I am blessed to be in a parish that always has very reverent and
beautiful liturgies, whether they are the Ordinary Form or the
Extraordinary Form. We try to wake up for the early 7:30 am EF most
Sunday’s, but this last week due to a late night for the kids we decided
to “sleep in” and go to the 8:30 am OF. The one year old managed to
last in the pew until the homily and then I was pacing in the back with
her and other parents and young tots. I noticed that I paid much worse
attention to the sung OF Mass than I do when I am in back for the quiet
low EF Mass.
I imagine that it was largely my own fault. I did not exert
myself towards the liturgy, and I realized that it was because I could
hear what was going on. When I am only paying attention with my ears, if
I am not careful, my mind and my heart tend to wander. I need to
visually follow to really have conscious participation. Ideally I will
have a missal (at both forms) and follow word for word everything that
is prayed, but holding a missal is not an option in my state in life.
And maybe that is why the quiet low Mass is more prayerful for me,
because I have to follow with my eyes in order to follow with my heart.
Since the Church is so universal, each person has his or her own
strengths when it comes to active participation in the liturgy. God has
gifted us all differently and calls us all to different things. Gifted
musicians, for example, tend to be in the choir wherever they are
parishioners. It is where they can participate in the liturgy, where
they are called to be. Others are called to be ushers, altar servers,
deacons, or priests. Most of us are called to be the people in the pews.
But in the pews we all pray differently. We are all different and all
have different relationships with God. There are certain unifying
actions we all do, but our participation in the heart is unique to
ourselves.
When the Second Vatican Council discussed the liturgy and produced the document
Sacrosanctum Concilium,
the active participation of the faithful was something they were
strongly considering. It has always been a concern with the Church. Even
after the Council of Trent when Catholicism was such a part of everyday
life, lay catechization on the liturgy was considered to be important.
By the early 19
th century, secularism had spread across
Europe, and the liturgical movement began. It was from the fruits of
that movement that the council fathers sought to help the laity
understand the liturgy. Here is what they said about our participation:
Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation
in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the
liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as “a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Pet. 2:9; cf.
2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their baptism.
In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else;
for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful
are to derive the true Christian spirit; and therefore pastors of souls
must zealously strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all their pastoral work[...] (SC 14)
With zeal and patience, pastors of souls must promote the
liturgical instruction of the faithful, and also their active
participation in the liturgy both internally and externally, taking into account their age and condition, their way of life, and standard of religious culture. (SC 19)
I really appreciate how considerate the Church is in knowing that not
everyone can participate in the same way. When I see statements about
taking into account age, condition, and way of life, in addition to the
sick, the Church is keeping in mind the parent of little ones. This is
where pacing in back counts; it is very active and still counts as
participation.
We are called by God and by the Church to have a “fully conscious,
and active participation,” but this cannot come about without “necessary
instruction.” It all makes sense when I see my children in the pew at
either form of the Mass. They have had instruction according to their
mental abilities. The four year old mostly looks forward and whispers
occasionally to her father. She listens to the readings when she chooses
to or when she recognizes a story. The three year old has a picture
board book, which has the main parts of Mass, and lately she has been
trying very hard to stay on the right page. She stares at the book and
whispers loudly asking “are we here?” and then will grin at her baby
sister. The one year old will climb on the kneeler, look at books, and
when she is really paying attention shriek as loud as she can and then
quickly put her finger in front of her lips and shush.
For an adult, it is quiet different. We should know what each part of
the Mass is and follow it with out hearts and bodies. Hopefully, we
have all been given the appropriate instruction through our religious
education or through RCIA. But it seems that the priest is called to
continue to catechize us all on the liturgy, in homilies and in other
parish events. Understanding liturgical action, adds to our ability to
participate. Even the least catechized person can still pick up a
“worship aid” and follow the Mass.
Most parishes are very good at promoting active participation:
The people should be encouraged to take part by means
of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as
by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all
should observe a reverent silence. (SC 30)
Sometimes, however, the best intentions of liturgical planners
backfire, and all of the external “participation” turns into a
distraction. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI put it this way a book he wrote
as Joseph Ratzinger,
The Spirit of the Liturgy:
It is not now a matter of looking toward the priest,
but of looking together toward the Lord and going out to meet him. The
almost theatrical entrance of different players into the liturgy, which
is so common today, especially during the Preparation of the Gifts,
quite simply misses the point. If the various external actions (…)
become essential in the liturgy, if the liturgy degenerates into general
activity, then we have radically misunderstood the “theo-drama” of the
liturgy and lapsed almost into parody[...] One must be led toward the
essential action that makes the liturgy what it is, toward the
transforming power of God, who wants, through what happens in the
liturgy to transform us and the world. (The Spirit of the Liturgy 175)
As laity, we have little say in what happens in the liturgies we
attend, and thus we have to find a way to participate in the liturgy,
which is centered around God’s action. Ratzinger explained:
The real “action” in the liturgy in which we are all supposed to participate is the action of God himself. This is what is new and distinctive about the Christian liturgy: God himself acts and does what is essential[...]
The uniqueness of the Eucharistic Liturgy lies precisely in the fact
that God himself is acting and that we are drawn into that action of
God. Everything else is, therefore, secondary. (The Spirit of the Liturgy 173-174)
If you have come this far with me, then you are finally arriving at
my point. How can we learn to participate better at any Mass, no matter
what is going on? How did I learn to pray at any liturgy, despite my
more traditional leanings? I give you my:
Six Ways to Internally Participate in God’s Action in the Liturgy:
1. Prepare as much as you can, especially for Sunday Mass.
Read the readings before the liturgy, so when you here them again, your
heart can be open more fully to God’s Word.
2. Focus your attention on the unchanging parts of the Mass.
The basics will always be there, no matter what else is added in or not.
The OF and the EF have the same basic parts, especially the Eucharist,
and that is where unity can be found between them.
3. Follow in a missal or missalette, if you
can. I have found that even when I have heard a Eucharistic Prayer
hundreds of times, I pay so much more attention to God’s actions when I
read along.
4. If you can’t read along, exert yourself to listen, watch, and pray.
The action at the altar is where God acts. You can join your heart with
the sacrifice on the altar; the sacrifice is ours to take part in.
5. Memorize or have with you a devotional prayer for before
receiving the Eucharist and another for after. This helps greatly with
remembering that the liturgy is for our salvation. My favorite
before and
after where written by St. Thomas Aquinas.
6. If something is distracting for you, offer it up, and focus on the real action, which is God’s.
This was the hardest thing for me when I discovered the richness of the
Church’s liturgical tradition. But when I was able to get over my
nit-pickiness, I learned to move beyond what I wished was different, and
seek God in the liturgy.
Even when we find ourselves at the “story hour like” liturgies discussed by Rachel Lu in her essay
Love For the Latin Liturgy More Than a Fashion
and it seems like none of the Church’s ancient traditions are preserved
in the new Masses most of us attend, God’s actions are still there and
we can participate in them with our whole selves.
