Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
Daily Archive
26 September 2012
We’ll take four sections to discuss the most important week of the Christian year before returning to various secondary appointments in a church.
§ 81 § Passion (Palm) Sunday marks the final movement of the Lenten season toward the Triduum. The liturgy of Palm Sunday requires space for a procession that recalls Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11). For the cathedral church, the additional consideration of elements of the stational (i.e. pontifical) liturgies should be part of the planning. The Paschal Triduum is the heart of the liturgical year. When designing the church, the rites of the Triduum should be reviewed to insure that planning will provide space for the key elements of the Triduum: an area for the washing of the feet, a location for the Altar of Reposition after the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, space for the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday, a site for the Blessing of the Fire and the Lighting of the Paschal Candle, and space for the catechumens to be baptized and for candidates for admission to full membership to stand if they are admitted at the Vigil.
The Triduum is really important enough that it must be taken into serious consideration in the design or renovation of a church. The bishops emphasize this by placing sections 81-84 immediately after the essentials of altar, ambo, priest chair, and reservation of the Eucharist.
All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
26 September 2012
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Building inspectors have advised us not to hold Sunday worship in the church this weekend. I’ve been busy exploring alternate venues that accommodate our many students who do not have access to transportation to get them very far off campus on a Sunday. My cell has been sending and receiving texts and calls all morning. Now quiet for the past half hour, I wonder if it’s time to jump in the shower. Odds are there will be a few messages when I get out.
Anyone out there with good or interesting experiences of emergency Sunday worship? No movie theatres, please.
26 September 2012
A careful aside in Paul VI’s narrative, which seems to go without saying:
37. The Church cannot accept violence, especially the force of arms- which is uncontrollable once it is let loose- and indiscriminate death as the path to liberation, because she knows that violence always provokes violence and irresistibly engenders new forms of oppression and enslavement which are often harder to bear than those from which they claimed to bring freedom. We said this clearly during our journey in Colombia: “We exhort you not to place your trust in violence and revolution: that is contrary to the Christian spirit, and it can also delay instead of advancing that social uplifting to which you lawfully aspire.”[ Paul VI Address to the Campesinos of Colombia (23 August 1968): AAS 60 (1968), p. 623] “We must say and reaffirm that violence is not in accord with the Gospel, that it is not Christian; and that sudden or violent changes of structures would be deceitful, ineffective of themselves, and certainly not in conformity with the dignity of the people.”[ Paul VI, Address for the Day of Development at Bogota (23 August 1968): AAS 60 (1968), p. 627; Cf. Saint Augustine, Epistola 229, 2: PL 33, 1020]
I confess I’m at a loss as to the inclusion of this. Not that I disagree with the pope’s assessment of violence as an uncontrollable and fruitless tool for change. Perhaps the Church needs to burnish its opposition to anarchy. Anarchy itself, detached from violence, may not be as much of a problematic tool as one might think.
26 September 2012
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While I was getting ready for bed, my phone fielded a v-mail about a small fire in the upper walkway at my parish. Building closed all day. The fire was quite limited, and nobody was harmed or injured. There seems to be a suspect in custody, according to the local news.
Instead of our staff breakfast, I guess my family gets to eat melon, grapes, and bananas. Instead of faith formation, the young miss has an extra ninety minutes to prepare for three tests tomorrow. Leaves on the ground, but no snow–so it feels weird to be home.
Which isn’t to say it’s going to be a loafing day. My wife has been sick the past four days, so I’m going to get some laundry done, a room cleaned up, putter a bit in the basement. Maybe I’ll even get to a bit of writing.
