“I call us to be servant leaders who WORSHIP our God and celebrate the Sacraments in union with the universal Church.”
Basic to the faith life of the local parish community is its great act of worship, the liturgy. It challenges and celebrates our relationship with God, one another, and the world. According to the Second Vatican Council, baptized believers fulfill their liturgical role at worship through “that conscious and active participation … which is demanded by the nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people … have a right and obligation by reason of their baptism.” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Chapter 1, Paragraph 14a)
We must take every advantage to emphasize that at the heart of our mission to be evangelizers is the Paschal Mystery of Christ celebrated in the Eucharistic liturgy. It is into Christ’s dying and rising that we were baptized. And here it is that we faithfully strive to understand and appreciate our own daily dying and rising. This Paschal Mystery lies at the heart of our hope for one another.
Meeting this challenge calls for reflection and study around the following practical considerations:
- Present Sunday as the “weekly Easter,” an expression of the identity of our community and the center of its life and mission;
- Develop a comprehensive catechesis of the Eucharist including the implementation of the Roman Missal;
- Find ways to promote: liturgical catechesis in the parish, an improved quality of participation by parishioners of all ages in Sunday Mass, the calling of men and women to liturgical ministries, the training of liturgical ministers, both spiritually and functionally, and improved use of music and art to enhance liturgical celebrations in a way that the world can comprehend;
- Help parishioners to understand that the same “Spirit” of God transforming the bread and wine at Eucharist is also breathing life into our scripture readings at Mass;
- Provide for the needs of new immigrants in the context of our liturgical celebrations; and
- Engage a Director of Liturgy in each parish or cluster of parishes to coordinate worship for the community.
(from Bishop Bambera’s Pastoral Vision, Wounded and Loved, Regathering the Scattered)
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