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HOME
BULLETIN
LIFE TEEN YOUTH MINISTRY
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Membership: Fr. Tomasz Borkowski, Deacon Steve Gendron, Mark Niedzielski, Joan Cowles, Pam Cross, Betty Paulino, Irene McNally, Pat Gorman, Bill and Dorothea Hohl, Jean Dziokonski, Mary Dunn If you would like to attend the Liturgy Committee meetings or become more involved, please contact the Committee Chair at the following e-mail address: available soon. |
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Next Meeting: February 27, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at Our Lady of the Rosary Rectory Hall.
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Liturgy...? What you do mean...? Tell me more about it... Liturgy is an action of Christ and his body, the church. It is ritual worship in community. Liturgy is literally the work of the people - the saving work of Christ made present by the power of the Spirit through which our salvation is both signified and realized. In liturgy, we remember and make present the paschal mystery of Christ... Liturgy is an act of communication: God with us, and we with God and with one another. It communicates God's living Word and God's saving deed through symbolic language - "signs perceptible to the senses" (Texts of the Vatican II - Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, #7) through which we encounter God, who is both immanent and transcendent. Through the power of spoken word and ritual action, the liturgy communicates and forms the faith of the church, as we are reminded in the ancient dictum lex orandi, lex credendi: the law of prayer is the law of belief... A broad range of ministries are exercised within the liturgy, but all ministers are first and foremost members of the assembly. No minister stands apart from the people he or she serves; we are the one body of Christ, the high priest who gathers us together. Each particular minister needs both the spirituality and the skills to exercise a talent for the common good. The spirituality of the minister is rooted in who we are, not in what we do - in the baptism that we all share... Ministry in the liturgy is a service; it is not an individual prerogative but an ecclesial one... In preparing the liturgy, we must also prepare the ministers for liturgy - nurturing their prayer life, helping them grow in holiness and in the baptismal call, and giving them special training and skills to fulfill the specific roles within the liturgical celebration for the building up of the entire body... There are numerous resources-books, cassettes, videos, conferences and seminars to assist in the formation of ministers for the liturgy. This includes especially the priest, who must have a clear understanding of and reverence for the rite. We should provide the best resources available to our communities as well as ample opportunities for prayer and reflection so that those who lead us in liturgy will truly be people of prayer themselves... The purpose of the liturgy is to make people holy, to build up the body of Christ, and thus ultimately to give worship to God. God does not need the liturgy, we do... God's initiative draws us to worship, and God has placed the very desire to give praise within our hearts; as the preface IV for week days says so beautifully: "You have no need of our praise, yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, but makes us grow in your grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord." What makes the liturgy "the perfect offering" is not the exquisite music or architecture or art, or even the renewal of the rites. The liturgy is the perfect offering because it is Christ's offering. We who are Christ's body are joined with him in offering Christ and ourselves in an ongoing sacrifice of praise, just as he commanded... As ministers, we would like the liturgy in our parish to be perfect, and we certainly put considerable effort into making it the best that our community can provide. And the best thing we can do to provide quality celebrations in our communities is to trust the liturgy and prepare it well for celebration... The liturgy belongs to the whole church - not to any particular individual or local community. It has been handed down to us. It is not only a celebration in this particular time and place, but it links us with the countless faithful who have gathered at the Lord's command through the ages. It propels us into a future when we will celebrate in the fullness of God's reign at the eschatological feast of heaven... Therefore, we do not need to "plan" something new, different or more exciting than what we did the last time. We simply have to do it again - faithfully, to the best of our ability, using the richness of the signs and symbols, confident that this living sacrifice of praise that we offer with Christ will form us and transform us... The cultural diversity of our communities requires concern for more than just differences in languages; it also requires respect for differences in ritual traditions, music, art and other artistic expression, such as movement, posture and gesture, vesture and myriad other elements. We are challenged to prepare liturgy that can nourish a variety of peoples from Sunday to Sunday, yet have common elements that the entire community can share on those special gatherings of the entire parish - most especially the Easter Triduum... In the end, how do we know if the liturgy we have prepared is "good"? Liturgy is good if it achieves its purpose: if it helps us grow in holiness, builds up the Body of Christ and gives glory to God. What does that? Not a golden calf of perfect forms but rather a liturgy that impels us into the world to do the work we have rehearsed in the rite... Liturgy is good when... the hungry get fed, the imprisoned get visited and the poor have the good news preached to them... When we prepare well the liturgy that the church has already planned, it forms and transforms us more perfectly into the image of Christ. And we give thanks! Pat Kerwin - An extract from an article in the Liturgy magazine 1999. Description of Liturgy:Worship is our way of relating to God as individuals and as a community. There are times when we pray privately, and there are times when we pray as a Church in the name of Christ. This prayer of the Church is called liturgy. The word liturgy means the "people’s work." In the Church this expression has come to mean the work of God’s people as they worship. In liturgy we ritualize or symbolize the great events of Jesus’ life, bringing these events into the present, and powerfully linking them with our daily lives. When we come together as a community of faith to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, it is through the grace of the Holy Spirit that we are renewed in faith. God speaks to us in the scripture readings. We speak to him through our prayers, songs, responses, and active participation in the Mass. The Eucharistic celebration is a sacrament of love. Holy Communion is the Bread of Life that nourishes our souls and fills us with grace. In all of this, the liturgy embraces our celebration of Mass and the sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the liturgical year, music and art. The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the fount from which all the Church's power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made children of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of his Church, to take part in the sacrament and to eat the Lord's Supper. From the liturgy, therefore, particularly the eucharist, grace is poured forth upon us as from a fountain; the liturgy is the source for achieving in the most effective way possible human sanctification and God's glorification, the end to which all the Church's other activities are directed. (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, #10). |
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| Mission and Purpose (Samples) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sample 1: The Liturgy Committee helps to plan, coordinate, and carry out the liturgical celebration in the parish. They gather in prayer to look at ways that we can better the spiritual life of the parish. The Liturgy Committee consists of parish members and the pastor as the spiritual leader. The group meets every month (except during the summer) to review current liturgies, assess the need for improvement, receive new material and programs to enhance liturgical services, and to seek ways to involve more participation by the parishioners. Sourcebooks are used as reference material for developing the various liturgical celebrations. The goal of the committee is to provide liturgical services in order to make Christ ever more present for and in our parishioners that we may live the lives Christ calls us to live. |
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Sample 2: The liturgy committee is deeply invested in the worship and spiritual life of the parish. We have a three-fold function; education, planning, and evaluation. Education is important because we cannot observe and plan good liturgy without understanding the basic principles and theology of liturgy. Planning is important because it allows us to grasp an entire picture of the liturgical year. Finally, evaluation is an important function, because it exposes our weak and strong areas. |
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| Sample 3: Since a parish’s first responsibility is to its liturgical celebration, the liturgy committee assists the clergy and the community in this vital aspect of church life. The committee meets monthly from September to June. Discussions are informal, and the committee works to enrich the public prayer life of the parish. Lectors, Special Ministers of the Eucharist, Cantors, Choir, Organist, and Congregation are important participants in the Liturgy. The committee reviews how each ministry can enhance the parish worship. It also assists in the planning of liturgies for special occasions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LITURGY COMMITTEE AGENDAS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Inaugural
Meeting: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 I. Introduction II. Discussion of Pastoral Council Goals III. Review & Discuss “Topics for Consideration” IV. Select Working Groups, Secretary, Chair and Vice-Chair VI Select Goals for Next Meeting VIII Comments &Other Business Next
Meeting – Tuesday, February 27, 2007 Review & Discuss “Topics for Consideration” - Mark's Brainstorming... as you can see Mark is good at brainstorming: OLJG/OLR Liturgy Committee Topics for Consideration 1. Liturgical Planning 1.1.Childrens Liturgies 1.2.Create and evaluate liturgical calendar a) What are the important parish, community and church dates? b) Criterion for evaluation? 2. Liturgical Architecture and Decorations 2.1.Altar Care a) Cleaning b) Maintenance 2.2.Vestments a) Inventory b) Condition and Repair 2.3.Suitability of the worship space a) Acoustics b) Altar layout 2.4.Seasonal Decorations a) Inventory of existing decorations b) Repairs needed? c) Seasons without decorations? d) New forms of decoration? 3. Selection and Training of Lay Participants 3.1.Schedule for Training a) Time of year? b) Training materials c) Training staff? 3.2.Recruitment a) When? How? b) How often? 3.3.Lectors 3.4.Eucharistic Ministers a) Communicating rules changes b) Outreach to shut-ins and elderly 3.5.Altar Servers 3.6.Acolytes 3.7.Choir/Cantors/Musicians a) Music for special liturgies b) Guest musicians 3.8.Hospitality/Ushers 3.9.How do you foster enthusiasm for participation? 4. Offertory Gifts and Bearers 5. Preparation for Sacraments 5.1.Decorations 5.2.Organized set-up committee 5.3.Additional decorations or vestments needed? 5.4.Special training for weddings & funerals? 6. Evaluation of celebrations and homilies 6.1.Purpose of evaluation 6.2.Evaluation criterion a) Parishioner participation b) Parishioner feedback c) Diocesan guidelines d) Others?
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