COREnotes
Q U A R T E R LY J O U R N A L O F T H E O F F I C E F O R C A T E C H E S I S FEAST OF THE VENERABLE BEDE I S S U E 7 - M AY 2 0 11
Mission We believe that through our ministry we continue the mission of Jesus Christ by enabling the people of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois to develop the gifts given them by the Spirit. In carrying out this mission, we strive to provide resources, service and leadership to all who are part of the educational mission of the Church: religious education, early childhood, elementary and secondary schools, and adult education. We do this in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Staff Jonathan Sullivan Director for Catechetical Ministries jsullivan@dio.org Chris Malmevik Associate Director of Catechesis cmalmevik@dio.org Cynthia Callan Executive Secretary ccallan@dio.org Jean Johnson Superintendent of Catholic Schools jjohnson@dio.org Marilyn Missel Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools mmissel@dio.org Barbara Burris Associate Director of School Planning bburris@dio.org Kyle Holtgrave Associate Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries kholtgrave@dio.org Beth Schmidt Secretary for School Personnel, Youth and Young Adult Ministries bschmidt@dio.org
Easter Greetings! I am writing this note from the internet cafe at the annual National Conference for Catechetical Leadership convention in Atlanta, Georgia. I’ll be spending the next four days listening to breakout sessions, browsing publishers’ materials, participating in prayer, and giving a couple presentations myself! The conference kicked off last night with Sunday Eucharist. The homilist, Fr. Ron Cochrane of St. Luke Catholic Church in El Cajon, California, laid out the day’s readings in four points that, I think, speak beautifully of how those of us in the catechetical mission of the Church participate in the priestly sacrifice of Christ: 1. If we have faith in Christ, we will allow God to work through us. 2. We can’t allow God to work through us unless we have died to ourselves. 3. We offer spiritual sacrifices by offering ourselves on the altar with Christ. 4. We do service so that we have something to bring to and offer on the altar. I will be pondering these reflections as I participate in the conference. I look forward to reporting back to you in the next COREnotes about the highlights of the conference and the fruits of these reflections!
Embracing Change in the Liturgy
Book and Movie Review
Techno Life Skills
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Embracing Change in the Liturgy United States Conference of Catholic Bishops For many people, change does not come easy. Change requires us to stop doing things a certain way in order to do something else. Many people find comfort in familiar routines and known ways of acting. Change interrupts those familiar routines. But change is also an opportunity to stop and reflect on what we are doing and to come to a better understanding of God, who does not change.
Why does the Church change the Liturgy? In its Liturgy, the Church always attempts to follow the “norm of the holy Fathers.” This effort “requires not only the preservation of what our immediate forebears have handed on to us, but also an understanding and a more profound pondering of the Church’s entire past. . . . this broader view allows us to see how the Holy Spirit endows the People of God with a marvelous fidelity in preserving the unalterable deposit of faith, even though there is a very great variety of prayers and rites” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 9). The Liturgy must, therefore, always celebrate and make present the Paschal Sacrifice of Christ— his saving Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. However, over time, it may become necessary to make certain changes, such as adding prayers for recently canonized saints and adding texts that reflect the needs that the People of God wish to bring to God in prayer. The third edition of the Roman Missal makes such additions and provides a fresh translation of the Latin texts of the existing content of the Missal.
Who decides that the Liturgy should change? Pope John Paul II approved the promulgation of the third edition of the Missale Romanum, the Latin text, on April 20, 2000. The final Latin edition of the revised text was published in March 2002. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was responsible for preparing the text. The Congregation is the Vatican office that the pope has charged with overseeing all matters related to the Liturgy and the sacraments. Any changes in the words of the sacramental formulas—the essential words in the celebration of each of the sacraments (either in Latin or in vernacular translations)—must be approved by the Holy Father personally. In addition, church law also gives to conferences of bishops (such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) as well as individual bishops certain responsibilities with regard to the Liturgy.
What exactly is changing? The structure of the Mass (the order of the elements, the actions of the priest celebrant, and so forth) remains unchanged in the new edition of the Roman Missal. However, the translation of the prayer texts will change to more closely reflect the original Latin texts. In some cases, new options for prayers may be available, and some old options may no longer be present.
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pray with one voice as people adjust to the new texts and gradually commit them to their hearts.
Will the changes be noticeable? In the third edition of the Roman Missal, almost every prayer in the Mass—those spoken by the priest and those spoken by the people—has been retranslated from the Latin to English. Some prayers now recited by memory will need to be relearned, and the familiar language of many prayers recited by the priest will change.
But these surface differences will give way to deeper and more significant changes. If we use the time of preparation well, we will make the changes with a deeper understanding of the Liturgy and a renewed reverence for and appreciation of the Mass. We will hear the prayers with new ears and with new hearts. Our Liturgy will be filled with new life and new spirit as we celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ made present for us.
In preparing the new translation, the translators were asked to make the English texts conform more closely to the Latin originals and to retain traditional theological vocabulary that communicates important concepts of the faith. The language that the faithful will hear and pray is more formal and somewhat more complex than the language of ordinary conversation. It conveys rich theological concepts and retains biblical language and images.
Where can I turn for help in understanding these changes? The first stop for catechesis and formation regarding these changes is your parish and diocese. All the faithful are encouraged to take advantage of parish efforts. You can attend catechetical sessions, read articles in the parish bulletin or newsletter or the diocesan newspaper, listen closely to homilies that help explain the changes, and come early to Mass to practice new musical settings for the prayers.
How can I prepare for the change? There are many ways in which you can prepare for the changes in the Mass: • Make a conscious effort to participate more fully in the Mass each Sunday and holy day. • Take advantage of any special catechetical sessions offered by your parish or diocese. • Visit the Roman Missal Web site (www.usccb. org/romanmissal) to study the new texts and to learn more about the changes. • Read the new texts of the people’s parts at Mass. Begin to study them so that you will be able to pray them well when the new Roman Missal is implemented. • Pray for a renewal of love for the Liturgy in your parish and in the Church.
In addition, many dioceses, schools, universities, and retreat centers will offer programs to help people understand and appreciate the new translation. You can take advantage of these programs where possible. The official Web site for the third edition of the Roman Missal is found at www.usccb.org/romanmissal. A variety of resources will be posted that may help you. Catholic publishers and national organizations will publish many resources, in print and online, to help you negotiate this time of change. Check out your parish book rack or your local Catholic bookstore to see what is available.
What difference will these changes make in my parish? Some of the differences will be obvious immediately. We will have to learn new musical settings for the various parts of the Mass. We will learn new words for common prayers, such as the Creed. Those of us who began saying the Mass prayers by heart long ago will need to rely on printed texts again, at least for a while. In the early months of the transition, we may find it more challenging to
What if I don’t like the new translation? For most people, the unfamiliar is always uncomfortable, at least at first. The more familiar the old is, the more challenging it may be to accept and embrace the new. It is completely normal to feel P.3
uncomfortable as you begin studying and reading the new texts. Taking steps to become more familiar with the texts can help a great deal. At the same time, be open to the possibility that you will find things to appreciate in the rich language of the new texts. The more you read them and study them and pray them, the more familiar and comfortable they will become and the more you will appreciate the theological depth they convey. Taking the time to learn more about your faith, including the Mass and Scripture, can help you appreciate the new texts more fully. Using the catechetical opportunities made available by your parish and diocese can help you overcome concerns about the changes. Finally, you can take your concerns to God in prayer. Pray for a deeper understanding of the meaning of these texts and for an open heart to grow in communion with the Church.
What can I do to make the process of change a good one for my parish? Everyone has a role to play in preparing to use the new translations: Study the new texts with an open heart and an open mind so that you will be ready to use them in the Liturgy. Take advantage of opportunities to learn more about the new texts by attending catechetical programs and reading articles about the new texts. Offer to assist your pastor or parish director of religious education in preparing parish catechetical events. If you are a parent, teach your children the new prayers and help them to understand the changes. Encourage them to participate in the Mass fully and to learn more about their faith.
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Be very intentional about celebrating the Liturgy each Sunday and holy day. Arrive on time (or a bit early). Pray and sing with attentiveness. Stay focused on the action of the Liturgy rather than letting your mind wander. Hold the Sacrament of the Eucharist in great reverence. Finally, give thanks to God in your heart for so great a gift. Times of change are always a challenge. But from this challenge can come a deeper appreciation of who we are as the Body of Christ, gathering to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of the Lord. Excerpts from the English translation of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal ©2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy, Inc. (ICEL). Used with permission. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2010, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2010 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved. This article is available as a bulletin insert at www.usccb.org/romanmissal/resources-bulletins.shtml
Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t Review: Jonathan F. Sullivan “Marketing” is a bad word in church circles. It implies manipulation, impure intentions, and other chicanery. This is not without reason; corporate marketing has become a science, with companies spending millions of dollars to understand the psychological and sociological impact of advertising. Many Christians, understandably, believe it would be unseemly — if not sinful — to employ modern marketing techniques on behalf of the Church. Phil Cooke’s, Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t (2008, Regal), seeks to change these perceptions. Cooke specializes in the intersection of faith and media and acts as a consultant helping religious organizations to better tell their story. Branding, according to Cooke, is all about the story that surrounds a business or organization. It’s what immediately comes to people’s minds when they think of the organization. With this in mind, he challenges Christian organizations to think carefully about what makes them unique in the world so as to better share their story and help people understand who they are and what they stand for. Cooke does an admirable job of pointing out the potential dangers in “over-thinking” marketing efforts. He devotes an entire chapter to how churches and non-profits risk losing their identity to marketing “gimmicks” and trying to chase relevancy – and how potential parishioners are turned off by such efforts. I was especially relieved to see Cooke emphasizing the personal relationship between the organization and the individual: In a world in which few people have close friends, expand your community and get to know people. Enlarge your network of really close friends. Perhaps it’s because I was raised before the digital age that I still value face-to-face communication far more than phone conversations or email. That having been said, the book should read with some discernment. Cooke speaks almost exclusively from a Protestant point of view. Emphasis is placed on the importance of preaching (an emphasis which is complementary to, but different from, the sacramental worldview of the Catholic Church) and, as a result, puts a heavy emphasis on the importance of the leader’s communication skills. Nevertheless I think there are some good insights for parishes, Catholic schools, and other ministries trying to understand how to share their passion and invite others to work with them. It will certainly challenge those who think that marketing has no place in the life of the Church to reconsider their position. Further reading on faith and media Screen Saved: Peril and Promise of Media in Ministry, Dan Andriacco (2001, Saint Anthony Messenger Press) Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith, Shane Hipps (2009, Zondervan) Infinite Bandwidth: Encountering Christ in the Media, Eugene Gan (2010, Emmaus Publishing House) Catechesis in a Multi-Media World: Connecting to Today’s Students, Mary Byrne Hoffman (2011, Paulist Press) Tweet If You Heart Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation, Elizabeth Drescher (2011, Morehouse Publishing) The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet, Brandon Vogt (2011, Our Sunday Visitor)
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n: o h t y P Monty l a c i g o l o t Chris ? Scholars I recently completed watching Monty Python: Almost the Truth, a fascinating six-hour documentary on the British comedy troupe. (The whole documentary is available via Netflix.) The fifth episode of the series focuses on The Life of Brian, a film about a reluctant false messiah at the time of Christ. When they first set out to write the film the Pythons started with, in their own words, a lot of blasphemous jokes about Christ. But as they reviewed what they had written, they realized it wasn’t really that funny. The funny stuff tended to happen around Christ rather than to or because of Christ -- the humor is in how people misinterpret Christ’s words. And, in the final product, Christ only appears twice (at his birth and at the Sermon on the Mount) and is portrayed just as he appears in Sacred Scripture. The Pythons spend several minutes in the documentary reflecting on why humor about Jesus doesn’t work, but I think John Cleese makes the most astute -- and Christologically relevant -- point. Working from the Henri Bergon theory of comedy, Cleese explains that character humor arises from the conflict between an inflexible character and the situation around him. Think of the upper-crust aristocrat who refuses to acknowledge the chaos in which he finds himself. Christ, on the other hand, would not have been inflexible. In Cleese’s words he would have been “infinitely flexible” because he had no ego.
Jonathan F. Sullivan Director of Catechetical Ministries I think this is a profound insight into the nature of Christ and our own attempts to imitate him. Christ didn’t fall into the legalism of the Pharisees; neither did he attempt to water down God’s expectations of Man. He showed us the path of justice and mercy; judgment and love. If we are called to imitate Christ, then we must be equally flexible -- not in our beliefs and doctrines, but in how we apply them in the real world. We must be ready with a word of condemnation for sin, but love for our brothers and sisters. We must seek to decrease so that Christ may increase in us. We must rid ourselves of selfishness and self-centeredness so that the Holy Spirit can work in our lives. As Heather King recently wrote: Here’s how, in my experience, you know you’re becoming a follower of Christ. You begin to want to be seen less, not more. You begin to want to be quieter, not louder. Knowing you’re on the right track doesn’t come from scoring points among your “friends.” Knowing you’re on the right track doesn’t come from winning useless arguments. You find yourself making tiny sacrifices. You find yourself experiencing tiny moments of joy. You find yourself mysteriously drawn to the Gospels, to Confession, to Mass.
Techno Life Skills By Kevin Kelly (www.kk.org)
If you are in school today the technologies you will use as an adult tomorrow have not been invented yet. Therefore, the life skill you need most is not the mastery of specific technologies, but mastery of the technium as a whole -- how technology in general works. I like to think of this ability to deal with any type of new technology as techno-literacy. To be at ease with the flux of technology in modern-day life you’ll need to speak the language of the technium, and to master the following principles: Anything you buy, you must maintain. Each tool you use requires time to learn how to use, to install, to upgrade, or to fix. A purchase is just the beginning. You can expect to devote as much energy/money/time in maintaining a technology as you did in acquiring it. Technologies improve so fast you should postpone getting anything until 5 minutes before you need it. Get comfortable with the fact that anything you buy is already obsolete. Therefore acquire at the last possible moment. You will be newbie forever. Get good at the beginner mode, learning new programs, asking dumb questions, making stupid mistakes, soliticting help, and helping others with what you learn (the best way to learn yourself). Often learning a new tool requires unlearning the old one. The habits of using a land line phone don’t work in email or cell phone. The habits of email don’t work in twitter. The habits of twitter won’t work in what is next. Take sabbaticals. Once a week let go of your tools. Once a year leave it behind. Once in your life step back completely. You’ll return with renewed enthusiasm and perspective.
How easy to switch? You will leave the tool you are using today at some time in the near future. How easy will it be to leave? If leaving forces you to leave all your data behind, or to learn a new way of typing, or to surrender four other technologies you were still using, then maybe this is not the best one to start. Quality is not always related to price. Sometimes expensive gear is better, sometimes the least expensive is best for you. Evaluating specs and reviews should be the norm. For every expert opinion you find online seek an equal but opposite expert opinion somewhere else. Your decisions must be made with the full set of opinions. Understanding how a technology works is not necessary to use it well. We don’t understand how biology works, but we still use wood well. Tools are metaphors that shape how you think. What embedded assumptions does the new tool make? Does it assume right-handedness, or literacy, or a password, or a place to throw it away? Where the defaults are set can reflect a tool’s bias. What do you give up? This one has taken me a long time to learn. The only way to take up a new technology is to reduce an old one in my life already. Twitter must come at the expense of something else I was doing -- even if it just daydreaming. Every new technology will bite back. The more powerful its gifts, the more powerfully it can be abused. Look for its costs.
The risks of a new technology must be compared to the risks of the old technology, or no technology. The risks of a new dental MRI must be compared to the risks of an x-ray, and the risks of dental x-rays must be compared to the risks of no x-ray and cavities. Be suspicious of any technology that requires walls to prevent access. If you can fix it, modify it or hack it yourself, that is a good sign. The proper response to a stupid technology is to make a better one yourself, just as the proper response to a stupid idea is not to outlaw it but to replace it with a better idea. Nobody has any idea of what a new invention will really be good for. To evaluate don’t think, try. The second order effects of technology usually only arrive when everyone has one, or it is present everywhere. The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful. Find the minimum amount of technology that will maximize your options.
This article was originally posted at: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/04/techno_life_ski.php under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
Reflection “What does it mean to be saints? Who is called to be a saint? Often it is thought that holiness is a goal reserved for a few chosen ones. St. Paul, however, speaks of God’s great plan and affirms: [God] chose us in him [Christ], before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us (Ephesians 1:4). And he speaks of all of us. At the center of the divine design is Christ, in whom God shows his Face: the Mystery hidden in the centuries has been revealed in the fullness of the Word made flesh. And Paul says afterward: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Colossians 1:19). In Christ the living God has made himself close, visible, audible, tangible so that all can obtain his fullness of grace and truth (cf. John 1:14-16).” - Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, April 12, 2011
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
COREnotes May 2011 - Issue 7 F e a s t o f t h e Ve n e r a b l e B e d e
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