The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time As part of your preparation for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, be sure to read or reread the “Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts” (Paschale Solemnitatis), issued by the … Read More
The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time It’s less than four weeks to Lent, but don’t let that distract you from your long-term advance planning of this year’s Triduum because what you do during Lent can become part of your Triduum … Read More
The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Sometimes I hear liturgical ministers say something like, “I’m not doing anything at Mass today because I wasn’t scheduled.” I’ll even hear something similar from clergy if they’re not concelebrating or assisting at the … Read More
I don’t think we can understand liturgy until we understand that it is a storytelling process. And then we have to understand the story liturgy tells and what the story does. Why understanding liturgy as “story” is so important It … Read More
Where were you when you got your first iPhone (or iPhone knock-off)? In 2007, Steve Jobs forever changed how we think about phones. At that moment, three kinds of people engaged with the new phone. Techies The techies got out … Read More
Readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Before they are baptized, an adult celebrates the ephphatha rite. In it, the presider touches the person’s ears and lips and says, “Be opened that you may profess the faith you hear, … Read More
Mark Twain once wrote, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” In liturgy, if you are trying to get lightening to strike, … Read More
In my first year of college, just 15 years after the close of Vatican II, I volunteered to be a communion minister at our campus ministry center. I had served as a communion minister in high school, but only at … Read More
This is an excellent summary of why we do not have eulogies in Catholic funerals. The speaker is Fr. Bill Burke, Director of the National Liturgy Office of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Why do people go to Mass? Why do you go to Mass? If you ask people — or yourself — that question, you will likely hear that people are in church to receive comfort, to be with friends, to receive … Read More