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I
was a part of two interesting conversations this past week on the
attitude of reverence at Mass.
From the perspective of the members of our parish council and
from the perspective of the sixth graders at St Louis School,
reverence is our way of respecting the mystery of God’s presence
among us, and our
respectful way of supporting the prayer life of one another during
the Eucharist.
From
the perspective of our sixth graders, reverence begins with how we
dress when we come to Church. Is
our attire neat? Is the
way we dress appropriately modest?
In case of doubt, I encourage parents to have a conversation
about appropriate dress with your children.
Is the way we dress reflect our desire to be in the mystery
of God’s presence?
Reverence relates to the noise level in
our Church. We
definitely desire full participation in the spoken and sung
responses during the liturgy. Participation
is very good, but there is always room for improvement. To parents with young children, thank you for bringing your
children to Church at a young age.
I affirm your desire to teach your children how to pray.
If your children are crying during Mass, I ask you to make
use of the gathering space near the front entrance of Church.
It is reverencing the prayer life of the rest of the
community to be conscious of the noise level of your children.
All of us need to be
conscious of each other during the liturgy.
In teaching our children reverence
during the liturgy, I ask you to try to do this without toys and
food during the liturgy. It
has been my experience that many, many children can learn discipline
and reverence at Mass without the distraction of their favorite toy
or a supply of crackers.
One
of our sixth graders thinks that we can make more of an effort to be
on time for the liturgy and not need to feel we have to leave before
the end of the second verse of the last hymn.
We teach by example, do we not?
I fully understand that some people need to leave early for
medical reasons, but there is room for improvement.
Several members of the parish council this past Monday as
well as previous e-mails I have received from parishioners state
clearly that we need to invite each other to a deeper spirit of
reverence during the liturgy – a reverence of dress, a reverence
of bowing before receiving Communion, a reverence to an attitude of
silence during the liturgy as well as spoken and sung participation,
a reverence by ushers not to be distracting to others during the
liturgy by too much walking up and down the aisle once Mass has
begun, a reverence in the way parents are attentive to the noise
level of their children, a reverence of being on time for the
liturgy, a reverence of being respectful that the liturgy takes a
full hour but to be respectful of trying not to exceed that amount
of time.
As the pastor, I affirm these components of reverence.
I’m conscious ahead of time that any time I have spoken or
written about the value of reverence during the liturgy, some people
get offended about raising the discussion of the attitude of
reverence.
We need just to be thankful that people are here at Mass.
I wish to be thankful for everyone’s presence during the
liturgy, and I wish us to value an attitude of reverence.
Have a great day.
Rev.
Bob Ring
Pastor