Why not Start with Daily Prayer?

 (This is a draft for a new post this week at ND.  Another post  Start with Sunday!  got slightly less responses (11) and less discussants (6)that mine on the Divine Office. It actually had a good suggestion that we use JPII's encyclical Dies Domini to get a renewed appreciation for the Lord's Day. However one of the discussants criticized doing things like the Liturgy of the Hours when we really need to focus on the Mass.  This is my essentially my response.  In order to not have an overly long post as if I were one of the presenters, I essential ask a question, then give my responses. The lines below mark off those responses. People can respond to this question, or they can engage with with each of my responses) 

Why not Start with Daily Prayer?

The PEW Religious Landscape studies done in 2007 and 2014 are large (35,000+) studies with many Catholics (15000+). Hence they result in very reliable data with the same methodology. Hopefully there will be another one this year!

The weekly attendance of Catholics fell from 41% in 2007 to 39% in 2014. In both years there were about 40% of Catholics who attended monthly or infrequently, while about 20% attended seldom or never.

HOWEVER , 58% of Catholics prayed daily in 2007 and 59% prayed daily in 2014.

Among weekly Mass attenders, 83% prayed daily.

Among monthly Mass attenders, 51% prayed daily.

Among those who seldom or ever attended Mass, 38% still prayed daily!

Therefore we need large signs both on the physical property and on the website, that proclaim:

IF YOU PRAY DAILY, COME WORSHIP WITH US THIS WEEKEND!

This daily prayer approach affirms the person’s positive behavior (daily prayer) as the basis for coming to Church. It does not put barriers to that return by focusing upon problems either in the person’s life or in the Church. The aim is to create an upward rather than a downward spiral in the person’s life and their attitudes toward Church.

IF implies that the person’s own daily behavior is the basis for their coming to church. Consistency is a powerful human motivation. Moreover they are being affirmed and welcomed precisely because of their daily prayer behavior.

 Moreover the approach emphasizes that the community (YOU and US) is a community of PRAYER and WORSHIP.  Again the approach bypasses talking about beliefs, values, and practices where the person might experience conflict, disagreement and inconsistency.

This question is an update of an idea I first developed in 2009 as a result of being on a parish council. In my responses to the question I will develop its relationship to my insights from my experience  of the pandemic.

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 THE VIRTUAL PARISH WEBSITE

The website should emphasize public worship as the heart of parish and what it means to be Catholic. Public worship includes the Divine Office as well as the Mass and Sacraments.

The parish website should livestream all worship services, e.g. Mass, funerals, weddings.  Anyone whether they are Catholics who are shopping for a parish or Christians shopping for a religious community should not have to come to the parish to experience the ritual, the music and the homilies of the parish. Everything should be publicly displayed on the website for all to see and experience a foretaste of the sounds and visuals of worship. The aim of the website is to become a virtual projection in sound and video of the worship and life of parish, a landmark in cyberspace.

Our choir director frequently emphasizes the impacts that he has seen the choir have upon people coming to church. With the Virtual Parish website, priests, choir and the congregation should realize the impact they can have on people who do not come to church. Indeed everyone should put on their Sunday best.

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 WEBSITE WORSHIP VIDEOS (The Parish Virtual Book of Common Prayer)

The website should be full of high quality videos featuring parish members singing hymns and psalms for the Mass and Divine Office. People would be invited to use them in their daily lives. They will tell of story of the parish life and worship in images and sound.  For example, our parish logo is Being Christ Everywhere, Every Day

Magnificat example:  My soul proclaims the greatness (High altar incensing with priest in cope);his lowly handmaiden (Marian Statue or icon);his name is holy (elevation before Lord’s prayer);  he has scattered the proud (marginalized people served by the parish); filled the hungry ( the parish food pantry); he has come to the help of his servant ( single person walking along the Lake Erie shore at sunset with iphone and head phones);  he has remembered his mercy ( scene of family and children around a table); concluding with the parish choir singing the Glory be

Besides being a Virtual Book of Common Prayer, the videos would be the equivalent of a massive church with all its various side chapels and shrines.  In this case it is the Church  existing not simply within a physical building but in all the activities of its members.

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VIRTUAL DIVINE OFFICE

The Divine Office has always been present but in a nonpublic manner within the parish in the personal recitation of the Divine Office by priests and deacons.  Pope Francis has said that Christ is knocking on the church door asking to get out.  I think he wants his prayer to escape the hands of  clergy and monks to live in the hearts and minds of his people. Why should the Prayer of the Church be confined to clergy and religious? The sung Virtual Divine Office would give access to anyone who has access to the internet even if illiterate, or hearing impaired.

Vatican II recommended the celebration of Vespers on Sunday Evenings. The parish could begin by recoding sung Vespers each Sunday and recommending its use during the weekdays.

Since the Instruction allows flexibility during Ordinary Time, the parish over a course of 24 weeks could record the celebration of Vespers for the rest of the four week psalter.  All of these would be videos of the celebration with an online worship aid.

Then the parish could begin the production of Lauds for the Four Week Psalter in videos that have the text illuminated by scenes from the parish as in the Magnificat example above If this was successful then the parish could do Vespers in the same manner. The end result would be an illuminated video for the Four Week Psalter in ordinary time integrating parish life and worship.