Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time This week our nation celebrates Independence Day. The Sundays that surround that holiday sometimes become a testing ground for music ministers and liturgists. Should you include patriotic songs and other national symbols into the Mass … Read More
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 bird or confined only to Pentecost and … Read More
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, gusts, air. But how do you describe … Read More
Ascension This Ascension, let us focus less on where Christ went and more on what Christ did. Christ entered heaven’s sanctuary that we might “have confidence of entrance . . . by the new and living way he opened for … Read More
Seventh Sunday of Easter As we near Pentecost, some parishes may be preparing to incorporate various languages and cultural elements into the Mass. Many of these communities are already multicultural, so intercultural worship is a necessity for their unity. On … Read More
Sixth Sunday of Easter Some parishes give the choir a “break” during the summer. Rest is important. Even God rested! But we might rethink this practice of giving music ministers a formal break from the Sunday Mass. One reason is … Read More
Fifth Sunday of Easter While everyone else is starting to look forward to summer, we’ve only come to the halfway point of Easter! Especially because Easter Sunday came so late this year, we might start to feel a bit like … Read More
Fourth Sunday of Easter At the 2016 national meeting of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, Mark R. Francis, CSV, said in his keynote: “Liturgy in our multicultural church needs to help us get over the presumption that our particular … Read More
Third Sunday of Easter Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this” (Raymond Carver, “A Small, Good Thing,” Cathedral, 1983). This line in the final scene of Carver’s short story is the turning point toward reconciliation and … Read More
Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) In Easter, the newly baptized begin to experience the world and their faith through the lens of the sacraments they have celebrated. They hone this new perception in the Sunday Masses of the … Read More