposition, the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance is incensed as a sign of adoration and praise for Christ.

On Sundays and Solemnities, incense leads the entrance procession into the church and is used to reverence the altar as a sign of respect for Christ whom the altar represents.  During the proclamation of the Gospel, incense is used to venerate the book of Gospels to show respect for the word of God and for Christ himself who is the incarnate Word. Incense is used again during the preparation of the gifts to reverence the bread, the wine, the priest and the people.

Among the gifts offered to the Christ child by the Magi was frankincense, a type of incense. Myrrh, gold and frankincense were considered gifts fit for a king.  May we, who are also honored with incense, recognize that not just our prayers, but our very selves are offered to God in an eternal sacrifice of praise.

A Sister of Mercy

From the time she was a little girl, Sister Valentina Sheridan knew she had a vocation to religious life.  She says the seeds for vocation were planted by her grandfather.  “Once a week, he would come and get me and we would visit the sick.  First we would go to the church next door, light a candle, and pray for the people we were about to visit.  Before we left the church, he would show me the poor box and we would put money in for the people who didn’t have what we had.”

Visiting the sick and caring for the poor have been at the heart of Sr. Val’s ministry as a Sister of Mercy. Inspired by the Mercy Sisters who taught her, she entered the convent when she graduated high school.  The Mercy Sisters motivated her to join that order because the nuns were “such joyous people, kind and open.”  She has integrated the mission of mercy into each facet of her ministry, which has spanned sixty years.

Born in Macon, Georgia, Sister Val came to Atlanta to work in education, as a teacher, principal and superintendent of schools in the Atlanta Archdiocese.  She came to St. Thomas Aquinas to work as a parish administrator from 1980-1990, a role she describes as “One of the best experiences I have had as a woman religious.” After pastoral appointments at St. Thomas Aquinas and Sacred Heart Church, Sister Val went to St. Joseph’s Hospital, a hospital that was founded by four Sisters of Mercy in 1880.  For the past twenty years, Sr. Val worked at St. Joseph’s first in pastoral care and then as Director of Mission Integration.

Though she retired from the hospital this fall, she can’t seem to stay away.  “There’s a spirit here that gives me life,” Sr. Val says, “I’m happier now than I’ve ever been.”  That’s what mercy does.  It brings life and joy. 

On this third Sunday of Advent as we celebrate Guadete (Latin for “rejoice”) Sunday, let us pray for hearts of mercy that lead to life and joy.

The Year of Mercy

The Jubilee Year of Mercy, as announced by Pope Francis is upon us.  The year begins this Tuesday, December 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and closes on November 20, 2016, on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

Jubilee years were observed by our Jewish ancestors every 50 years.  They were periods of forgiveness, when debts were pardoned and slaves were freed.

This Year of Mercy is also being used to encourage acts of reconciliation, solidarity and justice.   The Pope is offering indulgences--forgiveness of sin--to anyone who performs one of the traditional Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy.  “I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness encompassed by the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy,” the Pope wrote.

The works of mercy are acts of forgiveness and charity.   The Corporal Works of Mercy concern the material needs of others:

Corporal Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry

Give drink to the thirsty

Clothe the naked

Shelter the homeless

Visit the sick

Visit the imprisoned

Bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy concern the spiritual needs of others:

Spiritual Works of Mercy

Instruct the ignorant

Counsel the doubtful

Admonish sinners

Bear wrongs patiently

Forgive offences willingly

Comfort the afflicted

Pray for the living and the dead.

Depictions of both the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy will hang in the narthex at St. Thomas Aquinas to remind us to practice acts of mercy at home, at school, at work, at church—wherever we are.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Year of Mercy begins on the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, and the issuing of its final document Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the World.  Let us pray that this Year of Mercy renews our baptismal call to be signs of God’s mercy in the world.