How to prepare the Liturgy of the Hours: Know your assembly
In parish ministry, we often have opportunities to celebrate a communal liturgy that is not the Mass. These may be small group meetings, a school gathering, or a workshop setting where the assembly... Read More
Embodied Mercy
Body and Blood of Christ In the Gospels, we often see Jesus put word and action together, where his action embodies his words. We see this most clearly in the Johannine Gospels whenever... Read More
True Hospitality
The 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time In one of the Facebook groups I participate in, a friend posed the question, “How do I get my parishioners to be more hospitable?” People offered suggestions... Read More
Liturgy is active contemplation
In a previous post, we discussed the quest for sacred silence in the liturgy. In contemporary worship, the rubrics of the church call for times of sacred silence. And very often, this rubric... Read More
The quest for sacred silence in the liturgy
We have all seen signs like “Do not litter” or “Keep off the grass.” These signs exist because people are littering and walking on the grass. The church has a “sign” like these.... Read More
Prepare to resist “theme” Sundays
When I was a kid, I belonged to a Boy Scout troop sponsored by my parish. One of my favorite events was Scout Sunday. All of us would get dressed up in our... Read More
Surrounded by the Spirit
Most Holy Trinity With the Father and the Son taking “top billing,” the third Person of the Trinity sometimes gets left out from our liturgical focus, relegated to being imagined simply as a... Read More
Embrace the mystery of the Holy Spirit
Pentecost How do you picture the Holy Spirit? We can imagine a haloed bird hovering or “tongues as of fire.” We can sense the Spirit as wind in its many forms: breath, breeze,... Read More