UPDATE OF LITURGICAL PRINCIPLES

My personal list of liturgical principles has grown and the current version is below. 
This list is intended for discussion by liturgy planning groups at all levels.
They are invited to amend it to be accurate and applicable for their own use.
Then they can reference the agreed principles when a discussion gets stuck on what people like, want to do personally, or have seen done elsewhere, in order to address the question, "Liturgically, is this a good idea?"

Specifically Liturgical Values

Definition

1. Liturgy is public prayer.
2. Liturgy is communal prayer.
3. Liturgical prayer is regulated by the church.

Purpose

4. Liturgy is more a gift from God to the Church than an offering to God from the Church.
5. Liturgy exists to strengthen communal support for personal Christian living.

Role of the Assembly

6. The assembled believers are themselves the ones who are praying, the ecclesia.
7. Christian liturgy is an exercise of the priestly office of the baptized.

Implications (from the role of the assembly)

8. The members of the assembly should be taught the importance and fullness of their roles in liturgy.
9. The elements of the liturgy should be comprehensible to the assembly without explanation.
10. All of the members of the assembly should be supported in actively participating in all the liturgical elements not specifically requiring a ministry expertise.
11. The assembly needs to be prepared by its ministers before complications or variations are added to a liturgical service.

Nature of Ritual

12. Liturgical prayer involves ritual whose positive effects are supported by repetition over a lifetime.
13. The primary role of liturgical music is to unify the prayer of the assembly.
14. Ritual music is based on the repeated use of melodies and texts, which assists the assembly's participation in song.

General Guidelines

15. Liturgical preparation is based on the text of the church and must support its flow and climaxes.
16. Christian liturgy is based on Scripture and should use vernacular translations of Scriptural texts rather than paraphrases in prayers and songs.
17. The texts of the liturgy and the Scriptures have priority over musical expression.
18. Liturgy needs to be prepared with the size of the assembly in mind.
19. Liturgy needs to be prepared with the nature of the prayer place in mind.
20. Liturgical celebrations, even of a particular congregation, vary in formality depending on the occasion and the size of the assembly.

Role of Ministers

21. Liturgical ministers, ordained or not, are called to serve and support the praying of the assembly.
22. Things should not be added or expanded in the liturgy for the gratification of the tastes or demonstration of the talents of the ministers.

Cautions

23. Unity in liturgy does not require uniformity in performance.
24. Beauty in liturgy is an element of acculturation and varies among societies, classes, and places.
25. Elements of the liturgy require craftsmanship of noble simplicity rather than artistic expression.
26. The essentials of any liturgical service need to be distinguished from accretions and protected.
27. Do not fear to have a brief service which allows time for more fellowship or even more preaching.

COMMUNION REVERENCE

The people who want an additional sign of reverence before receiving communion seem to be concerned that going to communion has become routine and thoughtless. They feel that some people merely line up, grab the host, then hustle back to a seat, as if on autopilot. They want people to stop and collect themselves before receiving. They think a gesture of reverence, prayer, or whatever, is important.

The problem is that they are trying to add something to the communion service, rather than looking at what is already there and trying to make it work better. There is already an act of reverence built into the communion rite. It simply is not done as envisioned by the liturgical authorities who developed it.


PART I
In the Roman Catholic communion rite, [and there are very similar rituals for Evangelical Lutherans and Episcopalians] the communion minister is told to hold up the element before the communicant and proclaim, “The Body of Christ.” The communicant is to respond, “Amen.”

What usually happens is that the minister lifts the bread or wine while saying the formula and continues into a motion to give it to the communicant while that communicant responds and then accepts the sacred species. There is no time for a reverent response separate from the reception. All is mushed together.

The sequence is improved by simple changes by the minister, making distinct each element of the rite.

• Wait until both the minister and the communicant have come to a stop.
  
• Hold up the element.
  
• Then make the proclamation while the element is before the eyes of the communicant.
  
• Give the communicant time to make eye contact with the bread or wine before making a profession of faith by saying “Amen” to the proclamation.
  
• After the “Amen,” then offer the communion element to the recipient.
  

This procedure allows time for a faith transaction before God between the minister and the communicant. It slows and solemnizes the transaction. It requires the minister to focus on what is being offered to each individual instead of on the general communion process.

This might slow things down. That in turn might suggest that more communion ministers are needed, but is this not better, to have a difference in the administration of communion which has a better chance to feel meaningful instead of routine?


PART II

If one is allowed to change the rite for a local congregation, there is a possible change which would help everyone to better understand the meaning of what is happening in the overall communion service.

Instead of having the communicant response be, “Amen,” each could respond, “We are all members of that one body/blood.”

This gets closer to the essence of the communion service, the sharing of all in the body of Christ. This sharing is certainly there as the service exists now in most denominations, but it is there by implication or in its theology and is not very much there experientially. It is too easy to feel that communion is a “me and Jesus” moment instead of a communal experience.

Indeed, that is reflected in the very concern mentioned at the beginning of this article. One [exactly] gets in line, waits a turn to get for oneself what everyone else is getting, then goes back to one's personal place to sit and respond to what one has received.

This does not reflect the doing something with others, communally, which is the essence of liturgical versus private prayer. It does not speak of participation in the body of Christ, of sharing in that one body of which Jesus is the head and we all are members. One belief about communion, Jesus coming to each of us, is too easily able to dominate the more central belief that Jesus comes to all of us and all of us are part of Jesus.

Another essay will get into how what else we do can enhance the communality of community.


Meanwhile, what do you think about these two ideas?

NO SACRED AND PROFANE

Poor Anonymous thinks the Christian community is profane.
Perhaps Anon. does not know that Jesus built a community of followers and taught a way of life and did not separate the "sacred" from the "profane" but proclaimed that the rule of God was at hand, immediately, in every day life.

Look at the actual content of  the Sunday Service.
It is all about God giving to us, not humans giving to God.

God gives us the Scriptures and we strive to accept, understand, and apply them to our daily lives.
God gives us the Body and Blood of Jesus under the forms of bread and wine.
This is all about God nurturing the mind and body and spirit of Christians in community.

The Sunday Word and Meal celebration is much more about God nurturing God's own people than about the people worshiping God.

I find it hard to imagine people receiving these gifts without thanksgiving [eucharistia] and praise [worship] in response, but God is the initiator of the feast, the host, and we Christians are nurtured, strengthened, for the difficult task of following the values of Jesus in a world which values competition, entertainment, and consumption more highly than love of neighbor.

MYSTERY OF FAITH

Paul Inwood wrote on June 27, 2011 on

http://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2011/06/26/a-few-missal-roll-out-anecdotes/#comment-53420 
_______________________________________________________________________________
To be perfectly accurate, “Christ has died” was not fashioned [by ICEL] but borrowed.

No one knows for sure who wrote it, but it seems to have been the work of an Anglican clergyman attending a World Council of Churches meeting, possibly in India, in about 1963.Already by 1965 it was in fairly wide use in Anglican Churches, and found its way into the Series 3 Eucharist. 

ICEL simply borrowed it without acknowledgement for the 1970 translation of the 1969 Latin Order of Mass (and, worse still, claimed copyright in it themselves — naughty!). 

... [I]t was about Christ, rather than addressed to Christ, and the other three acclamations were indeed criticised by liturgists for addressing Christ in the middle of a prayer addressed to the Father. 

(rather in the same way that Rome instructed the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales on two separate occasions — but they did not take any notice — not to include the Hail Mary in the General Intercessions because the thrust of these prayers was towards the Father and a prayer addressed to the BVM interrupted that).  

There has always been some justification, therefore, for saying that “Christ has died” was more appropriate than the other acclamations.  

When in July 2003 I interviewed Joseph Gelineau, who had worked on the Eucharistic Prayers and was responsible for the inclusion of the Memorial Acclamation in the EP, I quizzed him closely on this. 

He said that in the tradition as they found it (for example in Greek liturgies), such acclamations of the people were always addressed to Christ because, it was surmised, the people felt “closer” to Christ than to the Father. (My [Inwood] reaction to that would be that today, it is possible to say that people feel a lot closer to the Father than they once did — and it’s also possible to point to the openings of the 1973 ICEL collects as a reason for that!.)  

Gelineau also told me that he had frequently been asked questions by other liturgists about why these acclamations were addressed to Christ instead of to the Father.  

I asked him if there was any reason why the three acclamations might not have been on the lines of 

“We profess his death, O Lord, and proclaim his resurrection, until he comes again” or 

“When we eat…. we proclaim his death, O Lord,…”, 

in each case with “Lord” being addressed to the Father rather than to Christ.  

He said there was absolutely no reason why this couldn’t have been done; it was simply that they hadn’t thought of it because of what they found in other traditions.  
__________________________________________________________


Paul's comment is a good example of questioning ourselves about every little thing we do in liturgy.  In order to make a good decision as a liturgical presider (or planner) regarding the proclamation of the Mystery of Faith (following the Institution Narrative in the Eucharist), it is helpful to have the sort of information Paul provides.

He has pointed out an inconsistency and simple ways to eliminate it by either rephrasing or selecting the more consistent option.  It could be an example of something “feeling better” to the congregation without them even knowing that an inconsistency has been eliminated. Maybe it explains why so many congregations are most comfortable with the “Christ has died” response.

Using Paul's information could fit under a heading I have in preparation, "Decide to Preside."

In order for one to be the best possible presider one possibly can become, each presider needs to decide, on a good basis, what is to be done with each word or action and not just accept the practices one has seen previously or fallen into using without making a specific decision. 

If you preside at Eucharist, can you say why you use every particular word in that particular delivery with those particular postures or gestures, for all of your presiding? 

Do you think that too much to ask?  Talk to any good actor after a performance and they can probably answer such questions.  They are well aware that everything they do or omit can affect how effectively the meaning of the playwright gets to the audience and how easy it is to distract from that effectiveness. Does not sacramental presiding deserve at least as much care?

Many clergy could benefit from realizing that having such reasons can make the liturgy clearer to persons in the pews. They can benefit from someone asking how the presider might make the intentions of the church even clearer.  
 
That is, I think many clergy could benefit from a presiding coach asking such questions and discussing possible alternatives for the presider to select.



If any priest or minister who presides at Eucharist would like to have a presiding coach, please email 
practical.liturgist@gmail.com

If you think some presiders you know could improve with a little bit of coaching, send them a link to or copy of  this blog posting.  

BY WHAT MEANS?

When we turn from the ends desired for Sunday Mass, which are listed in previous blogs, to the means, as shown in several categories below, some respondents had very specific items which they want included in Roman Catholic Masses. 

For many items there is likely to be broad agreement when stated generally, but there would be a great deal of disagreement based on tastes and interpretations. There would also be some questions regarding how relevant local circumstances and the composition of the immediate congregation were to defining quality, beauty, and other such generally accepted terms. 

Finally there are areas [shown in brackets below like these] where those interested in the wondrous and those focused on the communal would almost always disagree.

ATTITUDE

• humility,
• reverence,

SETTING

• architecture, art, vestments, music, language
  -of high quality,
  -beautiful,
  -connected to tradition, and
  -well done regardless of style
• a sanctuary easily visible to the congregation.
• a spotless church

STYLE

• periodic pauses significant enough to be felt,
  silence that punctuate each action, each reading, each prayer
• allowing space for the congregation to take in the words and make the prayers their own
• a nice long silence after communion
• [everything takes a long time]
• liturgy to be done by the books but done well and with care.
• follows all the rules in a creative and energetic way,
• the Mass to be prayed reverently, but naturally and without a lot of self consciousness
• [no ad libbing]
• naturalness in the liturgical action and a general lack of pomp and theatricality; the purposefulness and reverence balanced with a sense that the Mass is the most natural thing for the people of God to be doing rather than a theatrical performance.
• continuity between congregation and ministers, so that everyone is part of the sacred action and feels that they are.
• attentiveness from servers, musicians, lectors, communion ministers, clergy.

MOVEMENT

• good posture and articulate movement
• gestures which are large, slow, and deliberate.
• processions take a long time
• well blocked/choreographed
• [no liturgical dancing.]

SCRIPTURE

• Scripture proclaimed from the heart
• carefully prepared and vigorous but not dramatic proclamation of scripture
• Scriptures easily audible.
• a lector who proclaims the scriptures in a way that touches my heart.
• readers who are well prepared and formed to proclaim the readings
• readers who read expressively in a way that betrays their own personal encounter not just with the words but with The Word

MUSIC

• cantillation (chanting)
• everything to be sung, including the propers as well as hymns for the people
• well sung: hearty, vigorous, with conscious meaning,
• fine music
• musicians who understand that music is truly the servant of the liturgy and so don’t seek to overpower the assembly and the ministers
• a choir that doesn’t think of itself as leading the assembly in song but as part of the assembly itself
• no one waving their hands or telling people they didn’t respond loud enough.

CONGREGATION

• true welcome shown to every member of the assembly
• sincere, warm welcome to those who come to church alone; the elderly, young single adults
• active and heartfelt responses to greetings and invitations throughout the liturgy
• audible, purposeful participation in song, prayer and dialogues
• [concentration on the word of God in proclamation, eyes up, not in books]
• people sitting near each other, in the same area, if the church is not full
• active participation that is first internally contemplative and then vocal
• attention to the word of God proclaimed and preached
• joyful participation in hymns, aided by choir and instrumentalists (organist)
• the people to sing/say the dialogues that pertain to them
• worshipers who seem engaged through their posture, their visage, their singing & praying, their listening, their offering, and their partaking of Holy Communion.

PRESIDING

• priest reads the prayers as if he has prayed them himself
• spoken prayers are read so sincerely that we all think they are the priest's own words.”
• priest who is obviously directing prayer to God in a way that is personal (as opposed to formal or officious)
• a priest who understands that presiding in persona Christi does not preclude him from being present to God and to the assembly as who he really is. I have always found the notion that priests must lay their “personalities” aside as bizarre.

PREACHING

• homily easily audible.
• inspired preaching
• homilist who can make Jesus’ words come alive for me. Right here, right now.
• homilies that are brief, but relevant and to the point
• homilies that connect the scripture to the daily lives of regular people, to our fears and challenges, to the problems in our local community that we must deal with in a Christian way
• thoughtful, Scriptural, challenging preaching.
• Scripture explained with heart

SERVERS

• servers at least age of 13
• servers over 9
• clean and crisp looking server garb
• [altar servers wear the traditional black and white.]
• [servers vested in clean and neat albs.]

COMPONENTS

• fresh flowers
• incense
• [Gothic vestments and deacons in dalmatics. ]
• [a Eucharistic minister who takes time to let me bow before receiving the Eucharist]
• language in the Prayer of the Faithful that uses rich and poetic images for God.
• well composed prayers of the faithful, with invitation for petitions or names from the congegation.
• [priest faces the people. (Prayers are addressed up and out, to God). ]
• [priest and people face the same direction like we are all in this together]
• [“ad Deum/ad orientem” posture of the celebrant after receiving the offertory]
• [the Ordinary Form is used]
• [language in the liturgy which recognizes that both men and women are in attendance]
• [bells, especially at the elevation]
• [keep the sanctuary lights dim prior to Mass to encourage silence and prayer.]
• [the significant presence of an altar crucifix]
• [no distracting altar crucifix DURING MASS]
• [Mass in Latin]
• [Mass in the local language]
• [the exchange of the peace as a critical moment of the liturgical action.]

LOMBARDI CEREMONY

Here are some notes from watching the Super Bowl and noticing what the liturgically-trained theater-person could not help but notice.

There was another national anthem disaster. This has happened many times before, yet some people still get upset. Consider that this might be because a ritual moment was turned into a personal expression by an entertainer.

Instead of delivering the song of praise for this moment of civil religion, Christina Aguilera attempted to demonstrate personal style and artistic creativity, to draw attention to herself. One can do that in a ritual moment only if one is simultaneously delivering the expected words. For a national anthem, the melody must be recognizable also.

For the half-time show, the person who had the biggest job was the director. Can you imagine how many hours of rehearsal time were involved in putting all the pieces together? How far in advance did the director have to inform the producer and technical staff what equipment was needed? How much effort, before rehearsal, went into making sure all the physical pieces went together? How much planning went into moving people and things so that everybody got where they needed to be exactly when they needed to be there? How far in advance did parts of the stage have to begin moving in order to deliver the next performer exactly on cue? Did you notice that the audience never had to wait for someone to get in place? That there were no pauses or hesitations?

Whether one liked the entertainment content or not, the presentation had one continuous flow overall and from one element to another. Does anyone at your parish work on maintaining such a smooth flow for your services? Do all know their cues and begin as soon as they should without adding or omitting anything? Does everybody come to rehearsal and follow the script as adapted for your worship space and congregation's needs?

Unfortunately, the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy was a great contrast to the half-time show.

Roger Staubach is a man worthy of admiration, but he was not well treated by the planners or by those around him.  He was standing in the midst of the crowd, looking as if he did not know what to do. He was announced, but he still waited to get encouragement to do what he was supposed to do. His route was repeatedly impeded and interrupted. He arrived on the platform after being out of sight for a while, but nobody was prepared to receive the trophy from him, and the whole world saw the awkwardness of Terry Bradshaw guiding Staubach as if “audibilizing” and redirecting some lesser player.

Bradshaw was a great quarterback and is now an admired entertainer, but he has no idea how to conduct a ritual. There were no ceremonial words from him or Roger Goodell.   First Bradshaw handed over the trophy, then he put a microphone in the commissioner's other hand.  The person Goodell addressed was not the person who was given the trophy. The ceremony was over without having an ending, because Bradshaw was now asking one of those obvious and pointless TV reporter questions.

Yet, the ceremony was not over, there was the announcement of a physically non-existent award for the Most Valuable Player. This involved no trophy or plaque, but Bradshaw delivered his most formal words of the ceremony, the carefully rehearsed advertising copy for the automobile which was more visible on the field than the MVP was on the overcrowded stage.

Compare this lack of clear flow to that of the half-time show. Compare this lack of ceremony with how neatly and ceremonially each individual Olympic medal is presented or soccer's World Cup. Compare these events to the coming Oscar ceremonies.

When you find some event to be annoying or distracting, ask yourself why. Was it something that was done or not done? Was it awkward because it was over-prepared and mechanical or because it was under-prepared and rough-edged? If it was too long, what could have been omitted? If it seemed rushed, was it because of the speakers or the overall pacing? Was the event respectful of all the participants or were some more focused on their own parts rather than caring about the others involved?

How can an event possibly be done well if all are not clearly agreed on what are the purposes and priorities of the event?