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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1989)
Page 4 • Faith Today In the Sunday liturgy, the church’s members gather as its members always have gathered. In the Sunday liturgy, Christians today do what Christians always have done... How do you celebrate special holidays or anniversaries? It is in the nature of these occasions that the past is remembered. On anniversaries and birth days, people are likely to cast a glance backward by looking at old photographs and talking over “the old days.” On holidays like Easter or Christmas, old customs give the celebration a special flavor and create just the right atmosphere. On holidays and anniversaries we don’t ex actly step into the past. These celebrations are WRAP UP very much part of the here and now. They revitalize us, making an impact on our present existence. They restore us, giving us the energy and balance we need for tomorrow. Nonetheless, in these celebrations the past comes to life in unique ways. The past meets the present, and the celebrations take on a quality of timelessness. That means the celebration of a special day, while linked to this present moment in our lives, is not tied down by it, not bound by it. Its meaning encompasses the past as well as the present. It is something like this whenever a sacra ment is celebrated in the church. In the sacraments, we encounter a long and rich tradi tion in a living way that makes an impact on us now. Whenever the sacrament of the sick is celebrated, for example, a long tradition is renewed of caring for people and expressing compassion for them, while recognizing their dignity and helping to restore them. In the sacrament the healing Christ is present, as he was to the sick in the Gospels. Again, whenever the sacrament of confirma tion is celebrated, the gifts of the Spirit are shared in a special way with baptized members of the church. Those being confirmed are part of a long tradition, intimately linked with their spiritual forebears whose hopes rested on the Spirit’s gifts. Yet the Spirit’s gifts are given for today, enabling us to live our lives well here and now. The church is a living organism. And it is probably in the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist that its members realize this most profoundly. In the Sunday liturgy, the church’s members gather as its members always have gathered. In the Sunday liturgy, Christians today do what Christians always have done. The Sunday liturgy is a time when Christians remember their past. But for them, the past is much more than a memory. What they celebrate is the continuing presence of Christ. CHILDREN'S PLACE By Janaan Manternach NC News Service Ancient prayer to a rock beat W ill you please turn down that music!” Joe’s mother shouted for the fifth time. Her tone reflected her growing impatience. Joe turned down the volume on his stereo. A few minutes later he thought he heard her leave the house so he turned up the volume again. But she was just checking something in the car and then returned to her office under Joe’s room. He didn’t hear her come in again or come up the stairs. “I’ve had it, Joe!” she said as she knocked on his door. “C’mom in, Mom, I’m cleaning my room." Joe hoped that would calm her down. But it didn’t. “What are you listening to that has to be so loud?” she asked, trying to keep her feelings under control. “It’s just a song, Mom. It sounds better when it’s loud.” “What’s the song?” she asked. “I can never understand the words to the rock songs you like.” “It was real popular a year or so ago. By Mr. Mister. I don’t unders tand all the words either. It’s called Kyrie.' Want to hear it, Mom? I’ll turn down the volume. You’ll like it.” Joe’s mother agreed to listen, just once. She listened hard. “I can’t believe it,” she said when the song ended. “It keeps repeating words from the Mass just as I heard them when I was a very young child. ‘Kyrie eleison ... Kyrie eleison.'" “That’s from the Mass?” Joe asked with surprise. “What’s it mean?” “It’s Greek,” his mother tried to explain. “We used to pray it just like that. Now we say it in English, JLord, have mercy.’ That’s what it means.” “That’s what Mr. Mister is say ing?” Joe said. ‘“Lord, have mercy’ in a hit rock song?” While Joe was trying to puzzle it out for himself, his mother really surprised him. “Let’s listen to it again. Just keep the volume down. Maybe we can pick up more of the words. ” Joe hardly could believe it. She never had listened to a rock song with him. “I kept hearing dark’ and “darkness,"’ his mother said thoughtfully after the song's abrubt ending, “and something about “a road that I must travel,' darkness of the night,’ ‘will you follow.’" “I never really listened to it like that,” Joe confessed. “I’m amazed," she added. “The song gives me the same hesitant feel ing I have when I need to ask God for mercy.” “I’m as surprised as you, Mom,” Joe admitted. “Maybe we could listen to some more songs together sometime.” “Maybe,” she replied,“but until then keep the volume down. I’ve got work to do.” (Ms. Manternach is the author of catechetical works, Scripture stories and original stories for children.) Word Scramble Unscramble the words below. All the words are in this week’s children’s story. Example: OEJ 1. OETRES 2. MOVLEU 3. GONS 4. IKYER 5. REKEG UIOI6I VieejQ -q ‘eu^x p ‘Buos g “ewn|OA z ‘oajats • |. :SH3MSNV Project □ Find a song that you especially like and ask one or both of your parents to listen to it with you. Then talk about the song together. From the bookshelf In The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown, a little boy with a lame leg is bedridden. At night he listens to the trees and wishes for a tree to come to him. Knowing about the wish, at Christmas his father tenderly lifts a tree out of the nearly frozen ground and sets it at the foot of his son’s bed. In the spring his father replants the tree in the forest. The father does the same thing the next Christmas. But one Christmas he does not come and the tree is lonely for the boy. Then the tree hears caroling. Leading the band of carolers is the little boy. He and his friends decorate the tree with red berries, apples and cookies for the birds. (Thomas Y. Crowell, 10 E. 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022. First Harper Trophy edition. 1985. Paperback, $2.95.)
