Bulletins

May 29, 2016

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She was kind and earnest, so very dedicated to the church. But she had one big complaint about her priest. She told me, “At Mass it just seems like you are focused on God”.

I don’t think she was putting me in that category of priests who have an almost robotic persona when they are leading public prayer. I have seen that a few times. Rather, she wanted to feel a connection to me personally when she was at my Mass.

Needless to say, I took it as a great compliment. Sunday Mass is such a minefield of distractions for the priest offering the Sacred Mysteries. He has so many things to remember, so many things to forget, so many liturgical options from which to choose, so many servers to shepherd, so many random noises and constant movement to ignore, not to mention how many concerns weighing on his heart. To be truly focused on God in the Divine Liturgy is a work of Grace. To at least appear focused on God is at least one step in the right direction.

So often when Mother Teresa, soon to be St. Teresa of Calcutta, would meet with a priest she would have the same advice: “Get out of the way of grace”. The turn that your priests are making toward the cross and the tabernacle just might help you in ways you do not expect. Special family Masses and Funeral Masses can be done at your request with the priest facing the people. I am hopeful that you will not lose what you gained when the priest started offering Mass in English and facing the people. Prior to that except for a High Mass, the priest offering Mass was at the altar for the entire time unless he had a homily. Now the priest is at the altar just for the Eucharistic Prayer, really just for the Consecration.

This turn will definitely help your priests in ways that we already have experienced, for reasons mentioned above. For your kindness and patience I am ever grateful and I promise to stop talking in this column about the priest at Mass for a while. When I resume this liturgical catechesis we will talk for a few weeks about the sign of peace, its origin and significance, its proper role and practice in the liturgy.

In the meantime, please do come to Corpus Christ Mass this Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. The music will be especially spectacular. At least come back for the Eucharistic Procession at 6:00 p.m. and the BBQ reception to follow. Preparations began a year ago, thanks to Pat Molineaux and Sharon Teitelbaum. Our Lord deserves our very best. How blessed we are to be among so many people striving to do just that.

Let’s make God the focus of everything!

May God bless you and us!

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard