Blessings

Catholics love blessings! Blessings are assurances of God’s presence and protection. The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with stories of God’s favor bestowed in the form of a blessing. The Bible begins with God creating the earth and blessing all living creatures. In the gospels, Jesus is often seen blessing others, especially children.

It’s no wonder that our rituals are filled with blessings. One of the first things we do when we walk into church is to bless ourselves with holy water from the baptismal font. This is only one of several blessings we experience at Mass. During the Mass, the bread and the wine are blessed after they are presented at the altar. At the end of Mass, the entire community is sent forth with a blessing.

We even have an official ritual book known as the Book of Blessings. This book contains a compilation of blessings pertaining to people, objects, and various occasions, as well as blessings and services connected with official parish events. There are blessings for students and teachers, blessings for travelers, blessings for homes and offices, even blessings for boats and fishing gear. This tells us that everything, even fishing equipment comes from God and is sacred. Blessings are a way for us to acknowledge this reality.

Who can bless? Certain blessings are reserved for ordained ministers, but many blessings, such as the blessing of children by their parents or the blessing of a meal, may be performed by laypersons because of the priesthood bestowed on them in baptism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Every baptized person is to be a blessing and to bless.” A blessing is not simply meant to rest upon the person receiving the blessing, but is expected to be shared with others.

As the Book of Blessings reminds us, “Scripture attests that all the beings God has created and keeps in existence by his gracious goodness declare themselves to be blessings from him and should move us to bless him in return.”

The Lord's Prayer

It is somewhat of a norm to begin or end a meeting or gathering of parishioners with the Lord’s Prayer. I wonder whether that is because it’s a common ritual prayer or because it’s at the core of who we are as a people of faith. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between. Because the Lord’s Prayer is so familiar, we can speak the words without really paying attention to what they say or considering what they mean.

If I say this prayer slowly and contemplatively, I can understand why it is placed at the beginning of the Communion Rite. The prayer teaches me that God desires an intimacy with me that enables me to call God “Father.” Because the prayer is plural throughout, it teaches me that my life is interdependent with the community of believers, that my words and actions have an effect on others. Ultimately the prayer teaches me that true peace can only happen when I forgive, when I surrender my needs to God’s will, and when I honestly believe that the “daily bread” I seek will be more than enough.

The Lord’s Prayer was given to us by Jesus through the gospels of both Matthew (6:9-13), and Luke (11:2-4). It was used in both private prayer and in liturgical worship from the earliest centuries. One of the Fathers of the Church found the teachings in the Lord’s Prayer so rich he called it “The summary of the whole gospel.” Perhaps that is why the RCIA makes a point of handing on the Lord’s Prayer to the Elect (the unbaptized) in a special ritual that typically takes place during the fifth week of Lent. May the Elect

Sent Forth to Evangelize

Not long ago, I awoke one morning, looked at my phone, and saw the message from Facebook: Pope Francis has accepted your friend request.

To be a “friend” of the Holy Father was inconceivable until the past several years. Certainly no one thought of such communication between the pontiff and others four decades ago when Pope Paul VI stated that the Church “exists in order to evangelize.” The pope wrote these words in the first paragraphs of a document called  Evangelization in the Modern World. That document responded to a synod of bishops on evangelization a year earlier. At that meeting, the bishops sought to answer the questions “What do we mean by the word evangelization?” This question has only spurred others such as, “How do we evangelize?” and “To whom do we evangelize?” More than forty years later, we are still asking these questions.

The world has changed in the past four decades and so have our means and methods of evangelization. Not long ago, I woke up one morning, looked at my iphone and saw this message from Facebook: "Pope Francis has accepted your friend request."

That would have been inconceivable in the 1970s.

Pontiffs and publishers alike have attempted to offer us guidance for evangelization in a contemporary world, from Rebuilt to Divine Renovation, from the Amazing Parish Conferences to Alpha. Many of these programs and strategies are designed to help the Church reignite itself. They affirm another statement in Evangelii Nuntiandi, “The church is an evangelizer, but she begins by being evangelized herself.” Still others are aimed at moving parishes from maintenance to mission.

Pope Francis envisions a church whose evangelization is directed outward. In his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), he says,

“I dream of a missionary option, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. #27

The Pope often speaks of a “culture of encounter” to encourage the baptized to move beyond our usual circles in order to bring the mercy of Jesus to the world, especially to the poor and to those often neglected by society.

            “In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become

            missionary disciples.” Evangelii Gaudium #120

Whenever we celebrate the liturgy, we are reminded of the call to be missionary disciples because each liturgy is an encounter with Jesus. We encounter Jesus in the hospitality, the sorrows and the joys of the People of God. We encounter Jesus in the Word proclaimed and in the prayers. We encounter Jesus in the sacred meal, the bread broken and the wine poured out. We encounter Jesus in ritual and symbol and gesture. These encounters are meant to season us to be the “salt of the earth,” to tenderize us to be the mercy of God. The liturgy strengthens us to build up the kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” So that when we are sent forth to our workplaces, our homes, our schools, our communities we might encounter people in a different way, whether we are on social media or in a social gathering.

As Pope Francis says in The Joy of the Gospel,

            “Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus

          to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city

            square, during work, on a journey.”

Our world has changed a lot in the past forty years, but our mission hasn’t. We still exist to evangelize. It has been said that the Church doesn’t have a mission; the mission has a Church. As Pope Francis asks, “What are we waiting for?”

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.

Praying for Our Dead

In the film Coco, 12-year old Miguel Rivera’s dream of becoming a musician transports him to the land of the dead. The concept for the movie is based on the Mexican holiday known as the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. The movie offers a powerful testimony to the practice of remembering our dead.

One of the ways we as Catholics remember our dead is to pray for them. The Bible offers several accounts of prayer for the dead, the earliest of which is seen in the second book of Maccabees. Other early evidence of the Christian practice of praying for the dead can be found in the Roman catacombs, where inscriptions include both prayers for the dead and requests for prayers. Early Church Fathers, such as Tertullian and Augustine also witness to the tradition of praying for departed family and friends.

Prayers for the dead begin as soon as the person dies. Among its various rites, The Order of Christian Funerals includes “Prayers after Death” and “Gathering in the Presence of the Body.” Both of these rites are designed to bring comfort to the mourners at the time of death or shortly thereafter.

As the Order of Christian Funerals states,

“At the death of a Christian, whose life of faith was begun in the waters of baptism and strengthened at the Eucharistic table, the Church intercedes on behalf of the deceased because of its confident belief that death is not the end nor does it break the bonds forged in life.” 4

The funeral liturgy, especially the celebration of the Mass, is the primary way the community offers prayers for their dead:

“At the funeral rites, especially at the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice, the Christian community affirms and expresses the union of the Church on earth with the Church in heaven in the one great communion of saints.” 6

After the funeral liturgy, the community continues to remember and pray for the dead at “Masses for the Dead,” on special anniversaries and occasions, on Solemnities such as All Saints and All Souls’ Day, and during the Eucharistic Prayer:

“Remember also, Lord, your servants N. and N., who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace.” Eucharistic Prayer I

“Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope

of the resurrection, and all who have died in your mercy: welcome them into the light of your face.” Eucharistic Prayer II

“To our departed brothers and sisters and to all who were pleasing to you

at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to your kingdom.”

Eucharistic Prayer III

“Remember also those who have died in the peace of your Christ and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known.” Eucharistic Prayer IV

We offer our prayers for the dead to commend them to God’s merciful love, to ease their transition from this life to the next, and to keep them close at heart, as the Order of Christian Funerals sates,

“Though separated from the living, the dead are still at one with the community of believers on earth and benefit from their prayers and intercession.” 6