Grassroots Liturgist

Have you ever seen a baby, a few months old, in his mother’s arms at a social event?   Everyone gathers round to take a look and, inevitably, some will ask to hold the baby.   Maybe after just a few seconds, maybe having been passed on to a second or third cooing adult, the baby gets upset, agitated and distressed, and begins to cry loudly.   Finally, the baby is handed back and only then, in the arms of his mother, he calms down.   The baby looks up at his mother and is reassured; he feels safe….he is at peace. I have often seen this scene played out, and they came to mind several times this Eastertide, which ended last weekend with Evening Prayer on Pentecost Sunday. The first words that the Risen Jesus said when he appeared to the apostles on Easter Sunday were, “Peace be with you.” In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word used is ε ἰ ρήνη ( eiréné ), and it has connotations of peace of mind.   In the Hebrew, shalom , there are ideas of hea...

What does it mean to be Christian? There is a temptation to think of our Christian faith as a set of teachings.   But Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that “ Christianity is not an intellectual system, a collection of dogmas, or moralism.   Christianity is instead an encounter, a love story; it is an event. ” In 19 th Century France, an old peasant would enter the church and sit silently each morning before going to work, and return to do the same before going home.   One day, Fr John Vianney, asked the man what he said to the Lord during his visits.   “I say nothing,” replied the man, “I look at him and he looks at me.” Prayer, the divine encounter, can be as simple as that.   We don’t need to make it overly complicated.   A friend of mine always starts communal prayer by saying, “Let us be aware that we are in the most holy presence of God.”   God is always beside us and simply being aware of that is prayer.   In our last reflection we...

“Show me your calendar, and I will tell you your priorities.” A few days ago, I watched a YouTube video featuring Bishop Robert Baron, where he used this phrase.   And there is clearly truth in those words.   We spend our time, we offer up our time to things that, for whatever reason, are important to us.   For example, I remember offering up a great deal of my time taking my children to their various evening and weekend activities.   I say ‘offering up’ because, frankly, if I were to have made a selfish choice about what to do with my days, they would not have been spent watching endless lengths of swimming or standing in the freezing wind and rain watching a rugby or football match.   But enriching our children’s lives is very important and so I offered up that time, and did so joyfully.   But what else is important to us? In our reflections on the Holy Mass, we have noted the importance of our full, conscious and active participation in the litur...