Tidings Liturgy Articles, 1975-1981

In 1972 or 1973, I think it was, Cardinal Timothy Manning established the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission, following the Vatican guidelines that set norms for each diocese in the world to establish a commission to guide the process of liturgical reform mandated by the Second Vatican Council and being carried codified, piecemeal, by the Vatican’s Liturgy Consilium. I had just returned from a year’s study at the Pontifical LIturgical Institute at Sant’Anselmo in Rome (1972-73) and was preparing to return in the summer/fall of 1975 for an additional year to complete a Licentiate in Liturgical Theology degree.

As part of an effort to educate the faithful in the “new liturgy”, the Commission decided that a weekly column on liturgy should appear in The Tidings, the official Archdiocesan weekly newspaper. Fr. Charles Miller, a professor at St. John’s Seminary, and I were chosen to write these articles.

My goal in this task was not merely to explain (or defend) “the changes”, but to probe the theological and historical background of this “new liturgy” in a way that could be meaningful to the ordinary participant in his or her parish.

Looking back on these articles many years later, I find that many of the themes and perspectives I articulated then have continued to be key components of my pastoral practice and teaching in subsequent years. Click on the links below to read each of the articles.

Page 1 – The Eucharistic Prayer is the Heart of the Mass (1/3/75)

This article inaugurated the series at the beginning of 1975. Now, in my 81st year of life and 55th year in the Catholic priesthood, I still think this was a fitting place to start.

The Eucharistic Prayer is the center – summit and source – of everything else we may say about the liturgical life of the Church, and indeed about the Church’s life and mission. This moment in the Mass brings everything else into focus.

I wrote the first 14 of these articles – up to July 1976 – while I was an associate pastor at St. Philomena Church in Carson, CA, and preparing to return to Rome. Father Charles Miller wrote the next three articles. I do not have access to them and am not sure if they are preserved in Archdiocesan archives. Nor do I recall if there was any attempt to coordinate our topics.

Page 2 – Diverse Ministries Within the Mass (1/31/75)

The important but sometimes abrupt and poorly prepared changes in the liturgy required, I think, a more careful implementation and formation than was often done at the parish level. Neither the majority of Catholic faithful nor the majority of clergy were well prepared to begin to understand the background to things like the development of lay ministries. There was conflict over “how far can (or should) we go?” As various liturgical roles for lay men and women began to be established, I would often quip that, ten years earlier, Catholics only used the word “minister” to describe Protestant clergy; now they suddenly discovered that they themselves were being called ministers in liturgical functions.

Some years later, I became aware that the etymological origin of the word “minister” is from Latin, minus = small and stare = to stand. Thus to minister is to stand small. This immediately defines “ministry” as a relationship, which is always two-way, rather than an activity. Roles, responsibilities, and activities involved in ministries flow from the basic relationship of standing small in relation to the other. This relationship is not one of inferiority but one of support. One stands small in relation to others in order to lift them up. This has been a central concept in my subsequent teaching in ministry formation programs.

I think it’s not too much to say all ministry is mutual: those who earnestly engage in activity (service, diakonia) as a result of “standing small” in relation to another invariably find themselves ministered to by those they serve. If some sense of mutuality is not present, I think one needs to question the authenticity and motives of one’s ministry. Ministering primarily out of one’s own personal need to “be of service” too often results in empty and often short-lived self-satisfaction and may leave the person in need worse off than before.

If the Eucharist is the summit and source of the Christian life and mission, liturgical ministries must mirror ministry in the Christian community. That means, for example, that the Presider of the Eucharist is also, at least in some sense, also president of the life and mission of the community outside liturgy. A minister of Holy Communion also has the responsibility to in some way nourish the members of the Body of Christ. A lector must love and live the Word of God in daily life in a way that communicates the beauty and power of the Word. An usher or minister of hospitality must live according to the hospitality he or she shows at Sunday Mass. And so on . . .

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