184 Pray Always Without Becoming Weary

YOUCAT Lesson 184

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

184  How does the liturgy affect time?

In the liturgy time becomes time for God.

Often we do not know what to do with our time—we look for a pastime.  In the liturgy, time becomes quite dense, because every second is filled with meaning.  When we celebrate the liturgy, we experience the fact that God has sanctified time and made every second a gateway into eternity.

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. –Luke 18:1.

 

  

Photo: …..Don L. Bragg with his Kubota Tractor heading down a woodland trail. …...184.....Often in my activity I find myself repeating in my mind words directed to honoring God.  One of those biblical quotes that come to me are the words of the Patriarch Jacob:  “(Lord)this is the house of God, this is the gateway to heaven” said repeatedly many, many times –compare: Genesis 28:17; Psalm 26:8. 

…….Yet, another (and this one commonly is accompanied in mindful silent prayer with the music learned from a liturgical hymn): “This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad.” – Psalm 118:24

183 He Who Sings Prays Twice

YOUCAT Lesson 183

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

183  Why is there music at liturgies, and what kind of music must it be to be suitable for liturgy?

Where words are not enough to praise God, music come to our aid.  [1156-1158, 1191]

Photo: …..George Beverly Shea was a Canadian-born American gospel singer and hymn composer.  He was a regular feature of the Billy Graham television gospel hour .....183

“Someone who sings prays twice.”  St. Augustine (354-430)

Be filled with the Holy Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart.  Ephesians 5:19

When we turn to God, there is always something ineffable and unsaid left over.  Then music can help out.  In rejoicing, language becomes song—that is why the angels sing.  Music in a worship service should make prayer more beautiful and more fervent, move more deeply the hearts of all in attendance and bring them closer to God, and prepare for God a feast of melody.

…….Singing and music

…….1156   "The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of solemn liturgy." (Sacrosanctum Concilium 112)²⁰   The composition and singing of inspired psalms, often accompanied by musical instruments, were already closely linked to the liturgical celebrations of the Old Covenant. The Church continues and develops this tradition: "Address . . . one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." "He who sings prays twice." (Ephesians 5:19; St. Augustine, En. in Psalm 72,1:Patrologia Latina 36,914; compare Colssians 3:16)²¹  --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

…….1157   Song and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they are "more closely connected . . . with the liturgical action," (Sacrosanctum Concilium 112 § 3)²²  according to three principal criteria: beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful: (compare Sacrosanctum Concilium 112)²³  --CCC

How I wept, deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through your Church! What emotion I experienced in them! Those sounds flowed into my ears distilling the truth in my heart. A feeling of devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my face - tears that did me good. (St. Augustine, Conf. 9,6,14:Patrologia Latina 32,769-770)²⁴  --CCC

…….1158   The harmony of signs (song, music, words, and actions) is all the more expressive and fruitful when expressed in the cultural richness of the People of God who celebrate. compare (Sacrosanctum Concilium 119)²⁵    Hence "religious singing by the faithful is to be intelligently fostered so that in devotions and sacred exercises as well as in liturgical services," in conformity with the Church's norms, "the voices of the faithful may be heard." But "the texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity with Catholic doctrine. Indeed they should be drawn chiefly from the Sacred Scripture and from liturgical sources." (Sacrosanctum Concilium 118; 121)²⁶  --CCC

.......IN BRIEF

…….1191   Song and music are closely connected with the liturgical action. The criteria for their proper use are the beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly, and the sacred character of the celebration. --CCC

182 Signs and Words in the Liturgy

YOUCAT Lesson 182

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

182  Why do the sacred signs of the liturgy need words, too?

Celebrating the liturgy means encountering God; allowing him to act, listening to him, responding to him.  Such dialogues are always expressed in gestures and words.  [1153-1155, 1190]

Photo: ….. Through the Sacrament of Baptism  Kristie and John Racanelli bring Sarah to the family of God. …126…181

John is the grandson of my sister Margaret.

…….The Great Commission of Baptism is a divine sign:  Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus spoke to men through signs and words.  So it is in the Church, also, when the priest offers the gifts and says, “This is my Body…this is my Blood…”  Only these interpreting words of Jesus cause the signs to become sacraments:  signs that bring about what they signify.

…….Words and actions

…….1153   A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but the Word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to them, so that the seed of the Kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. The liturgical actions signify what the Word of God expresses: both his free initiative and his people's response of faith. –Catechism of the Catholic Faith, Second Edition

…….1154   The liturgy of the Word is an integral part of sacramental celebrations. To nourish the faith of believers, the signs which accompany the Word of God should be emphasized: the book of the Word (a lectionary or a book of the Gospels), its veneration (procession, incense, candles), the place of its proclamation (lectern or ambo), its audible and intelligible reading, the minister's homily which extends its proclamation, and the responses of the assembly (acclamations, meditation psalms, litanies, and profession of faith) [are to emphasized]. --CCC

…….1155   The liturgical word and action are inseparable both insofar as they are signs and instruction and insofar as they accomplish what they signify. When the Holy Spirit awakens faith, he not only gives an understanding of the Word of God, but through the sacraments also makes present the "wonders" of God which it proclaims. The Spirit makes present and communicates the Father's work, fulfilled by the beloved Son. --CCC

…….IN BRIEF

…….1190 The Liturgy of the Word is an integral part of the celebration. The meaning of the celebration is expressed by the Word of God which is proclaimed and by the response of faith to it. --CCC

181 Interior Realities Are Expressed Through Signs

YOUCAT Lesson 181

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

181  Why are there so many signs and symbols in the liturgies?

God knows that we men are not only spiritual but also bodily creatures; we need signs and symbols in order to perceive and describe spiritual or interior realities.  [1145-1152]

Statue: …..The Pieta by Michelangelo is a symbol in material form of Jesus’ sacrifice and Mary’s great sorrow.

…..The God-Man, Jesus, on the knees of his mother, Mary.  That God the Son should accept suffering and death on a cross for us and for our salvation is surely a sign of God’s great love and mercy.

……. “A sacrament is an outward sign of an inward symbol instituted by God to give grace.” –From my childhood 3^rd grade catechism learned and remembered these past 80 years. –Don L. Bragg …..181

Whether it is red roses, a wedding ring, black clothing, graffiti, or AIDS armbands—we always express our interior realities through signs and are understood immediately.  The incarnate Son of God gives us human signs in which he is loving and active among us: bread and wine, the water of Baptism, the anointing with the Holy Spirit.  Our response to God’s sacred signs instituted by Christ consists in signs of reverence: genuflecting, standing while listening to the Gospel, bowing, folding our hands.  And as though for a wedding we decorate the place of God’s presence with the most beautiful things we have: flowers, candles, and music.  In any case, signs also require words to interpret them.

And one (of the angels) called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  Isaiah 6:3

“Symbols are the language of something invisible spoken in the visible world:  Gertrude von le Fort (1876-1971)

“I consider the language of symbols to be the only foreign language that every one of us ought to learn.”  Erich Fromm (1900-1980, psychoanalyst)

…….HOW IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED?

* Signs and symbols

…….1145   A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the divine pedagogy of salvation, their meaning is rooted in the work of creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the person and work of Christ. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

…….1146   Signs of the human world.   In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God. –CCC

…….1147   God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator.( compare Wisdom 13:1; Romans 1:19 f.; Acts of the Apostles 14:17)¹⁶    Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness. –CCC

…….1148   Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator. –CCC

…….1149   The great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ. –CCC

…….1150   Signs of the covenant.   The Chosen People received from God distinctive signs and symbols that marked its liturgical life. These are no longer solely celebrations of cosmic cycles and social gestures, but signs of the covenant, symbols of God's mighty deeds for his people. Among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests, laying on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant. –CCC

…….1151   Signs taken up by Christ.   In his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs of creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. ( compare Luke 8:10)¹⁷    He performs healings and illustrates his preaching with physical signs or symbolic gestures. (compare John 9:6; Mark 7:33 ff.; Mk 8:22 ff)¹⁸ He gives new meaning to the deeds and signs of the Old Covenant, above all to the Exodus and the Passover, (compare Luke 9:31; Lk 22:7-20)¹⁹ for he himself is the meaning of all these signs. –CCC

.......1152  Sacramental signs.    Since Pentecost, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that the Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. The sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos and of social life. Further, they fulfill the types and figures of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation wrought by Christ, and prefigure and anticipate the glory of heaven. --CCC

Sculpture: …..Let Us Beat Swords Into Plowshares (Isaiah 2:4), a sculpture by Evgeniy Vuchetich in the United Nations Art Collection _1959

First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2016
Lectionary: 1

The first reading is from the Prophet Isaiah 2:1-5

This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.  In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.   All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say:   “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.”  For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples.  They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.  O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Responsorial Psalm 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced because they said to me,
“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

According to the decree for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
In it are set up judgment seats,
seats for the house of David.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
May those who love you prosper!
May peace be within your walls,
prosperity in your buildings.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Because of my brothers and friends
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
Because of the house of the LORD, our God,
I will pray for your good.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

The second reading is from the Letter to the Romans 13:11-14

Brothers and sisters:  You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.  For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand.  Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

Alleluia compare Psalm 85:8

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Show us Lord, your love;
and grant us your salvation.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 24:37-44

Jesus said to his disciples:   “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.  They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.  So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.   Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.  herefore, stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.  Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.  So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

180 A Summary: The Liturgy is the Work of the Whole Christ - part 11

YOUCAT Lesson 180, part 11 of 11 parts

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

180  Why is the Mass sometimes referred to as a “worship service”?

A worship service is in the first place a service that God performs for us—and only then is it our service offered to God.  God gives himself to us under the form of holy signs—so that we might do the same: give ourselves unreservedly to him.  [1145-1192]

Photo: …..Children in procession at a Christmas Eve Mass in St Peters Basilica Vatican  CNS photo by Paul Haring.....180

…….The following numbered paragraphs are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Second Edition, and give deeper understanding to YOUCAT Lesson 180:

IN BRIEF.......

…….1187 The liturgy is the work of the whole Christ, head and body. Our high priest celebrates it unceasingly in the heavenly liturgy, with the holy Mother of God, the apostles, all the saints, and the multitude of those who have already entered the kingdom. –CCC

…….1188 In a liturgical celebration, the whole assembly is leitourgos, each member according to his own function. The baptismal priesthood is that of the whole Body of Christ. But some of the faithful are ordained through the sacrament of Holy Orders to represent Christ as head of the Body. –CCC

…….1189 The liturgical celebration involves signs and symbols relating to creation (candles, water, fire), human life (washing, anointing, breaking bread) and the history of salvation (the rites of the Passover). Integrated into the world of faith and taken up by the power of the Holy Spirit, these cosmic elements, human rituals, and gestures of remembrance of God become bearers of the saving and sanctifying action of Christ. –CCC

…….1190 The Liturgy of the Word is an integral part of the celebration. The meaning of the celebration is expressed by the Word of God which is proclaimed and by the response of faith to it. –CCC

…….1191 Song and music are closely connected with the liturgical action. The criteria for their proper use are the beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly, and the sacred character of the celebration. –CCC

…….1192 Sacred images in our churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish our faith in the mystery of Christ. Through the icon of Christ and his works of salvation, it is he whom we adore. Through sacred images of the holy Mother of God, of the angels and of the saints, we venerate the persons represented. –CCC