St Peter & St Paul — Sitting by the Beautiful Gate
Our neophytes are finding themselves increasingly ‘at home’ in the parish community, which is fantastic – life-giving for all. They have talked a lot about their Easter experiences over the last months, and the community have shared their lives in many simple, small ways. The heart-beat of the Word pulsing throughout the process of preparing these people for the sacraments, continues in other forms in the parish. And yes, the community continue to give ‘thoughtful and friendly help ‘ (RCIA 234)
However, once again the process of initiation has challenged us. Why am I surprised that the readings for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul raise more questions than answers? Yes, we have received into our community a number of people this year, but there are still so many people ‘sitting at the Beautiful Gate’ turning to us expectantly, and hoping to get something from us, and actually either we don’t notice them at all, or we are frightened of them because they are ‘different’, or we are too busy, or we don’t think the Church can support even a conversation with them, so we ignore them.
Perhaps for me the challenges are:
- Can we notice the people on the edge, and try and get into their shoes?
- If we ask them to ‘Look at us’ what do they see?!
- How can we engage their trust and confidence?
- If we say (with Peter) ‘I will give you what I have’, what exactly do we mean by that?
- When we hear the questions from Christ for ourselves: ‘Who do you say I am?’ and ‘Do you love me?’ and find ourselves saying with Peter ‘You are the Christ’ and ‘Yes, you know I do’, how do we avoid paying lip-service, and actively respond to Christ’s follow-up: well then, feed my lambs and look after and feed my sheep?
- And what about the Church in Acts - do we ‘pray to God unremittingly’ for one another, and for those in troubled circumstances?
- How can we make ourselves available, and be that liberating and healing presence? How do we show we care and not leave people with a sense of isolation and rejection?
Peter took the crippled man by the hand and helped him to stand up on his own two feet for the first time (and the man was jumping up and down and praising God! ) Can we dare to do this? I think so, yes, because, as Paul says in his letter to Timothy, the Lord will stand by us and give us the power – power to bind up the wounds of hostility, disparaging remarks, prejudice, and power to loosen the bonds of helplessness and hopelessness.
Solemn Blessing for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul: You might like to pray this line by line, very slowly, allowing silence between phrases. How does it speak into your life?
The Lord has set you firm within his Church
which he built upon the rock of Peter’s faith.
May he bless you with a faith that never falters.
The Lord has given you knowledge of the faith
through the labours and preaching of Saint Paul.
May his example inspire you to lead others to Christ
by the manner of your life.
May the keys of Peter, and the words of Paul,
their undying witness and their prayers,
lead you to the joy of that eternal home
which Peter gained by his cross, and Paul by the sword.
Spreading the Word – Mass in the Park
Many apologies for the lateness of the posting of this week’s blog – as the saying goes “circumstances beyond our control”!
It was one of those blogs that you can’t prepare in advance since the plan was to share the story of something that happened on Sunday morning (21 June) that could provide ideas for evangelising and witnessing to the joy of being people of faith to people who wouldn’t remotely set foot through a church door (save for “hatchings, matchings and despatchings”).
A bit of history first… In 2006, our diocese created Pastoral Areas in which parishes would be encouraged to work more closely together and support each other in developing the faith lives of the people in their Area and in reaching out to others. In my own Area, there had often been the thought that it would be good idea to come together for a shared celebration but, with 1500 Catholics, no venue was readily available. However, across the road from one of the churches, which is geographically in the middle of the Area, is a park – and in the park is a bandstand. The bandstand is host to concerts during the summer and, in years gone by, was the focus of the parish’s Corpus Christi processions. These had ceased years before though many parishioners could remember their First Communion year in which they wore their Communion Day clothes and scattered rose petals before the Blessed Sacrament – when the Polish community turned out in force in national dress – and when people in the town would stand and watch. Quite what they made of what they saw no-one knows but it was an event that was part of the town’s calendar and proclaimed that here was a community confident in its faith.
And so, in exploring the possibility of a Mass for people across the Pastoral Area, the thought of an Open Air Mass on the bandstand grew. A team of volunteers came together to plan the celebration – which, to run smoothly, had to be organised a bit like a military operation. The PA system for the bandstand and its operators had to be booked (fortunately, a Mass in the Park for the church’s patronal feast last year had given them experience of what would be required). Chairs were also borrowed to supplement those brought by participants. Banners and bunting decorated the bandstand and volunteers were working on moving altars and lecterns, chairs and flowers from 7am on the Day. The list of songs to be used was posted on the PA website and circulated to the mailing list. Readers were invited for the different churches as were Ministers of Communion. Children who had made – or are soon to make – their First Communion brought forward the Gifts, which included pictures and a prayer commemorating the event which would be blessed and taken back to the six churches in the Area. Young people rehearsed and performed a mime to accompany the proclamation of the Gospel. Car parking was made as easy as it could be for people who did not know the area with maps and information circulated through the website – and, on the Day, a team of welcomers and ushers (identifiable by their green sashes) made sure that everyone was made welcome and had Mass booklets, those with disabilities seated so that Ministers could bring Communion to them and generally keeping an eye out to iron out potential hiccups.
On the day, all three priests from the Pastoral Area concelebrated – joined by deacons and those in training … and around 500 people came together to sing, pray and worship together. It was a memorable experience and one that we hope will be repeated. But, such a public act of worship does not go un-noticed. The park is a major thoroughfare and people going backwards and forwards to the shops slowed and watched what was happening.
Children and parents heading to and from the play area looked at the unusual spectacle of the decorated bandstand with priests, deacons and servers.
Dog walkers settled their dogs and, for just a few moments, became part of something very different from their usual Sunday morning stroll.
To cater for those who might have been attracted by what they experienced, a note was put into the Mass booklet inviting people to pick up “Seekers’” leaflets and to come along to an evening in a couple of weeks to find out a little more about these people and their faith.
How many will take up the invitation we don’t know – but in drawing communities together and proclaiming our faith to local people, hopefully a few will be drawn to find out more – and those in the various churches will be as welcoming and as joyful as they were at the sunlit Midsummer Mass in the Park.
YES – AMEN
Tomorrow is the 16th June. In Dublin it is a special day. The 16th June is known as Bloomsday – the story of one day in the life of the characters in James Joyce’s amazing novel Ulysses along with a celebration of the city of Dublin itself. The book opens with one of the characters, stately plumb Buck Mulligan, climbing a tower with his dressing gown , ungirdled and sustained behind him by the mild morning air holding aloft his shaving bowl and intoning “Introibo ad altare Dei”.
It is to say the least a slightly irreverent opening as the action of the ‘stately plump’ figure and his action mirrors the action of the priest, as he would have celebrated the Mass of the Tridintine Rite, holding the host aloft with the altar server holding the priestly vestments behind him. And, of course, the words ‘Introibo ad altare Dei’ were the introductory Latin words of the Mass, as it was celebrated, when the book was written. However, apart from the irreverence perhaps a deeper message is being offered to us!
In the old rite when the priest and the server entered into the sanctuary of the church to celebrate Mass – the gates were closed. Symbolically the priest was entering into the presence of God where only the ‘holy’ could enter. The rest were present, looking on from a distance, often with heads bowed. Behind the altar rails was where God was to be found. In Joyce’s novel the ‘altar of God’ is not enclosed but out in the open air. The altar of God is found in the strange, imaginative, complex, even seedy lives both of the characters and city. In the course of one day, a day which takes over 930 pages to describe, the final word to all the complexity, richness and imaginative lives of the characters and city is YES. Yes to life. Yes to the altar of our lives. It is such a great word – Yes. In the words of the poet Brendan Kennelly
“I am always beginning to appreciate
The agony from which it is born.
Clues from here and there
Suggest such agony is hard to bear
But is the shaping God
Of the word that we
Sometimes hear, and struggle to be.”
Both James Joyce and Brendan Kennelly are, knowingly or unknowingly, reflecting the most profound insights of St Paul who, writing to the church in Corinth, has much to say about Yes. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes”. For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen” to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:19-20). Learning that God’s word to us is “Yes” and that that “Yes” finds its fullest expression in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is not necessarily easy. Yet it lies at the heart of the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi, which we celebrated yesterday. When we are offered communion during the Eucharist, the Priest or Minister of the Eucharist holds out the host and says “The Body of Christ” and we answer “Amen” – What we are saying is “Yes! – this is the body of Christ” But we are also saying “Yes – ‘I am’ the body of Christ and ‘we are’ the body of Christ.’
YES – AMEN – let us go into the altar of God – the God of our lives
The Power of Three
Solemnities abound at this time in the Liturgical Calendar: Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and we can have a feeling of there being too much of a good thing! And so for the week in which we celebrate The Most Holy Trinity I offer a trinity of mini-reflections and accompanying images. May they bring blessing in some guise or other.
Firstly, the lectionary readings for the Solemnity.
The final part of the Deuteronomy reading is a gift for those newly initiated intent on ‘deepening their grasp of the paschal mystery and making it part of their lives’ [RCIA paragraph 244] as disciples rather than neophytes:
“So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendents after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.” [Deuteronomy 4: 39-40]
But then, very much in the mystagogical spirit of ensuring that the whole community be inspired and renewed by their experience of the sacraments [RCIA paragraph 246], we find within the gospel another gift: a reminder of the real purpose of all our membership and ministry:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. [Matthew 28: 19]
Truly – the power of three!
Secondly, an extract from a current ‘best seller’.
Mack is the main character in The Shack [Wm Paul Young 2007, Hodder & Stoughton] and is beset by what becomes known as ‘The Great Sadness’ when his much loved daughter is abducted from their holiday tent and presumed murdered. He is called, supposedly by God, to make a journey to the shack believed to be the site of her murder. On arrival he encounters ‘the Trinity’:
“Thoughts tumbled over each other as Mack struggled to figure out what to do. Was one of these people God? What if they were hallucinations or angels, or God was coming later? That could be embarrassing. Since there were three of them, maybe this was a Trinity sort of thing. But two women and a man and none of them white? He knew his mind was rambling so he focused on the one question he most wanted answered.
“Then,” Mack struggled to ask, “which one of you is God?”
“I am” said all three in unison. Mack looked from one to the next, and even though he couldn’t begin to grasp what he was seeing and hearing, he somehow believed them. “
Through his encounter with these three beings, Mack’s life is transformed and his relationships broadened, deepened and renewed.
A very different power of three!
And finally, for RCIA team members.
A diocese in the North of England is planning an evening offered in four venues during the early summer. Called Reflect, Refresh, Renew they are offering a chance to engage in this trinity of catechetical activities. Each separate component represents an important dynamic in the life of catechists and RCIA teams. Developing as reflective practitioners will ensure their ministry remains grounded in the reality of their particular context and the needs of their enquirers and catechumens. Ongoing ministry over a number of months, and often years, becomes stale and lifeless without times of refreshment and inspiration. To renew implies review: openness to an honest appraisal of how things have gone, and whether the aims and processes articulated at the beginning of the journey have been met. This then enables a renewal of the vision and fresh heart for the journey. Put the three separate components together however and what is on offer has the potential to be much more powerful than the individual components: a different energy, a more complete process.
Indeed – a very different power of three!
One of Us
There is still time to book a place on the Network's two Study Days in Tooting Bec (13 June) and Bristol (30 June).
The days address key aspects of our practice of RCIA. In the morning Nicky Stevens in Tooting and Martin Jakubas in Bristol will look at the role of the assembly in RCIA:
The people of God, as represented by the local Church, should understand and show by their concern that the initiation of adults is the responsibility of all the baptised… the entire community must help the candidates and the catechumens throughout the process of initiation. (RCIA 9)
In the afternoon there will be a choice of workshops: Forming an RCIA team and Receiving the Baptised.
Booking for Tooting is open until Monday 8 June and for Bristol - Friday 12 June. Download the booking form.
Open to the Spirit
Pentecost is upon us – the formal time of Mystagogy is complete, at least for those who were initiated at Easter and in at least some parishes things quieten down again in the catechumenal programme.
Lent and Easter sees extraordinary activity for our RCIA groups. The Rite of Election, Scrutinies, and the celebration of the sacraments at the Vigil, and then adapting ourselves to the distinctive form of catechesis that is Mystagogy and finally the gathering of new Catholics with their bishop. Now there’s a checklist and a half. Which of these things have we done? And which have we failed to do. What omissions were due to us, and which were due to others? What might we learn from how kept Lent and Easter with our catechumens and neophytes this year for what we might want to do next year?
In the parish where I serve our catechumenal programme used to really quieten after Pentecost. In fact it went into complete hibernation – with an expectation that it would start up again in the Autumn. This was the practice up until this year.
That things are different this year is not especially because we decided to do things differently, (and some might say ‘properly’). However change has been thrust upon us by those who have been coming along to our parish enquirers meetings this year.
Unusually (for us) those people have mostly been unbaptised people, and have been young parents with pre-school children. The number of pre-school children for whom our enquirers have responsibility presented us with an early challenge.
Our Enquirers group has traditionally met on a weekday evening. This year’s participants were happy with this so long as they could bring their babies and toddlers with them. The group leaders found this a challenge too far so after six weeks or so we switched to an afternoon meeting which was good for the parents and ok for our leadership team.
The next challenge was just how much formation the group needed at enquiry stage. It was quickly clear that they would not be ready for the sacraments at Easter this year, and that was quite a break with tradition in this parish, where we have for many years operated a curtailed and constrained Autumn to Easter programme. So we had no Easter baptisms or confirmations from this group and had a very much more extended enquiry stage, because the members were very clear they were not ready to make any commitment.
Interestingly enough we did have a number of confirmations this Easter – for a number of adults, already regular in their practice, independently approached the parish team wanting to receive the sacrament. Our enquirers not yet having become catechumens we found it better to establish a new group which met weekly during Lent to prepare for confirmation.
The experience of Lent/Easter was a powerful one for our Enquirers and has helped them all to come to the decision that they want to make the commitment to continue their exploration of faith in a more committed fashion. Which itself presented the team with an issue – what to do about welcoming into the catechumenate, and what form might that catechumenate take.
Over recent years we have not made much of the role of sponsor: the RCIA group itself has tended to take on that responsibility. But this year was to be different in this respect also. We’ve encouraged the enquirers to think about who they already know that in fact is exercising something of that role. And where those people are ready and able we have chosen them to be the sponsors.
The Rite of Entry into the Catechumenate is being celebrated on Trinity Sunday. The season of Easter has come to take on a particular initiatory flavour for our parish. This is not only because of the (usual) celebrations of adult initation at the Easter Vigil. In our diocese confirmations take place in the Easter season and this year all our parish first Holy Communions (about 100!) have taken place over the last 4 Sundays of the Easter season. But this year, when Easter has finished we gather the next Sunday to celebrate a rite which has us mark out work to be done in readiness for Easter 2010.
Our present expectation is that the group will be ready for baptism next Easter but as flexibility has been our keyword so far this year, who knows?
And as for catechumenal process, one good thing that has come from this group is that because of their various other commitments they are happy to try out Sunday dismissal catechesis. This will be something new for us all. So please keep us in your prayers!