From this week's bulletin of my parish:
My Sisters and Brothers,
Jesus said (and says), “I am the bread that came down from heaven”. And the Jews “murmured”. It makes me wonder how many times and in how many ways all of us still might “murmur” about this ultimate gift of love we are privileged to share in the Eucharist.
Let me give you some examples of modern-day murmuring. “Mass is boring”; or, “I didn’t like the music”, or “the homily was too long”; or, it could be the way we dress, or habitually coming late, or just not even trying to sing and participate. Or maybe, “I was just too busy with other things”, or even worse, “I just felt like being lazy and sleeping in”. The examples are many and varied, and I am guessing that most of us are guilty of “murmuring” about the Mass at one time or another or in one way or another. And yes, I am sorry to say, that includes me.
This is not meant as a guilt trip for any of us, but rather as a reminder to never lose sight of how blessed we are to share in the love and life of God through the Eucharist. One might say, “It just doesn’t get any better than this”. The challenge is, when we do something that seems the same (or at least very similar), we could take it for granted.
Celebrating the Eucharist is not primarily what we do for God, but a response to what God does for us. Jesus, our God, gives His entire life to us in this great sacrament. We respond with open and grateful hearts to the greatest gift of God’s love and with the commitment to do our best to, “Do this in memory of Me”. The “this” means to try and replace the murmuring with a commitment to bring the love and joy of Christ to others, “to become what we receive”, and to be instruments of bringing others to share in this precious gift.
.
.. next weekend we begin a prayer initiative to invite people back to Mass who have been away for various reasons. Start thinking of people who you can personally and lovingly invite. We will explain more as we go about this
Later on in the bulletin:
PRAY AND INVITE PEOPLE BACK
Starting on August 17/18, we are beginning a prayer initiative to invite people back to Mass who have been away for various reasons. You will be invited to write names on a card of those you would like to invite back. Those cards will be collected and placed in a basket near the altar. Nothing will happen with the names, and no one will see them except you. In the weeks following, we will pray for all of those people and encourage you to invite back to Mass in a non-judgmental way, the people whose names you have written. Our hope is that these people will come on Sept. 14/15 and be touched by the gift of the Eucharist and continue coming each week.
The idea of having existing members of the parish recruit those who have not gone to Mass is also being used by choir director to recruit new members. The choir is also down in numbers. He is asking the 30 remaining choir members to each recruit two new people for a total of sixty and hopes to get 20 out of that number to join the choir. He asked for our suggestions.
Within 24 hours Betty and I had three suggestions:
1. Have the choir rehearsals before each Mass (there are four) in the church rather than the chapel of reservation. Invite people to come early to practice with the choir or just listen.
2. Open up the first half hour of each Thursday night choir practice to anyone who wants to practice for next Sundays Mass. Invite people to the Mass immediately preceding the choir practice which would use all familiar hymns as a warm-up.
3. Post the hymns for each Sunday Mass on the parish website with links to YouTube versions so that people could practice at home before Mass. Anytime the choir perfects a hymn post it on the parish website, so that people could practice with our own choir.
I thought this would not only be a great way to recruit choir members but also a great way to do Eucharist renewal. Give people some reasons to come back.
Personally, I really would not invite anyone to join the choir or come back to parish worship unless I could point out to them how the parish as part of Eucharist renewal is doing things differently. I concluded my suggestions with the following.
Our diocese did the Vibrant Parish Life Study in April 2003 with 129 participating parishes and 46,241 total survey responses. Thirty-nine items were ranked in terms of importance and how well done they were. “Masses that are prayerful, reverent and spiritually moving” was ranked #1 in importance but #21 in being well done. “The parish as a supportive, caring community” was ranked as #2 in importance but #18 in being well done. (I was on parish council at the time; our parish data said the same thing.). I was surprised by the results.
I had always thought my tendency to view most liturgies as mediocre was because I had experienced so many great liturgies. After thinking about it, I decided most people have had similar experiences. The fact is we have overflow crowds at Christmas and Easter when we do liturgy well. We just need to imitate the Evangelicals who have much better average church attendance because they emphasize the Lord’s Day over church seasons. If we want more people to come to the Eucharist more often during “ordinary time,” the preparation for it will have to be more like Christmas and Easter.
I don't expect my suggestions to be taken seriously. The whole tone of the pastor and music director is that other people are the problem, we don't need to change anything just invite everyone and they will come, especially if people who know them help in the arm twisting..
I did NOT include one other finding from the Vibrant Parish life Study * Parish leadership that listens to the concerns of parishioners * was ranked #7 in importance among thirty-nine items in both the Diocesan and Parish data, it was ranked #29 in being well done in the diocesan data and #30 in the parish data!!!
The local parish is starting OCIA (formerly RCIA, I guess) in September. They've combined the catechumens, candidates, and lapsed into one catch-all program.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how that's working out, but they only have one or two people per year in the program, often times none.
They run it at our sister parish, which is 10 miles away on bad twisty road in the winter in the dark. My guess is that anybody who wants to be Catholic and willing to drive 10 miles will go to the parish due east on a straight highway.
I think the truth is that nobody really wants new Catholics in either of these parishes unless they're related to a parishioner. When you wander in off the street like I did, you're a problem because they have to help you find a sponsor. You never meet people in the parish because you are kept away from the congregation during RCIA.
Are they still doing that thing of dismissing the catechumens after the gospel during RCIA? That always seemed counter productive, and it did separate people from the rest of the parish.
DeleteNot sure how they run it at the sister parish. Raber says that at the local parish they still have everyone sit in the cry room for the entire Mass, but there haven't been any participants since before covid.
DeleteI would agree with the importance of Masses being prayerful, reverent, and spiritually moving. But I am resistant to an attitude that we are there to be entertained. If people think Mass is boring, what are they putting into it? If we have the opportunity to be at Mass, it is a blessing that many people don't have.
ReplyDeleteWe can emphasize both the Lord's Day and the liturgical seasons, which enrich our spiritual life.
Speaking as a choir member, we do listen to feedback that people give us about what songs they like. When introducing a new song we sing it first as a meditation, and then include it as part of the liturgy. We try to have both traditional and contemporary music.
It took awhile after the pandemic to get people back, but most of the weekend Masses are full now, even though we have had to cut back on the number of Masses because of the priest shortage. With the "family of parishes" thing we are doing, we are offering a wide range of times.
I still believe the CCC holds the richest and most compassionate traditions of Christianity through the holy sacraments and the encouragement of the saints.
ReplyDeleteBut organized religion needs well-off and influential people to keep a parish going. I think that skews the compassion and encouragement part of it. Certainly saw that in the Episcopalians.
"I still believe the CCC holds the richest and most compassionate traditions of Christianity through the holy sacraments and the encouragement of the saints."
DeleteHi Jean, I didn't understand the reference to "CCC". is that the Catholic Church? Catechism?
Should be RCC. Sorry.
DeleteCatholics Come Home has some "evangomercials" that I assume can be used by parishes in their efforts to attract the lapsed.
ReplyDeleteMy sense is that throwing things at people--slick commercials, short sermons, better music, coffee and donuts, fish frys, nice architecture, well-mannered children, a dress code--isn't what people are yearning for. It's a human connection that says, no matter what color you are, what your sexual proclivities are, how you vote, how much money you've got, we're not shocked, we're not judging, we just want you to know Christ through us at this moment and all moments of your life.
https://www.catholicscomehome.org/our-evangomercials/
The Christmas Easter campaigns usually help refill the pews - especially Christmas - but only temporarily. They play on sentiment. But afterwards, the Sunday headcounts gradually go down until they are about where they were before the ad campaigns. But - I don’t think that the reason people leave and don’t return has much - if anything - to do with liturgy, whether fantastic or poorly done. People seek community and spiritual support, and if they are constantly harangued about sin, about the hot button issues, and they don’t feel welcome because they hear too much of it, they leave. I also think that the return to 1950s pieties without a parallel increase in offerings of other forms of prayer, like Centering Prayer, Lectio, Ignatian contemplation etc, drives some to leave. They aren’t being spiritually fed by the pre- Vatican II pieties and they aren't being offered any alternatives. The Alpha course leans too heavily on evangelical understandings and on the charismatic movement to appeal to most who leave. Jack has tried and tried to get the Divine Office taught in his parishes but it falls on deaf ears.
DeleteThen there are the teachings about women - not just the ban on Holy Orders but the “ complentarity” teachings that place women as being subordinate to men in the marriage as well as in the church. The Theology of the Body was almost laughable at times talking about the female role in marital lovemaking.
Studies show that during the last 20-30 years, women, especially young women, are leaving the church in huge numbers because of the misogyny embodied in official teaching. Even worse now that more and more younger priests are banning girls from altar service, banning women from being lectors, etc. I’ve read several studies where young women say they don’t want to raise their children in a church that teaches that their sons are better than their daughters. These younger women grew up in a secular world that teaches through action that girls can be professional athletes, Olympic champions, CEOs of multi- national companies, doctors, lawyers, accountants, firefighters, pilots, etc, etc - basically the whole range of vocations that were often closed to we older women when we were young. In the last 11 months, with far more opportunities to observe our healthcare system in action than I ever wished to have, I have noted that not only are many - maybe most - of the docs in the hospitals women, but that the stigma on men becoming nurses seems to have disappeared. I would say that close to half the nurses my husband has had in Hospitals this year have been men. Equality continues to spread and be accepted in the secular world, but not in the Catholic Church. Gender discrimination is getting less in most parts of the culture of the developed nations, and in mainline Protestantism, and Conservative and Reform Judaism, but not in the RCC or evangelical Christianity. Young women are now also leaving evangelical Christianity because of the teachings on women’s “place” but the educated young adults in evangelical Christian churches in general are also put off by the teachings on homosexuality and transgender issues and are dropping out. One EC minister that I met at a reception after attending a funeral told me that the majority of his new parishioners are “ recovering” Catholics and evangelical Christians, including Southern Baptists..
I think a major Christmas and Easter masses tend to be really full is because families which usually are scattered, are gathered together for the holidays. It might behoove the church to give that some consideration: supporting families might also increase church attendance.
DeleteI guess every parish would say, "We already support families". By that, they mean: we baptize infants; we offer sacramental formation for First Communion and Confirmation; we provide religious ed (and in some cases, a Catholic school) for members of the parish. Nothing wrong (at least in theory, if perhaps not always in practice) with any of those things. But perhaps those things are necessary but not sufficient? What else could churches do to be more family-friendly?
I suspect churches who take that question seriously will very quickly find themselves wading into the tricky waters of (1) families of divorced and remarried parents (who didn't get previous marriages annulled); and (2) single-parent households. That second category would seem to offer some rich veins of pastoral opportunity, as about 1/4 of US households are single-parent households. Catholic parishes would have to put some serious thought, and perhaps make some serious investments, to be welcoming to such families. The obvious thing to offer would be some combination of child care and day care.
Parishes are run by bureaucracies which almost inevitably resist change and reform, even when there are aspects of a parish which parishioners find unsatisfactory.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned in a column above that it might make sense for parishes to offer day care and child care. Thinking about that for a moment, I can easily see why parishes don't pursue something like that. It would require a fair amount of money, and a lot of work. Almost certainly, a parish would have to hire someone to be in charge of standing up and running the child care ministry. 95% of pastors would immediately lose interest; they would claim, probably justifiably, that there is no money in the budget for such an initiative.
And if a pastor didn't immediately say no, the next step would be for me to bring the idea to a parish staff meeting. The opposition to such an initiative would be nearly unanimous. Nobody on staff would want to be saddled with a major responsibility like spinning up a child care ministry. It would be a ton of work, and the risk of failure is high. Child care ministry isn't in any of their job descriptions, and it isn't why they were hired by the parish. As for hiring someone else: they'd probably see that as diminishing their own budgets.
Parishes could start small. Having Sunday CCD for kids was a small step for the local parish, but a major help to parents. I guess the Church ladies are still mad about it. But the CCD admin agitated for it. Made it much easier for many working parents to get kids to church.
ReplyDeleteRaber said he thought they also had a drop off nursery for squirmy preschoolers with moms taking turns. They read the kids Bible stories and have snacks.
Next step might be to figure out a way to accommodate parents scheduled for weekend work. Once these families know each other from Sunday school, a parent who doesn't work on Sundays might volunteer to pick up kids whose parents are at work.
Some group is also running pilgrimages to various sites around Michigan, there's a Promise Keepers type deal for young husbands, and what seems to be an older ladies prayer group.
Maybe let people grow these "ministries" amongst themselves and let them tell the priest or deacons what they need?
Our former parish had several programs- Sunday CCD as well as after school CCD. They had a Childrens Liturgy of the Word where the children left the church and received a child’s version of the readings and homily before returning to their parents. There was a Mothers of Young Children group that met weekly and provided a lot of moral support for moms who weren’t working and had babies and preschool kids. There was babysitting for the kids at the same time. All of these programs were started and run by volunteers. I was involved with starting the Mom group and was a volunteer at the Childrens Liturgy of the Word. There was babysitting for the youngest children during mass. The priest who was the junior priest on staff always did the Childrens liturgy with the volunteers. - he was fantastic with young kids, teens and tweens, and adults. But when he hit about 40 he requested laïcisation- he had always wanted a family AND to be a priest but was only allowed to do one. He left the priesthood not long after a married, corner EC priest came to the parish. That might have been the final shove out the door. He wanted to marry and have kids before it was too late. And he had become a priest as a Catholic, not Protestant.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit strange when he came to some of the family celebrations of friends who were also parishioners when he asked us to introduce him to any possible women friends who might be interested and who were single. I lost track of him after he moved away to get an advanced degree in Peace and Justice studies at a small Mennonite college. I hope that he finally found someone to share his life with. He was a terrific priest. There were also the usual groups - Bible study, Renew, whatever the current fads were. Lots of adult Ed, often taught by priests from the Catholic colleges and seminaries in DC.But it was a very big parish and a big pool of volunteers for the many available ministries - Social Justice, various food and clothing spcamoaigns, Christmas toys and gifts for homeless, Thanksgiving turkeys, an annual Christmas luncheon for residents of the home run by the nuns of Sr Theresa of Calcutta in DC, CYO sports etc Doughnuts and coffee after three masses. A great library. Charismatic prayer and Centering prayer groups. Etc, etc. . All done by volunteers. The parish is about half the size now and doesn’t seem to have very much going on since Covid.
The Church Ladies are getting old and their grip is loosening. Not thrilled to see RadTrads in the local parish replacing them, but at least they are implementing some good changes in trying to build something that serves young families.
DeleteMaybe once they provide for the parish needs they will be more outward looking at the community at large.
I like the way the Methodist ladies here do Senior Lunch. Suggested donation is $5, but nobody is taking money, just a jar at the front. If you're broke you put in a buck (or nothing). Lots of us pay extra when we can. Somehow they manage to have enough. Loaves and fishes?
The Methodists are really good about outreach. I’m glad that you have them in your community. I hope the young RadTrads in your parish do get some good programs going for families. But maybe they shouldn’t run RCIA. But from what you have said, they may not be much worse than the Church Ladies.
DeleteChurch Ladies went on and on about Catholic marriage, the BVM, and Memory Lane stories about the nuns at their Catholic schools. Often we were unsure of what lessons we were supposed to learn from these monologues.
DeleteRadTrads would put an emphasis on "reverence"--genuflecting, making the sign of the cross, proper placement of hands and tongue when receiving, church attire, etc.
Catholics who run these programs are selected for their personal piety, not for their understanding of Protestants or Nones or any ability to help others understand the teachings of the faith.
We have been lucky in our parish, the lady who has run RCIA for many years is a very friendly, down to earth person who is a convert herself. It seems like she mainly wants people to feel welcome and at ease. She is assisted by the director of religious ed who furnishes materials and sometimes lines up speakers. The priest takes an active interest.
DeleteDon't know how things are working out now since we have become a "family of parishes". RCIA moved over to the Big Church. Our RCIA lady is still involved, but I get the idea that their people run things, and may be a lot more particular about professional credentials. Don't know what little St. Stanislaus down the road is doing. They had always run their own program previously.
That's nice you have a convert to help newbies "translate" their experiences. I wonder if she tells people they're supposed to have sex every Sunday afternoon. Maybe that's a Catholic custom in some circles. I dunno. Raber and I still laugh about that rule. "Yikes look at the time! We better get busy!"
DeleteJean, I hope that you are kidding, but I fear you may not be!
DeleteLOL, I've been a Catholic 73 years, and I never heard that one!
DeleteSkyrockets in flight...
DeleteNo, I am not kidding. Church Lady went went on and on about training your kids to take naps or play quietly in the living room. The other candidate and I both had four-year-old boys at the time and burst out laughing.
DeleteJim, LOL, one of those '70s songs!
DeleteAs for children at Mass, during the pandemic I virtually attended a summer program at ND about getting people to come back to church. We had a lot of posts and comments about many issues.
ReplyDeleteSeemed a lot of parents really liked the idea of livestreamed Masses because the kids were much easier to control at home. Of course, staff hated the idea that all these parents were having a good time relaxing a home, sipping coffee and enjoying Mass with their kids. Some of them were very eager to shut down livestreaming and force people back to church.
I think livestreamed (but not recorded) Masses should be considered just as valid as going to church. We encourage people to go to World Youth Day masses where people can be almost a mile away from the audio and can only see and hear the action by jumbotrons and sound systems.
I would go so far as to either 1) encourage people to watch the livestream and then send Eucharistic ministers to the homebound with communion afterward, or 2) even better send Eucharist ministers to the homebound including those which children before Mass with the Eucharist.
There is very little real community in our large parishes, it is really more like a business with the staff serving customers.
Of course, if we had a married priesthood and small parishes like the local Orthodox, we would not have a problem. There everybody knows everybody and helps take care of young children, e.g. welcoming them to their pews and running interference when they head straight for the altar. Of course, all these kids have been receiving communion since they were baptized and anointed as infants.
I attend church services now the same way I do a restaurant: I visit only when it's not covid or flu season and getting around isn' t too hard, seat myself where my cane isn't in somebody's way, consume the spiritual sustenance du jour, and pay when they pass the plate. I no longer look for or expect social interaction with other "diners." I'd guess that's how it is for a lot of folks.
DeleteJeans says:
ReplyDeleteThe Church Ladies are getting old and their grip is loosening. Not thrilled to see RadTrads in the local parish replacing them, but at least they are implementing some good changes in trying to build something that serves young families.
Sounds a lot like my impression of the medieval church before the Council of Trent introduced the seminary system that created a bureaucracy of priests under the control of a bishop who actually would try to run things rather than being off at various courts dining with other members of the aristocracy.
Local church institutions were very much at the winds of waves of popular piety and superstition, some orthodox and some not, with occasional monks, priests and bishops trying to reform things.
A far cry from the very organized American Catholic Church of the first half of the twentieth century with its numerous priests and nuns with many parishes, schools, healthcare and charitable organizations all managed in a very corporate bureaucratic fashion.
Yesterday Betty and I watched the funeral of a Jesuit who had served Saint Cecilia's parish in Boston which has a livestreamed Mass that attracts thousands of people around the country. Peter had been a successful pediatric endocrinologist with job at the NIH. When the Jesuits were murdered in El Salvador, he left his job and offered his services to the people of El Salvador, and eventually became a Jesuit himself. As a Jesuit he founded an organization Faith that Works Justice serving immigrants in Boston. He was also delighted to celebrate Mass at Saint Cecilia's which has many young professionals who have moved to Boston as well as its now far-flung livestream congregation. Saint Cecilia's has been featured by America Magazine as an example of one parish's way of facing the decline of American Catholicism.
After Mass, Betty asked where Father Peter would be buried. I said probably in a Jesuit seminary attached to one of their former houses of formation. There is a cemetary at Wernersville which was the Jesuit Novitiate where I spent two years. The Novitiate is upon on a hill, at the bottom of the hill is the Jesuit cemetery. The Novitiate closed in the 1990s and became a retreat house. But that did not bring in sufficient money to pay the upkeep of its beautiful buildings.
Those building was built by Diamond Jim Brady and his wife who was an honorary Papal Duchess. They had a farm at the bottom of the hill which they used when they visited Wernersville. As a Papal Duchess she had the privilege of entering the Jesuit cloister which was forbidden to women. They were buried in the beautiful crypt chapel beneath the main chapel. When everything thing was sold a few years ago, their bodies were removed to a specially built "wall" next to the Jesuit Cemetary which will remain the property of the Jesuits. They could hardly have envisioned that fate.
It’s sad that so many religious orders of men and women are having to sell their ( usually) beautiful and peaceful properties. It’s happened in the DC area too. I don’t know where the Jesuits of Georgetown have a cemetery. It’s not on the grounds of the university. At least I don’t think so. It’s urban and I don’t remember ever seeing one there.
DeleteJesuits usually do not have cemeteries at their universities. Georgetown was part of the Maryland Province, and so the Maryland Province Jesuits would have been buried at Wernersville, and I presume will continue to be buried there although the various Eastern Jesuit provinces have been consolidated into one.
DeleteHave a blessed Assumption Day, everyone!
ReplyDeleteSo - when Jesus rose from the dead, he had this glorified body. It seems to have been different than his body before he died: apparently, he could appear and disappear; and sometimes he was recognized and other times he wasn't. Yet there was some continuity in his appearance: he still bore the wounds in his hands and side.
DeleteWhen Mary was assumed bodily into heaven, it seems to be part of the article of faith(?) that her body somehow became glorified as well. I glean this from a few minutes of hasty web research this morning before my work shift began.
I'm not really going anywhere with this, just sharing my thoughts from earlier today. I echo Jean: Happy Assumption Day!
It's a hard one for my inner Protestant to understand. The Blessed Virgin is the only one wandering about in corporal form up there, does she just float around? Are there chairs? What is there to look at? Does she eat, and if so what? I guess it's a mystery and a test of our faith.
DeleteAn Orthodox acquaintance once told me that the Orthodox have a Marian relic - her belt ( sometimes called her girdle) They are celebrating Mary’s Dormition (going to sleep - her death) today. Judging by the photo she texted to me today of her grandchildren it’s a pretty big celebration at their church.
Deletehttps://russianicons.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/marys-belt/
I always wondered about the Old Testament accounts of Elijah and Enoch, who were reportedly taken up bodily. There is no teaching that they were free of sin. So what is up with them? My guess is that that part of their story is legend.
DeleteAt the National Shrine today, Timothy P. Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services, U.S.A, president of the Bishop's Conference and a trustee of the Shrine said that the ancient name of the feast, the Dormition (Falling Asleep), is because we really don't know what happened. He also mentioned that the Church of the Dormition near Gethsemane is the third oldest church in Jerusalem. So evidently the tradition that Mary's body is no longer here on earth is very early.
DeleteOf course, as the local Orthodox priest has often said, much of Christian piety about Mary is not from the Gospels but rather from reflection by the Church on what "ought" to have happened.
There are dozens of examples of Catholic teachings that are unsupported by scripture. I guess that’s true of the Orthodox also. Personally, I don’t read scripture as history or literal truth.
DeleteAll teachings are extrapolated from Scripture, and the latest copy of the RCC will give you chapter and verse. Some of those extrapolations strike me as stretched pretty thin. But I can't say the Church is wrong because I don't know.
DeleteExactly.You don’t know. I don’t know. It was many years before I realized that even the scripture scholars and theologians don’t actually “ know”. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they haven’t reached at least some correct understanding even when some do seem, in your words, stretched pretty thin. I accept what I can learn from, and when something is stretched a little too much, I tend to shrug my shoulders and move on.
ReplyDelete