Holy Eucharist: Someone to get dressed up for

		Notes from the  Vicar General  Msgr. Paul J. Swain

The story is told of an orphan named Joe who was taken to a doctor for a medical examination.

When he came back a nun asked him, What did he say to you, Joe? Sadly the little boy responded, He said to me: What a miserable little specimen you are. Then Joe added, But Sister, I don't think he knew I had made my first Communion.

Many little ones have made their first Communion in recent days. What a joy it is to see them dressed up for the occasion, excited to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.

As we approach the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in this year of the Eucharist, it is a good time for us to reflect on how we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. How joyful are we? How dressed up are we? How excited are we? Each Communion ought to be as precious for us as the first one, for each one is a beautiful and powerful gift from God. Familiarity and routine can diminish the special significance we have for what we do and who we receive.

I received my first Communion when I was 38 years old. I do not know how many times I have received since. I do know that if I am not careful, it can become routine for me as it can for you. That we are free to receive the Holy Eucharist everyday is a tremendous privilege. Not everyone is so blessed; some have given their lives for the opportunity we can take for granted.

What we do and why

Pope John Paul the Great asked that special focus be placed on the Eucharist this year in part to remind us of what we do and why. We are Eucharistic people, offering praise and thanksgiving for all God has done for us.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares (1407): The Eucharist is the heart and summit of the church's life, for in it Christ associates his Church and all her members with his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the cross to his Father; by his sacrifice he pours out the graces of salvation on his Body the church.

The liturgy powerfully conveys the engagement we ought to have. Those who are able are asked to process to the altar with reverence. As the Bishop's Committee on the Liturgy has put it, the procession expresses the humble patience of the poor moving forward to be fed, the alert expectancy of God's people sharing the paschal meal in readiness for their journey, the joyful confidence of God's people on march toward the promised land. All that is symbolized by our coming forward to receive Holy Communion before His altar.

I believe Christ is present

Then the most powerful moment arrives. The priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion holds before us the consecrated Host and declares: The Body of Christ. Then the chalice filled with consecrated wine is presented with the words: The Blood of Christ.

We are asked to slightly bow with respect and respond with faith: Amen, meaning I believe, yes it is true, I believe that Christ is truly present in what I am about to receive. It is a declaration of faith and an acknowledgement of a truth that can change us if we are open to the fullness of the moment.

I have heard people say that they do not get anything out of Mass, usually referring to the preaching and the music. My first response is that we should not come to Mass to get something but to do something, to worship our loving and merciful God. The fact is that we do get something, someone, our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist and the grace that flows from him.

We get at Mass what we need most, the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation, which can satisfy our spiritual hunger and empower us to become who we receive, to become Christ-like.

Now that's something to get dressed up for and be excited about the first time and every time.

Benedict XVI:
What to expect in 'reforming the reform'

		The Catholic  Difference  George Weigel

A few days after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, a dozen men friendly to the new pontiff met for dinner in Rome.

Judging from the expectations among some of those present, the "reform of the reform" of the liturgy was not simply going to accelerate; to borrow from Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, it was going to hit Warp Factor 9.

A wiser head, temporarily absent its red hat, suggested that everyone calm down: the new pope wasn't going to rush into anything, as some were suggesting.

Reforming the reform?

I think His Eminence was right. Joseph Ratzinger's Catholic spirit and Catholic imagination were formed by the classic liturgy - and by the mid-century liturgical movement in Germany. Ratzinger didn't object to the reform of the liturgy as mandated by the council.

What he objected to was the artificial, bureaucratic way this was done, with different rites for the Mass being given dry runs in the papal apartment: the pope watching; Annibale Bugnini, impresario of the new liturgy, holding a stop-watch to the proceedings; other observers taking notes and later offering "critiques." (If you think Ratzinger was imagining things, or that I'm doing the same, please consult Bugnini's memoir, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975.)

Authentic liturgical development, Ratzinger often argued, had to be organic, not contrived - and certainly not contrived by intellectuals. You don't change the liturgy by turning on a dime.

And you don't reform the reform by turning on a dime, either.

So what might be realistically expected from Pope Benedict XVI, in terms of "reforming the reform"?

Liturgical calendar

I might suggest starting with something simple, like the liturgical calendar. As I write, we're about to be subjected, once again, to Ascension Thursday Sunday - a biblical absurdity and a drastic concession to the rhythms of contemporary society and culture. The liturgy is supposed to instill in us a sense that the "real world" is the world of the angels and saints, the heavenly liturgy in which each Mass on earth participates.

Lifting us out of the quotidian rhythms of what we mistakenly think is the "real world" - the workaday world - on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter is no bad thing. In fact, it's a very good thing.

So is celebrating Epiphany on January 6, where it belongs. Pope Benedict would do well to give us back Epiphany and Ascension.

Improved translations

Then there is the contentious matter of translations. I think we can reasonably expect an accelerated process for getting improved English translations into parish life - translations that reflect the sacral vocabulary of the liturgy and that eschew that horrible "see Spot; see Spot run" diction that has, for almost 40 years, been fingernails-down-the-blackboard for anyone attuned to the majesty of which English is capable.

Reformed translations should also return us to the proper Collect form in the Opening Prayer of the Mass: 40 years of telling God what God already knows, followed by a petition for some form of niceness or other, are enough.

Ad orientem worship

As for Mass ad orientem - Mass celebrated with both priest and people facing the same direction, toward the Holy City and the East, from which the Lord will return - a general permission for reintroducing this ancient style of Eucharistic liturgy is overdue.

But that permission should be accompanied by a caution: experiments in re-introducing ad orientem worship must be combined with serious liturgical catechesis, so that the conventional description of what's going on - "the priest is turning his back on the people" - is understood as the caricature and canard it is.

In fact, if Benedict XVI energizes the kind of liturgical catechesis that never took place in many parishes in 1965-69, and insists on a proper liturgical formation of seminarians before their ordination, then a lot of the reform of the reform will take care of itself.

Liturgical music

Finally, the new pope could, and likely will, encourage a renewal of liturgical music, with the Church reclaiming both the tradition of Gregorian chant and the tradition of polyphony.

A trend in this direction is already underway. Benedict could accelerate it, gently, by insisting on serious music at the papal liturgies he celebrates, particularly outside Rome.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.