Liturgy

Liturgy: def.-

a rite or body of rites prescribed for public worship

One of the definitions of the word liturgy is the one above. It is a body of rites or rituals used for public worship. When I was young, I grew up in the Catholic Church where rituals abounded. As a youth, I did not, probably could not, appreciate the value of these rites.

We would recite Litanies of the Saints after Mass at times, and I dreaded the long list of saints read aloud by the priest. After each name, we would respond with the words “Pray for Us”. However, as we droned along in my 9-or10-year-old mind, all I heard for several minutes was the monotone response “prayfrus”.

Rituals abounded in the Catholic faith. For example, February 2 was not so much the big deal of “Ground Hog Day” for us Catholic kids, because the next day, February 3, was “St. Blaise Day”- the day when we got our throats blessed by crossed candles by the priest. There were the Stations of the Cross during Lent, the covering of the statues in church with purple drapes during Lent, which were dramatically dropped during Midnight Mass as Easter Sunday dawned. Of course, there was a three-hour vigil in church from noon to 3 PM on Good Friday, and indeed, in much of Catholic Cincinnati, everything closed during those sacred hours.

If you lived in Cincinnati, you could “make the steps” in Mt. Adams and pray on each step on Good Friday as an act of penitence and devotion in memory of the solemnity of Good Friday.  

I cite these rituals because they are enduring memories of a faith lived out communally with Catholic brothers and sisters. They were special milestones of a shared culture of faith. Those rituals were beautiful examples of a shared faith.

I miss those times.

I bring this up because I see that young people on their faith journey are longing for such communal connections. Shared experiences- liturgies- are lacking from so much of contemporary worship. I suggest that a return to more shared experiences, such as Ash Wednesday, which looms tomorrow, are important experiences of faith. Perhaps we should join as Christians in more of these shared experiences to draw closer to one another, and lift up Jesus in those traditional ways.

Prayer: Lord, draw us closer to you and one another with shared experiences, Amen