Catholic Sensibility

We all struggle with the risk of losing something in translation. It is a failing of human communication. We do not always say what we mean. People do not always hear what is proclaimed.

63. The individual Churches, intimately built up not only of people but also of aspirations, of riches and limitations, of ways of praying, of loving, of looking at life and the world, which distinguish this or that human gathering, have the task of assimilating the essence of the Gospel message and of transposing it, without the slightest betrayal of its essential truth, into the language that these particular people understand, then of proclaiming it in this language.

The transposition has to be done with the discernment, seriousness, respect and competence which the matter calls for in the field of liturgical expression,[Sacrosanctum Concilium 37-38: AAS 56 (1964), p. 110; cf. also the liturgical books and other documents subsequently issued by the Holy See for the putting into practice of the liturgical reform desired by the same Council.] and in the areas of catechesis, theological formulation, secondary ecclesial structures, and ministries. And the word “language” should be understood here less in the semantic or literary sense than in the sense which one may call anthropological and cultural.

This is the key paragraph:

The question is undoubtedly a delicate one. Evangelization loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addresses, if it does not use their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life. But on the other hand, evangelization risks losing its power and disappearing altogether if one empties or adulterates its content under the pretext of translating it; if, in other words, one sacrifices this reality and destroys the unity without which there is no universality, out of a wish to adapt a universal reality to a local situation. Now, only a Church which preserves the awareness of her universality and shows that she is in fact universal is capable of having a message which can be heard by all, regardless of regional frontiers.

Legitimate attention to individual Churches cannot fail to enrich the Church. Such attention is indispensable and urgent. It responds to the very deep aspirations of peoples and human communities to find their own identity ever more clearly.

These days, it seems there’s a swing to an emphasis on the preached message, rather than the adaptation for the listener. Still, there’s an attractiveness in the optimism that Christ is the answer to human longing. That aspiration is well-addressed by an engaged local community.

Three sections devoted to a time-honored tradition picked up from Jerusalem in ancient times, and thanks to the Franciscans, we have as a part of nearly every Catholic church yet today:

§ 132 § The Stations of the Cross originated early in the history of the Church. It was the custom of the faithful to follow the way walked by Christ from Pilate’s house in Jerusalem to Calvary. As time went on, pilgrims to the holy city desired to continue this devotion when they returned home. In the fourteenth century when the Franciscans were entrusted with the care of the holy places in Jerusalem they promoted the use of images depicting the Lord’s Way of the Cross.

§ 133 § Whether celebrated by a community or by individuals, the Stations of the Cross offer a way for the faithful to enter more fully into the passion and death of the Lord and to serve as another manifestation of the pilgrim Church on its homeward journey. Traditionally the stations have been arranged around the walls of the nave of the church, or, in some instances, around the gathering space or even the exterior of the church, marking the devotion as a true journey.*

* Often churches have images as well as the crosses that mark the fourteen or fifteen stations. While the depictions of the passion are desirable, only the crosses are needed. The images that accompany the crosses are optional.

This is the note from the US bishops, unreferenced. Almost every place I’ve seen has images. I suppose the advantage to having just the crosses is that one can do alternate meditations, like this Scriptural one attributed to Pope John Paul II, and used by him publicly in Rome from 1991.

§ 134 § The Stations enjoy a long tradition. In recent times some parishes have clustered the stations in one place. While such an arrangement may be expedient, it is not desirable because it eliminates space for movement, which characterizes this devotion as a “way” of the cross.

Movement is a definite challenge. My parish has a prayer pathway from one entrance into the church. It’s great for individual movement or small groups. More than twenty, not so good. I like less the layout I’ve seen inside many churches along the perimeter of the nave, especially where people sit in pews and let the leaders walk the way. Not everyone likes outside, so I suppose we live with stations less then optimal for those numbers of devotees from one to several hundred.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Ping! is not how my priest friend describes it. It doesn’t quite capture my sense of the Spirit’s subtle influence either. Maybe it’s a bit too frivolous. But it’s close.

Many believers think of a well-formed conscience in terms of avoiding sin. And certainly, steering ourselves away from moral transgression, mortal, venial, serious, not-so-serious, or whatever is an important part of our Christian formation.

Lately, I’ve been thinking of conscience formation not only in terms of avoiding sin. And also not only in terms of doing good deeds. But I’m looking for the more subtle and mysterious. I’ve been more conscious of it since I was sent home from reconciliation a number of years ago after confessing a sin against my family.

My confessor told me that for my penance, I would need to listen carefully to God. And that over the next twenty-four hours, it would be made obvious what I needed to do as an act of satisfaction.

Curious, I thought. But I can go with this. So I spent the next few minutes on the way home thinking about it. And wouldn’t you know, over the next day, I was urged not once, but seven times to do small acts of kindness. Something popped into my head–getting a glass of milk for the young miss, running an errand for my wife, putting in a load of laundry, and a few other things I’ve forgotten. Indeed, by lunchtime the next day I stopped keeping track. And when I walked to the grocery store two blocks away, I found a shopping cart halfway there on the roadside near an apartment complex.

Ping! get that cart.

Unping, what if someone sees me and gets the wrong idea that I borrowed the cart and I’m bringing it back?

Ping! take the cart back anyway.

I admit that my rational, American, scientifically-trained self was amazed by this experience. So I did the best rational thing I knew to do. I kept looking for the Ping!

My priest friend has told me one or two amazing stories about responding to that Ping! nudge. I’ve talked to him about it a few times since. He gets the big events that leave no doubt. I think I’m okay with the small stories. I’ve even asked God not (necessarily) to show me the results of the Ping! An illustration …

One of my pet peeves is getting lost in the car. Or even missing a turn. Several wrong turns ago–maybe two or three years–I asked myself why I was getting so upset. Really: I’ve been driving a car for twenty-five years and I’ve only gotten into one serious accident (and thank God, no injuries). I’ve seen accidents unfold in front of me–some avoided, and some mishaps like seeing the car passing me on a snowy interstate spin off into the ditch. Maybe it was a more subtle ping that nudged me on a different road, a different path to take. Maybe I saved my family and myself from something more dangerous by going a route I hadn’t intended to drive. I realized I didn’t need to scan the internet headlines the next day for an accident on, say, US 30 that I missed. I can go with the subtle, small things. Plus, it makes for a calmer, more cheerful disposition for driving and for conversations in the car.

Anyone hear that Ping! lately?

He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. (1 Kings 19:11-13a)

The relationship between universal and the individual Church can be a marvelously productive and fruitful one. Or it can be derailed by tension and suspicion. At any rate, I found this section to be rather rich and full of potential discussion points.

First, we are reminded that the universal Church is “incarnate” in the local Church. What does that mean? Is it wishful thinking on the part of Rome and the pope? Incarnate suggests a tangible, physical, “embodied” reality. The document also speaks of things not as “embodied,” like culture, vision, history. How would you say the universal is found tangible in the local?

62. Nevertheless this universal Church is in practice incarnate in the individual Churches made up of such or such an actual part of mankind, speaking such and such a language, heirs of a cultural patrimony, of a vision of the world, of an historical past, of a particular human substratum. Receptivity to the wealth of the individual Church corresponds to a special sensitivity of modern man.

This next paragraph is careful to suggest that the Church does not consist of the sum of parts:

Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the sum, or, if one can say so, the more or less anomalous federation of essentially different individual Churches. In the mind of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and mission, but when she puts down her roots in a variety of cultural, social and human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in each part of the world.

And it can be difficult not to see the Catholic Church as Rome plus Marquette plus Manila plus Melbourne plus Manchester plus … . Pope Paul alludes to the cultural and spiritual variety that one finds as one travels among other believers from place to place. Over the past fifty years, perhaps the Catholic laity experience this in a way our forebears never did. Do we Catholics have a stronger sense of a universality because of the access to travel? Or perhaps we come home more satisfied (self-satisfied?) than before.?

Thus each individual Church that would voluntarily cut itself off from the universal Church would lose its relationship to God’s plan and would be impoverished in its ecclesial dimension. But, at the same time, a Church toto orbe diffusa would become an abstraction if she did not take body and life precisely through the individual Churches. Only continual attention to these two poles of the Church will enable us to perceive the richness of this relationship between the universal Church and the individual Churches.

Two poles, not in tension we hope, but in a complementariness. That Church, wholly “diffused” through the world, is that what some of us expect? Pope Paul seems to be saying that the particular distinctiveness of a local Church is just as important as that universal dimension. I’d say that the best expression of the Church balances between a hierarchical institution putting its mark everywhere, and the congregational aspect that so easily can be adrift and straying from a greater whole.

This would be one aspect of the Body in which hewing to a middle gray does us better than a clear leaning to either the worldwide or the local expression. Find that right middle ground, that right mix of both “poles,” places us in the center where we ideally find Christ and place ourselves in a universal, catholic Body much broader and more glorious than our particular concerns. How to achieve that balance? We spend a lot of time fussing about it, don’t we?

From medieval times at least, the laity have expressed devotion to God and to the saints outside of liturgy, both within church buildings and elsewhere. Two brief sections in BLS recognize this, and suggest that church buildings provide for this spirituality:

§ 130 § Throughout history and among widely differing cultures, a rich heritage of popular devotions honoring Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints has developed in the Church. Popular devotions “express and nourish the spirit of prayer”(Directory on the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops 91) and are to be encouraged when they are in conformity with the norms of the Church and are derived from and lead to the liturgy.(SC 13) Like the liturgy, devotions are rituals. They can involve singing, intercession, thanksgiving, and common postures.

And of course, these social rituals will make similar demands on the seating, leadership, music, decorations, and other aspects of the church building as the Eucharist does.

§ 131 § Devotional prayer is another way for people to bring the very personal concerns of life to God and to ask the intercession of the saints and of other members of the Christian community. Sacred images are important not only in liturgical prayer but also in devotional prayer because they are sacramentals that help the faithful to focus their attention and their prayer. The design of the church building can do much to foster devotions and to insure that they enhance and reinforce rather than compete with the liturgical life of the community.

We’ll get to sacred images in a few days. But as we reach the final ten sections of Chapter Two, the window on commentary on all this might be closing. Any thoughts?

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

The next five sections state and develop the theme of the catholicity of the Church. Where do we get such an audacious and bold notion? From the Gospels themselves:

61. Brothers and sons and daughters, at this stage of our reflection, we wish to pause with you at a question which is particularly important at the present time. In the celebration of the liturgy, in their witness before judges and executioners and in their apologetical texts, the first Christians readily expressed their deep faith in the Church by describing her as being spread throughout the universe. They were fully conscious of belonging to a large community which neither space nor time can limit: From the just Abel right to the last of the elect,[Saint Gregory the Great, Homil. in Evangelia 19, 1: PL 76, 1154] “indeed to the ends of the earth,[Acta 1:8; cf. Didache 9, 1: Fund Patres Apostolici, 1, 22] “to the end of time.”[Mt 28:20]

This is how the Lord wanted His Church to be: universal, a great tree whose branches shelter the birds of the air,[Cf. Mt 13:32] a net which catches fish of every kind[Cf. Mt 13:47] or which Peter drew in filled with one hundred and fifty-three big fish,[Cf. Jn 21:11] a flock which a single shepherd pastures.[Cf. Jn 10:1-16] A universal Church without boundaries or frontiers except, alas, those of the heart and mind of sinful man.

Those of us with the pope often confront the matter of which identifies us: being Roman or being Catholic? Or catholic?

The first and original quality of the Church before large-C, is our catholicity, our universality. Sinful minds and hearts, as Pope Paul suggests, limit our reach, our abilities, and our vision. In the next few posts, we’ll look at sections 62-65 and explore the notions of being different, being apart, and being one–and how these impact our evangelical efforts. After all, our mandate from the Lord knows no limit in space (Acts 1:8) or time (Mt 28:20).

This section is a basic primer for parish art/environment groups. First, an overview of the basic thrust of the liturgical year:

§ 122 § During the liturgical year the Church unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from his incarnation and birth through his passion, death, and resurrection to his ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of his coming in glory. In its celebration of these mysteries, the Church makes these sacred events present to the people of every age.(SC 102)

Decorations set the mood and appeal to the senses:

§ 123 § The tradition of decorating or not decorating the church for liturgical seasons and feasts heightens the awareness of the festive, solemn, or penitential nature of these seasons. Human minds and hearts are stimulated by the sounds, sights, and fragrances of liturgical seasons, which combine to create powerful, lasting impressions of the rich and abundant graces unique to each of the seasons.

Those “powerful, lasting” impressions are often well-communicated by local traditions of decorating. Each liturgical has its own definitive introduction (Wake up! Ashes or Jesus in the desert) from the Church’s texts and music. Decorations point the way, they are not the object of worship:

§ 124 § Plans for seasonal decorations should include other areas besides the sanctuary. Decorations are intended to draw people to the true nature of the mystery being celebrated rather than being ends in themselves. Natural flowers, plants, wreaths and fabric hangings, and other seasonal objects can be arranged to enhance the primary liturgical points of focus. The altar should remain clear and free-standing, not walled in by massive floral displays or the Christmas crib, and pathways in the narthex, nave, and sanctuary should remain clear.

Decorate for seasons, not just the feasts:

§ 125 § These seasonal decorations are maintained throughout the entire liturgical season. Since the Christmas season begins with the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and ends with the baptism of the Lord, the placement and removal of Christmas decorations should coincide with these times. Since the Easter season lasts fifty days, planning will encompass ways to sustain the decor until the fiftieth day of Pentecost.

Don’t forget the images of the saints as they are recognized during the liturgical year:

§ 126 § In the course of the liturgical year, the feasts and memorials of Our Lady and of saints with special significance for the parish afford opportunities to show devotion by adorning their images with tasteful floral arrangements or plants.

Images rather than words.  It should go without saying, but it is said here anyway:

§ 127 § Fabric art in the form of processional banners and hangings can be an effective way to convey the spirit of liturgical seasons, especially through the use of color, shape, texture, and symbolic form. The use of images rather than words is more in keeping with this medium.

Objects which straddle the lines between decoration and devotion:

§ 128 § Objects such as the Advent wreath,(Book of Blessings 1512) the Christmas crib,(Book of Blessings 1544) and other traditional seasonal appointments proportioned to the size of the space and to the other furnishings can enhance the prayer and understanding of the parish community.

If objects of devotion, they should be of greater quality than the decorations. I remember one parish in which the Christmas “scene” was a miniature, but it included a reproduction of a modern church on one level and the Christmas scene on the other. It was rather artfully designed, not at all popsicle sticks and crayons. It was a parish tradition that worked. It seemed to represent two pieces of salvation history. The artistry drew people in, and the piece was deep enough to inspire reflection.

§ 129 § The use of living flowers and plants, rather than artificial greens, serves as a reminder of the gift of life God has given to the human community. Planning for plants and flowers should include not only the procurement and placement but also the continuing care needed to sustain living things.

Living plants evoke strong feelings. I’ve also worked with people who did wonders with artificial pieces. In one parish, living and artificial pieces were intermixed. Church decoration is not my personal forte. I’m pleased to serve in parishes where, for other people, it is. If I can communicate the basic thrust of what we try to accomplish with seasonal decorations, I try to place my trust in good people who have an eye for the beautiful, the decorative, and the appropriate.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

When I was a lad, I wanted a piano more than anything I could think of. Well, I wanted globes of all the planets, but they only made Earth and Moon circa 1970. Instead of a piano, my parents got me a three-octave electric organ with push buttons for chords. I taught myself how to read treble clef and pondered the basic theory of chord construction in the dissonance of pushing the C button with my left hand and playing black keys with my right.

I picked up an upright for my office in my first church position. I still remember with great laughter the assistance of two friends and a truck. We had a late-night trip into a very shady Chicago neighborhood to fetch it. Then no rope to secure it in the back. The pastor was still working late–11:30pm–when we got back to the parish center. He was a cleanliness fanatic and asked if we couldn’t lift the instrument into my office and save getting the carpet soiled.

Shortly after we moved into our first house, my wife procured a piano for me. Honestly, I didn’t play it much. The grand at church was so much nicer. And the piano tuner we hired to service and tune the home piano said our elderly instrument wouldn’t bear being tuned up to 440. He pitched it a whole tone flat, so at least my wife’s clarinet could play the flute parts and we were close.

When we moved from Kansas City in 2008, we were very fortunate to find a taker for our upright. We were heading to a smaller house and the home piano wasn’t really getting played much at all. Admittedly very sad.

I noticed this BBC piece on old pianos, and the sad feeling returned. John Gist, of Louisville, Kentucky:

It’s like a human, it slowly goes downhill in terms of its health.

There are more and more pianos reaching extinction, needing to go to the graveyard. I get 10 to 15 calls a day from people saying ‘So how much is my piano worth?’

Sentimental value, yes. Otherwise, probably nothing.

In the early 19th Century, the piano was the preserve of the upper and middle classes – doctors and lawyers for example – but by the end of the century, pianos were common in the homes of English coal miners, says Laurence, with pianos sold on instalment plans to make them more affordable.

The piano was an important source of home entertainment, as well as being a sign of status, and was often put in the best room in the house, ready to show the neighbours – even attract suitors. A young woman who was good at playing the piano was regarded as better marriage material.

Because pianos were being made in such quantities at the time, the quality was not always the best.

“In the 1920s, they were made for the mass market. They were not made to last, they were made to sell,” says Marcus Roberts of Roberts Pianos in Oxford.

Today we are entertained individually by the computer, and perhaps socially by the tv screen. Digital piano sales are on the uptick.

Maybe I feel a little less guilty about my old pianos. I haven’t yet tipped one into a dump. And it is true that these instruments do get old and nothing lasts forever. Any stories about old pianos?

These two convictions are really the same quality. Evangelization is an ecclesial act carried out in Communion with the Church.

60. The observation that the Church has been sent out and given a mandate to evangelize the world should awaken in us two convictions.

The first is this: evangelization is for no one an individual and isolated act; it is one that is deeply ecclesial. When the most obscure preacher, catechist or pastor in the most distant land preaches the Gospel, gathers his little community together or administers a sacrament, even alone, he is carrying out an ecclesial act, and his action is certainly attached to the evangelizing activity of the whole Church by institutional relationships, but also by profound invisible links in the order of grace. This presupposes that he acts not in virtue of a mission which he attributes to himself or by a personal inspiration, but in union with the mission of the Church and in her name.

From this flows the second conviction: if each individual evangelizes in the name of the Church, who herself does so by virtue of a mandate from the Lord, no evangelizer is the absolute master of his evangelizing action, with a discretionary power to carry it out in accordance with individualistic criteria and perspectives; he acts in communion with the Church and her pastors.

We have remarked that the Church is entirely and completely evangelizing. This means that, in the whole world and in each part of the world where she is present, the Church feels responsible for the task of spreading the Gospel.

This is not only about those “institutional relationships;” evangelization is also a cooperation with the grace of Christ. What does this mean? To be totally honest, we cannot excise aspects of the Church we dislike or about which we harbor serious disagreements. Seekers may be drawn to the individual faith witness of an individual: a friend, a lay person, a priest, or a religious. They might be attracted to the overall charism of a faith community. It might be an intellectual path, too. But all of these aspects combine to form a living Body, the Church. Difficult teachings and difficult people are part of the salvific path.

I appreciate the inclusion of those “profound invisible links in the order of grace.” If we bristle at sharing “our” evangelical ministries with far-away Rome or bishops, we should respond with humility to the notion that God works his grace independently of our skilled or clumsy attempts at sowing the seed of the Word. We evangelize not to gain personal disciples, but to pass them on to the Church (the whole Church, not just the parts we like) and to Christ.

Comments?

The bishops devote four sections to the considerations of the dedication rites. We reviewed those rites in depth earlier this year here. We are reminded that a faith community does well to develop or renew its familiarity with these rituals and the texts, especiallythe Scriptures, that accompany them.

§ 118 § In addition to containing the rituals of dedication, the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar contains liturgies for laying the cornerstone, for commencing work on the building of a church, for dedication of a church already in use, and for the blessing of a church and an altar.(RDCA, ch. 5, no. 1) These rituals serve as a foundational resource for those engaged in designing and building churches. Just as the initiation of a person into the Christian community occurs in stages, so the construction of church building unfolds over a period of time. Rites are celebrated at the beginning of the building process “to ask God’s blessing for the success of the work and to remind the people that the structure built of stone will be a visible sign of the living Church, God’s building which is formed of the people themselves.”(RDCA, ch. 1, no. 1) At the conclusion of the construction, the church is dedicated to God with a solemn rite.(RDCA, ch. 2 no. 2) Familiarity with this rite and the context of prayer that it offers will help to prevent the building project from degenerating into a purely pragmatic or functional enterprise.

At minimum, the planning committees should engage this material in prayer. The parish at large, too. The physical experience of a building project generates excitement: we see a change in landscape, and progress is easy to track. What makes it different from a new building elsewhere in the community? That should be evident, and attended to by the pastoral leadership and committees.

Regarding the premature use of a new altar, BLS cautions against reducing the dedication to empty symbolism:

§ 119 § Since the celebration of the Eucharist on the new altar after it has been solemnly anointed, incensed, covered and lighted, is at the heart of the dedication ritual,(RDCA, ch. 2, no. 15) a new or renovated church is, as far as possible, not used for the celebration of the sacraments until after the Rite of Dedication has taken place. To celebrate the rite after the altar has been in use is anti-climactic and can reduce the rite to empty symbolism.(RDCA, ch. 3, no. 1; Cf. RDCA, ch. 4, no. 13) Use of a temporary altar in the period before the dedication is a viable alternative that can help to heighten anticipation of the day of dedication when the new altar will receive the ritual initiation that solemnly prepares it for the celebration of the central mystery of our faith.

This can be a difficult temptation. Worshiping in gyms, basements, and auditoriums can be tedious. The most difficult aspect is coordinating a busy bishop’s schedule with a construction project that may encounter delays. Most contractors and pastors leave leeway in case unforeseen delays clog and extend a timeline. If the parish is patient and declines anticipating the use of a new building, one would hope the bishop is reasonably flexible as well. That connection to the bishop is important:

§ 120 § When the people of the parish community gather to dedicate their new church building or to celebrate its renovation, they will have made many decisions, balanced a variety of needs, and overcome a multitude of challenges. As the diocesan bishop celebrates the Rite of Dedication and receives the church from his people,(RDCA, ch. 2, no. 33) the connection between the diocesan Church and the parish community is particularly evident.

Don’t neglect the points of anointing:

§ 121 § The Rite of Dedication provides that the walls of the church may be anointed with sacred chrism in four or twelve places depending on the size and design of the structure. These points can be marked by crosses made from stone, brass, or another appropriate material or carved into the walls themselves. A bracket for a small candle should be affixed to the wall beneath each of these crosses.(RDCA, ch. 2, no. 22) The candles in these brackets are then lighted during the ritual lighting at the dedication, on anniversaries of the dedication, and on other solemn occasions.

I confess I’ve forgotten the lighting of these candles on some of those solemn occasions. Aside from the dedication anniversary, what might they be? The patronal feast, certainly. Easter and Christmas? The Lateran Dedication feast? Any other possibilities?

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

James Frazier has completed a five-part review for PrayTell of three new publications: the Vatican II Hymnal, the Adoremus Hymnal, and the St Michael Hymnal.

Some disclaimers: I’ve commented liberally on the PT threads in question. I have no intention of blowing up ninety percent of my parish’s musical repertoire, so I’m not a potential buyer of any publication that eliminates all texts and many tunes from the past half century. Except for viewing the online pages offered by these publishers I have not seen the books in question.

That said, I have read about some aspects of these books in the reviews. If true, they would be a serious concern:

At least one composer acknowledges his submissions are not ackowledged in print because of an “oversight.” Is he alone?

One defender of the V2H offers the ecclesiastical approval of Mass settings and the hymnal as a whole. But this is not a license to infringe on copyrights.

Another commenter online lamented that the Church’s liturgy is copyrighted, and that this doesn’t seem right. Well, the NAB is too. Which is probably why archaic English texts of the propers were given on one sample page I viewed. There are approved translations for these antiphons. Even if they are sung in Latin, should they be translated “accurately”? And more importantly, translated texts of the Church’s liturgy are, like it or not, copyrighted. In English, by ICEL.

These notices of source material belong in print–somewhere in the book. I’ve been asking people all day: are they included or not?

With thissection we move from the topic of who is the target of evangelization and delve into the persons who possess the mission of doing it.

59. If people proclaim in the world the Gospel of salvation, they do so by the command of, in the name of and with the grace of Christ the Savior. “They will never have a preacher unless one is sent,”[Rom 10:15] wrote he who was without doubt one of the greatest evangelizers. No one can do it without having been sent.

But who then has the mission of evangelizing?

The Second Vatican Council gave a clear reply to this question: it is upon the Church that “there rests, by divine mandate, the duty of going out into the whole world and preaching the gospel to every creature.”[Dignitatis Humanae 13; Lumen Gentium 5; Ad Gentes 1] And in another text: “…the whole Church is missionary, and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God.”[Ad Gentes 35]

We have already mentioned this intimate connection between the Church and evangelization. While the Church is proclaiming the kingdom of God and building it up, she is establishing herself in the midst of the world as the sign and instrument of this kingdom which is and which is to come. The Council repeats the following expression of St. Augustine on the missionary activity of the Twelve: “They preached the word of truth and brought forth Churches.”[Saint Augustine, Enarratio in Ps 44:23: CCL XXXVIII, p. 510; cf Ad Gentes 1]

In a word, everybody. In EN 60, we will read that this is not an individual mandate. It operates with an intimate connection to the Church as a whole. And from there, we will look at the responsibility of “Churches,” of their continuing apostolic task to spread the Gospel everywhere.

But for now, it is sufficient to say that the Vatican II tradition (as stated in Ad Gentes 35) is that the entire People of God are responsible. As we’ve already read, individuals, by their life’s witness. But also their support of the particular charisms that engage new believers. I would think that would include cultivating their own gifts, as well as helping advance the gifts of others.

The ambry is the place for the three sacred oils.

§ 117 § The consecrated oil of chrism for initiation, ordination, and the dedication of churches, as well as the blessed oils of the sick and of catechumens, are traditionally housed in a special place called an ambry or repository.(Book of Blessings 1125) These oils consecrated or blessed by the bishop at the Mass of Chrism deserve the special care of the community to which they have been entrusted.(canon law 847 § 2) The style of the ambry may take different forms. A parish church might choose a simple, dignified, and secure niche in the baptistry or in the wall of the sanctuary or a small case for the oils. Cathedrals responsible for the care of a larger supply of the oils need a larger ambry. Since bright light or high temperatures can hasten spoilage, parishes will want to choose a location that helps to preserve the freshness of the oil.

Three qualities: simple, dignified, and secure. What about your parish: is it near the font? Or placed in the sanctuary? Either solution is fine. In my parish it is placed between (somewhat) the altar and font on the edge of the narthex and nave, and so available for various sacraments with convenience.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Different names today: small groups and RENEW groups and such in the US. Base communities in Latin America. Parishes are mostly successful (still) in the States, so small groups come and go within the fabric of a faith community. Maybe they are less important and vital if the parish is alive. And to the South, small groups are essential for keeping the Church alive when there is no clergy available to lead the people.

58. The last Synod devoted considerable attention to these “small communities,” or communautes de base, because they are often talked about in the Church today. What are they, and why should they be the special beneficiaries of evangelization and at the same time evangelizers themselves?

According to the various statements heard in the Synod, such communities flourish more or less throughout the Church. They differ greatly among themselves both within the same region and even more so from one region to another.

The good:

In some regions they appear and develop, almost without exception, within the Church, having solidarity with her life, being nourished by her teaching and united with her pastors. In these cases, they spring from the need to live the Church’s life more intensely, or from the desire and quest for a more human dimension such as larger ecclesial communities can only offer with difficulty, especially in the big modern cities which lend themselves both to life in the mass and to anonymity. Such communities call quite simply be in their own way an extension on the spiritual and religious level- worship, deepening of faith, fraternal charity, prayer, contact with pastors- of the small sociological community such as the village, etc. Or again their aim may be to bring together, for the purpose of listening to and meditating on the Word, for the sacraments and the bond of the agape, groups of people who are linked by age, culture, civil state or social situation: married couples, young people, professional people, etc.; people who already happen to be united in the struggle for justice, brotherly aid to the poor, human advancement. In still other cases they bring Christians together in places where the shortage of priests does not favor the normal life of a parish community. This is all presupposed within communities constituted by the Church, especially individual Churches and parishes.

And in Rome’s eyes, the worrisome:

In other regions, on the other hand, communautes de base come together in a spirit of bitter criticism of the Church, which they are quick to stigmatize as “institutional” and to which they set themselves up in opposition as charismatic communities, free from structures and inspired only by the Gospel. Thus their obvious characteristic is an attitude of fault-finding and of rejection with regard to the Church’s outward manifestations: her hierarchy, her signs. They are radically opposed to the Church. By following these lines their main inspiration very quickly becomes ideological, and it rarely happens that they do not quickly fall victim to some political option or current of thought, and then to a system, even a party, with all the attendant risks of becoming its instrument.

The difference is already notable: the communities which by their spirit of opposition cut themselves off from the Church, and whose unity they wound, can well be called communautes de base, but in this case it is a strictly sociological name. They could not, without a misuse of terms, be called ecclesial communautes de base, even if while being hostile to the hierarchy, they claim to remain within the unity of the Church. This name belongs to the other groups, those which come together within the Church in order to unite themselves to the Church and to cause the Church to grow.

These latter communities will be a place of evangelization, for the benefit of the bigger communities, especially the individual Churches. And, as we said at the end of the last Synod, they will be a hope for the universal Church to the extent:

- that they seek their nourishment in the Word of God and do not allow themselves to be ensnared by political polarization or fashionable ideologies, which are ready to exploit their immense human potential;

- that they avoid the ever present temptation of systematic protest and a hypercritical attitude, under the pretext of authenticity and a spirit of collaboration;

- that they remain firmly attached to the local Church in which they are inserted, and to the universal Church, thus avoiding the very real danger of becoming isolated within themselves, then of believing themselves to be the only authentic Church of Christ, and hence of condemning the other ecclesial communities;

- that they maintain a sincere communion with the pastors whom the Lord gives to His Church, and with the magisterium which the Spirit of Christ has entrusted to these pastors;

- that they never look on themselves as the sole beneficiaries or sole agents of evangelization- or even the only depositaries of the Gospel- but, being aware that the Church is much more vast and diversified, accept the fact that this Church becomes incarnate in other ways than through themselves;

- that they constantly grow in missionary consciousness, fervor, commitment and zeal;

- that they show themselves to be universal in all things and never sectarian.

On these conditions, which are certainly demanding but also uplifting, the ecclesial communautes de base will correspond to their most fundamental vocation: as hearers of the Gospel which is proclaimed to them and privileged beneficiaries of evangelization, they will soon become proclaimers of the Gospel themselves.

Seven interesting points, possibly directed at the emerging communities outside of Europe and influenced by marxism. But it may be illustrative to consider these points with other groups: internet Catholics, traditionalist communities.

Most churches built these days are for large congregations. And most all of those communities have clergy serving. If there is no priest on Sunday, however, there are important guidelines to follow on who sits in which chair, and where:

§ 116 § The celebration of the Eucharist is the norm for Sunday assemblies. However, a decrease in the number of priests makes this difficult or impossible on a weekly basis in some communities. When the celebration of Mass on a Sunday is not possible in a given parish and the people have no reasonable alternatives, the diocesan bishop can permit the celebration of the Liturgy of the Word or the Liturgy of the Hours or one of these combined with a communion service.(Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest: Leader’s Edition (1993), 14) When a community gathers for a Sunday celebration in which a priest is not present, the deacon who presides leads the community’s prayer from the presidential chair in the sanctuary.(Ibid, 19) A lay person who presides leads the prayer from a chair placed outside the sanctuary.(Ibid, 24; CDWDS: Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest (1988), 40)

It seems there are two issues for lay persons: do not use the priest’s chair, and do not sit in the sanctuary. This seems reasonable to me. You?

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.