Grassroots Liturgist

In a recent homily, our parish priest explained why he allows the collection to proceed before he prepares the altar, and then stands as the collection is taken to the sanctuary.   These are his gestures of respect to our own self-giving to God, made through the daily sacrifices we embrace to live in the light of the Gospel, and symbolised in our offerings.   As we reflected last time, true sacrifice is humbly submitting ourselves to God.   Our offering at the collection is necessary for the practical needs of our parish, but its significance is so much more.   It is a symbol of our life, our work, our labours.   And, in recognition that all comes from God, we offer our life and our labours to God in humble sacrifice.   Our financial offering is, in a very real way, an offering of ourselves.   And this is part of the priestly role that, as baptised Christians, we share with Jesus the Christ. “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and your...

I suspect that the Offertory deserves and requires much more of our attention. Too often, we can be focussed on singing a hymn.   Or we allow our mind to wander before the ‘important bits’ start.   But we cannot begin to truly understand the Mass without an understanding of offering and sacrifice, and we really need to give our undivided attention to what is happening here.   Maybe, part of the problem is our understanding of the word sacrifice .   In modern usage it has a negative feel, as in giving up something valuable.   It can hold connotations of the brutal, barbaric human sacrifices made by the Incas and other ancient cultures.   Or perhaps the catechesis that we received as children wrongly suggested that the death of Jesus was to appease a God who demands bloody retribution for our sins. But true sacrifice stems from a deep acknowledgement that everything that we are, and everything that we have, comes from our Eternal God.   And the...

If we stop to think about it, there is a wonderful, organic flow to the celebration of Holy Mass that is in harmony with the needs of our fallen human nature. We gather in song, a sign and celebration of our unity as members of the Church.   We then acknowledge to ourselves, to each other and to God, our failings and our need of him.   Then, liberated by his loving mercy, we may truly and joyously sing his praise in the Gloria.   Having done so, we are more able to open our ears, our minds and our hearts to listen to and absorb, to assimilate his life-giving Word to us; that his Word may written on our hearts, and not remain mere external instruction.   And, fed and nourished by his Word, we can confidently state our shared faith in the words of the Creed. Then, having expressed our baptismal faith, we exercise our baptismal priesthood – yes, all the baptised share in Christ’s priestly ministry – by offering up to God our intentions and petitions for the Church a...