Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, April 8, 1999
The Southern Cross, Page 9
How teens help
communicate what
liturgy means
By Mark Pacione
Catholic News Service
What do teen-agers contribute
when given the opportunity to help
convey the theme of the liturgy?
The challenge to communicate the
theme of a given
day’s Mass as clearly
as possible takes on a
dizzying complexity
when I consider the
multiple generations
to which that mes
sage needs to be spo
ken: children and
the aged, teen-agers,
young adults, the
middle-aged.
Certainly, just as
today’s adolescents
hear different things
in the word “music” than their parents
do, they also envision something differ
ent in the idea of “communication.”
With each generation having its own
music, stories and icons, finding sym
bols that speak across generational
lines becomes a
formidable task.
Each generation
has its own cul
ture.
To convey the
Sunday liturgy’s
meaning we need
effective ways to
get the message
across to all the
people. To help ad
dress this prob
lem, some youth
ministers take
steps to get youth
involved in the lit
urgy — inviting
them to help com
municate the lit
urgy’s theme.
Of course, while
finding the means
to communicate
well is important,
we also need to
teach new genera
tions about the
meaning of the
fundamental signs and symbols that
we use to carry the message of our
faith.
One Easter, a parish planted a
young person in the assembly who rose
in the middle of the homily and said:
“Excuse me, Father, but I have some
news to share that is very important.
Some friends of Jesus went to the tomb
and found that he was not there.” The
stunning interruption of the homily
helped capture the surprising nature of
the Easter message, “He is risen.”
The theme for a youth conference
Sunday liturgy was “The Everlasting
Presence of the Word.” As a call to
worship, the youth council devised a
simple skit that had a character repeat
over and over “Word of the Lord, Word
of the Lord.” The skit was a simple
praise of everything from God’s cre
ation to the Energizer Bunny, all of
which were portrayed against the back
drop of the Word. And those words,
‘Word of the Lord, Word of the Lord,”
underscored the story line.
When challenged to present the first
reading for the third Sunday of Easter
(Acts 2:14-33), one parish youth group
hung personal statements written in
large print around the church identify
ing the signs and
wonders of God’s love
present in their
lives.
Another parish
youth-ministry pro
gram was trying to
express the mes
sage of John’s Gos
pel on the Fifth
Sunday of Easter
(John 14:1-12). So
the group had greet
ers meet every per
son arriving for the
liturgy, escorting all to “a special
place (seat) that had been prepared
for them.”
The recently released song “Go
Make a Difference,” by Steve
Angrisano, was a perfect song for an
other group that tried to capture the
message of the Ascension, “Go and
make disciples.”
Finding ways to convey the theme
of the liturgy with the input of young
people requires creativity and a will
ingness to add simple but expressive
means of communicating. Naturally,
care must be taken not to detract or
overshadow the liturgy itself.
A great resource for those planning
youth involvement in liturgy is From
Age to Age: The Challenge of Worship
With Adolescents. Parish and high
school youth ministers can obtain a
copy from the National Federation for
Catholic Youth Ministry in Washing
ton, D.C. ($9.95 plus $2 postage and
handling; Phone: 202-636-3825).
(Pacione is director of the Office of
Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of
Baltimore.)
m
F inding ways to convey
the theme of the liturgy
with the input of young
people requires creativity
and a willingness to add
simple but expressive
means of communicating."
CNS photo by Karen Callaway
" In a f
Jutshel
I
A theme — like a thread — unifies the whole celebration of the
Sunday liturgy.
Each Mass celebrates the Lord’s death and resurrection. Each
Mass also focuses attention on a particular aspect of
redemption.
Each Sunday’s Mass theme may also interrelate with the theme
of the Sunday before or the next Sunday. There is a Gospel
theme of Sunday Masses that takes weeks to develop.
How one Sunday
relates to the next
By Father W. Thomas Faucher
Catholic News Service
—FTP!
X he theme of each Sunday’s
Mass is connected to a larger theme
threaded through the Masses for a
particular time of year.
Did you know that the church
has gone from reading about 100
Scripture passages a year at Sunday
Masses to reading more than 450
passages? After Vatican Council II
the church replaced one set of two
Scripture readings for each of the
year’s Sundays with three annual
cycles of three readings for each
Sunday.
A great deal of thought, study
and prayer went into selecting these
readings. There are three readings
each Sunday. But the readings for
any Sunday are part of a larger pic
ture.
The process of selecting these
Scripture readings for our Sunday
Masses began by choosing large sec
tions from a single Gospel; these then
were divided up to be read week by
week. Thus, we see Jesus through the
eyes of Matthew (Cycle A), Luke
(Cycle B) and Mark (Cycle C).
This means that the Sundays of
Advent, Lent, the Easter season or
any other season are not isolated from
each other; these Sundays really are
celebrated in “clusters” of four, eight
or 10 interrelated weeks.
In Cycle A, for example, it takes a
couple of weeks to prepare for Jesus to
climb up and give the Sermon on the
Mount, and five weeks to study the
chapters devoted to his words. Luke’s
story of Jesus’ journey from Galilee to
Jerusalem takes the whole summer in
FAITH IN THE MARKETPLACE
What question would you most like to ask an expert
about the Mass?
“My question is, Why are the sermons, when they’re good, too often cut
short? What makes a great homily is when the priest makes connections
between daily life and the readings, and leaves you thinking and asking
questions.” — Monique Barzana, Miami, Fla.
“How is our understanding of the Eucharist different than that of, say,
the Lutherans?” — Judy Saraka, Mountainside, N.J.
“When the priest is saying the Eucharistic prayer, how can you tell
which Eucharistic prayer he will pick? I know there are four forms, but is
there a reason for picking one over the other?” — Adam LaSota,
Painesville, Ohio
An upcoming edition asks: How do you think families might give
the Bible a larger role at home? If you would like to respond for
possible publication, please write: Faith Alive! 3211 Fourth St.
N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100.
Cycle C, each week picking up from
the week before.
Each Sunday, the first reading,
from the Old Testament, tries to keep
pace with the Gospel reading. The sec
ond reading, the epistle reading, may
or may not have much to do with the
others.
Often we are not aware of the big
meaning of the Gospel reading on
Sunday because we are not conscious
that the passage is the continuation of
the Gospel reading from the week be
fore. The way we start (“A reading
from the Gospel according to ...”) and
the usual first words of the Gospel
(“Jesus said to his disciples ...”) gives
no hint that this picks up where last
week left off.
Also, the fact that a passage from
John’s Gospel sometimes is used can
make this even more confusing. John
is inserted because sometimes he tells
a particular story better than the
regular Gospel for that cycle.
The point is that there is a Gospel
theme of our Sunday Masses that takes
weeks to develop. We may lose sight of
this if we look for the theme of the
Sunday liturgy just one week at a time.
(Father Faucher is a priest of the
Diocese of Boise, Idaho, on assign
ment the Diocese of Baker, Ore.)
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