Posted on July 3, 2016 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
Today we celebrate the 174th Anniversary of the dedication of Old St. Mary’s Church. Certainly a great milestone for our parish, and something we should all be proud of and rejoice in. We have done well building upon what has been handed down to us by those who have gone before us. Continuing their legacy, we will ensure that Old St. Mary’s sees many days after its 174th Anniversary, its 175th Anniversary, and well past her 200th Anniversary. Next year we will have celebrations to celebrate the 175th, so please keep a watch for news of this and also continue to keep the parish in your prayers!
Last week we began a catechesis on the orientation of the Liturgy from Cardinal Sarah. We continue this today; I hope you find this as enlightening as I did. What we do in the Liturgy says what we believe about God, and what we do with our bodies in the worship of God, also says something about what we believe. Please let me know if any questions arise. Happy Feast Day and Happy 4th of July!
“How do we do this concretely? (That is convert to the Lord) To convert is to turn towards God. I am profoundly convinced that our bodies must participate in this conversion. The best way is certainly to celebrate — priests and faithful — turned together in the same direction: toward the Lord who comes. It isn’t, as one hears sometimes, to celebrate with the back turned toward the faithful or facing them. That isn’t the problem. It’s to turn together toward the apse, which symbolizes the East, where the cross of the risen Lord is enthroned.
By this manner of celebrating, we experience, even in our bodies, the primacy of God and of adoration. We understand that the liturgy is first our participation at the perfect sacrifice of the cross. I have personally had this experience: In celebrating thus, with the priest at its head, the assembly is almost physically drawn up by the mystery of the cross at the moment of the elevation.
But is this way of celebrating the Mass authorized? It is legitimate and conforms to the letter and the spirit of the Council. In my capacity as the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, I continue to remind all that the celebration toward the East (versus orientem) is authorized by the rubrics of the missal, which specify the moments when the celebrant must turn toward the people. A particular authorization is, therefore, not needed to celebrate Mass facing the Lord. Thus, in an article published by L’Osservatore Romano June 12, 2015, I proposed that the priests and the faithful turn toward the East at least during the Penitential Rite, during the singing of the Gloria, during the Propers and during the Eucharistic Prayer.”
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/cardinal-sarah-how-to-put-god-back-at-the-center-of-the-liturgy/#ixzz4CDSO5xbA