From our Pastor, Fr. Joseph Illo New Guidelines for Catholic Worship

With this message we provide you with the New Guidelines for Catholic Worship.  This is a long document (be patient as it downloads) from Rome called, in Latin, Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, or in English, the General Instruction to the Roman Missal (GIRM).  Our new guidelines are actually the third edition of this GIRM, the first being in 1970, and the second in 1975.  What this third edition represents for us is the Church’s refinement of the liturgical changes (both the reforms and the abuses) of the past 30 years.  It aims to continue the renewal called for in Vatican II and to reform the abuses that have occurred since then.

I can’t emphasize the importance these guidelines have for our worship.  I encourage you to download or copy the document from the website, print it out, and study it (it's best to copy the text to a Word document and increase the point size for readability).  We will have open study sessions in June and July on the document, and question and answer sessions about the liturgy in general.

Definition:  What does “Liturgy” mean? 

 “Liturgy is a Greek word that means “service.”  We render liturgy unto God because he is worthy (whence “worship”) of our service.  He alone is worthy of our liturgy.  Catholic liturgy renders praise and adoration unto God without expecting anything in return, simply because he is God.  In America, there are a whole food court of “religious services” available, as you can see in your local Yellow Pages, and we Catholic Americans begin to choose our church services because of what they offer us rather than what we offer to God through them.  “I should get good service at my church, right?  I mean, I put money in the collection basket, and I expect a service in return…. Good music, dynamic preaching, comfortable seats, brisk air conditioning, friendly staff….”  I’ll bet most of us think in these terms to some degree, because it is our culture to think this way.  But Catholic liturgy is just the reverse!  We come to Mass to serve, not to be served.  It helps if the music is good, the preaching stimulating, and the people nice, but these are not the essentials.  If Mass has none of these things, I will still assist at Mass.  I render service to God because he deserves my worship, not because I enjoy it.  Many ex-Catholics will say that Catholic Mass was boring or uncomfortable.  Why did these people come to Mass—to be served or to serve God?  All of us must ask ourselves this question.

Principle One:  Every catholic must intentionally engage the Sacred Liturgy.

It’s what Sister Rose told us in first grade: Pay attention at Mass!  Stop fidgeting!  Several times in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, the deacon cries out “Stand up straight! Be attentive!”—especially at those times the people may be drifting off into dreamland.  We must participate or take ownership of the prayers, readings, singing, and silences of the mass.  We must work for “Participatio actuosa,” a Latin phrase from Vatican II that is usually mistranslated “active participation.”  The adjective was not activa, though, but actuosa.  It means engagement, intention, and attentiveness at Mass, even when we are not doing something “active” like singing or praying out loud.  There is a time for “active participation,” such as singing or praying out loud, but there is also a time for “receptive participation,” such as prayerful silence and listening.  Whether we are praying silently, listening attentively, or singing loudly, we must always engage the many facets of the sacred liturgy.

Principle Two:  We must gain a sense of reverence and mystery through the Sacred liturgy.

Contemporary culture has lost the virtue of reverence:  towards parents, towards priests, towards spouses, and even towards ourselves.  It is the MTV generation.  We have also lost reverence for God.  The liturgy is a good place to begin regaining the virtue of reverence.  From the GIRM, no. 3:”…that interior disposition and outward expression of supreme reverence and adoration in which the Eucharistic Liturgy is carried out.”  We should be silent inside the church, in awe of the mysteries around us.  We should dress modestly and in accord with sacred worship.  We should bow and kneel when appropriate before the Eucharist, we should listen attentively to the word of God, we should reverence each other as bearers of Christ’s mysteries.

Principle Three:  We must gain a sense of communion and brotherhood through the Sacred liturgy.

Contemporary man has lost a great deal of his natural communal sense, that we are all children of one God.  Instead, we each have our own car and our own cell phone and we don’t take public busses and we don’t share anything.  The liturgy is a good place to strengthen our human bonds.  From the GIRM, no. 95: “The faithful should endeavor to make this bond clear by their deep religious sense and their charity toward brothers and sisters.  We should not sit defiantly on the outsides of the pews making those arriving later crawl over us.  We should want to sit near each other, and near the altar, and sing together, and arrive early to chat in the plaza and stay a bit after Mass to chat some more.  We should make time and space for each other on Sunday.  After all, we are all being saved together at the same liturgy.

10 Changes the New Guidelines call for at Our Parish

These are some of the changes indicated by the revised GIRM of March 2003 and by our Bishop, Stephen Blaire.  Numbers in parentheses refer to the relevant paragraph in the revised GIRM. 

1.      We will engage a meditative silence before Mass, after each reading, after the homily, and after receiving Holy Communion (45,56).  Often we do not have enough periods of reflective silence during the mass, and the revised GIRM specifically calls for silence at these times.

2.      We will bow from the waist during the Creed at the words “By the Power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man” (275).  This deep bow has been in the GIRM since 1970 but very few observe it.  It powerfully signifies the central mystery of our faith, the Incarnation. In addition, there are other bows of the head and from the waist that we will observe at given moments, for example…

3.      We will bow the head just before receiving the Body of Christ and again before receiving the Blood of Christ (160).  Again, these acts of reverence have always been specified but rarely observed.

4.      We will chant the parts of the Mass in Latin Gregorian Chant at the 8am Sunday Mass (41). Vatican II and now the New Guidelines specifically say that Gregorian Chant has pride of place among all litrugical music, and Catholics should know at least the parts of the Mass in Latin Chant.  Very few Catholic parishes keep this directive.  We have Gregorian Chant at our 8am Mass and will have occasional chants at other Masses.

5.      We will stand for the communion rite rather than sitting or kneeling (from the Our Father until the last person has received communion (43).  Although the custom has been kneeling or sitting during communion in America, the revised GIRM, while recommending that the custom be retained, allows the Bishop to determine otherwise.  Our bishop has decided to have us stand, so that we realize our communion with each other better.  Standing also helps us to sing together in praise of the Christ we have all just received, manifesting our unity as the Body of Christ in worship.

6.      The extraordinary minsters of holy communion will approach the sanctuary only after the priests have received the Body and Blood of Christ (162). This is to show the distinction of roles between priest (who stands in place of Christ) and faithful (who receive the sacrament from Christ’s hands).

7.      We will genuflect (down on one knee) to the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle before and after mass, upon entering or leaving the church (274). Most of us do this already. Furthermore, anyone not carrying something in the entrance or recessional processions should genuflect upon arriving or leaving the sanctuary.

8.      We will use two lectors for each Mass (109). The GIRM recommends a different lector for each reading so as to give more people the chance to proclaim the Word and us the chance to hear the witness of more people.

9.      We will try to distribute hosts consecrated only at that Mass (85). The mass tries its best to recall the Last supper, when the apostles received the Body of Christ newly-consecrated and offered from his hands.  Using hosts from the current Mass more directly demonstrates the actual sacrifice of that Mass.

10.  There will be no eulogies at funeral Masses (382). The funeral mass focuses on Christ and the eternal life won by his sacrifice.  The proper place for remembering the joys and sorrows of the deceased person’s life is the funeral vigil or “rosary” the evening before, and the reception following the Mass.

Welcoming the morning at St. Joseph's Church, Modesto, California