Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Welcome! Meeting Topic:
Evangelizing Dynamics of the Eucharist
Presenter:
Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
Date:
10 Sept 2013 2:00 pm ET
Audio:
Available only through internet (computer speakers or headset)
Evangelizing Liturgy DVD • Change the way you see the mass • 40 mins. Takes you through g the mass from the lens of evangelization • Preview and order at www.pemdc.org/ LiturgyDVD
Contrasting Patterns Contemporary Form
Classical Form
• Experience
• Symbol
• Understanding
• Understanding
• Symbol
• Experience
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Is the symbol-laden liturgical form that Catholics and other classical communions use destined to fail?
Story • Catholics leaving for Evangelical churches. Brazil • Catholics losing people in Brazil. • Catholics are trapped in external forms that do not help them encounter God. • Catholics learn “to accept Jesus personally” only after they leave the Catholic Church.
Sacrament • Can we remember one of the first and most important books on sacraments: “Jesus Christ, Sacrament of the Encounter with God, God ” by Edward Schillebeecks? • How do help our sacramental forms become encounters with God?
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Sacrifice
• • • • •
I offer myself in love to bring about the will of God for the fulfillment of humankind— for the Kingdom of God
A rite A service A sacrament An encounter An experience
Basic Dynamic
CALL
• • • • •
RESPONSE
CALL
RESPONSE
God calls The Word call The ministers call The Church calls The world calls
• As disciples we respond in the Mass to the Word of God • The Word brings God’s call to clarity • The Mass allows a multi-layered response
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Introductory Steps • The people are gathered • The people come together in song • The people concentrate themselves on God’s G d’ mercy and d love l • The people praise God in Jesus and the Spirit • The people formally pray
Steps to . . .
All the introductory steps of the Mass are meant to dispose the faithful to hear the Word of God. God
The Word • Brings us Jesus:
In anticipation, through the experience of the Jewish people In initial response response, in the psalm In example, through the experience of the first followers of Jesus In the Gospel, as we stand to be alert to hear Christ himself address us
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
The Word • Every reading is asking us very deep and personal questions. • Every reading invites some response from within each of us, and shapes the response of the congregation. • All the readings are calling us to conversion, i.e., to a renewed decision to place Jesus at the center of our lives.
Conversion • Major breakthroughs and ongoing breakthroughs • Renewed again and again in our lives • Bringing B i i us to t the th realization li ti off salvation • Leading us to deeper forms of discipleship
The Word
The Liturgy of the Word is a celebration l b ti of, f and re-enactment of, the ongoing growth we all must have as disciples of Jesus Christ.
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
The Word • God’s initiative of grace • God’s work in the Holy Spirit • God calling us to personal and y communal accountability • God deepening the dialogue of faith with us • God extending conversation with us • God leading us more deeply through catechesis into the divine mystery
The Hinge
WORD
Homily, Creed, Prayer
TABLE
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
RESPONSE
The h WORD O
Our Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving • We are inserted into the unending Thanksgiving of Jesus • This Thanksgiving expresses the deepest reliance on God, and fullest trust • It contains the gift of oneself to God as a participation in fuller life • It entails a renewed union with God through the Holy Spirit • It expresses the meaning of conversion
Our Thanksgiving unfolds in four distinct and deeper responses of commitment and unity.
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Response #1 In the Offertory we present to God the resources of our lives for the service of the Kingdom. Kingdom
What We Offer
• • • •
Fruits of the earth Fruits of the vine Works of our hands Generosity in response to God’s generosity
Not a Collection • It’s not a collection for upkeep (as if it’s rent). • It’s an offering for the purposes of God. • It’s a gift in response to God’s gifts, and God’s ultimate gift of our very existence • It’s a response to the Mystery in service of the Mystery
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Response # 2
We give ourselves to God by joining with the Gift that is Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit in the Eucharistic Prayer.
Eucharistic Prayer • Lift up your hearts! • Holy, Holy, Holy • “Therefore”—we respond off “Th f ” d because b what God has done, God’s grace • We become one with the self-offering of Jesus • We become one with Christ’s sacrifice
Responses • “May he make of us an eternal offering to you. . . “ • “May we become one body and one spirit in Christ. Christ ” • “Grant in your loving kindness to all who partake of this one Bread and one Chalice that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ.”
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
• “Look kindly, most compassionate Father, on those you unite to yourself by the Sacrifice of your Son . . . that they may be gather into one Body in Christ . . .” • “Accept us together with your Son.”
Sacrifice
The Death and Resurrection of Jesus
The Consecrated Bread and Wine
The Congregation United in Christ
Doxology “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever. Amen.”
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Response #3
In Holy Communion we express the total response we can make to the Word by accepting the Word of God into us in the Bread which is broken, and in the Blood which is shed.
Gift and Acceptance • Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion. • But we have to take Jesus into us in g the sacred Species. p receiving • We eat (=make ourselves one with) the Bread—the Body which is broken • We drink (=make ourselves one with) the Wine—the Blood which is shed in love
Communion
We are enacting the most profound exchange and encounter with Jesus Christ— He gives himself to us, we give ourselves to him.
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Commitment • • • • • •
To To To To To To
become his Body live in service make his life (=blood) our lives live as he lived be Christ for the world take up his cross and live it
Response #4
We are commissioned at the end of Mass to go forth as disciples and live the Mass throughout our daily lives.
Called and Sent We are sent forth. We go forth as disciples of Jesus. We go forth nourished by the Word. We go forth fortified by the Holy Spirit. • We go forth to continue responding to God the rest of the week. • • • •
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Experiential • Make the Mass say what it is saying. • Make it more than a ritual; make it an effective sign of call and response. • Let each element of the Mass evoke its distinct message and distinct response. • Let the gestures be sacred, but not starched; be transcendent, but still human; be symbolic but also experiential.
Experience • The initial gatherings in song and prayer • Effective proclamation of the readings • Evocative response in the sung psalm • Preaching P hi th thatt ffurthers th and d strengthens t th discipleship and conversion • Times of silence to help the congregation absorb what is happening • A spirit of joy, welcome, acceptance and grace
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Year of Faith Webinar Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP
10 September 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries
Awakening Faith Reconnecting with your Catholic faith
10% off ALL materials Promo code:
AWAKENING Expires: September 30, 2013
•Used by thousands of parishes Small group and •Small discussion based •Reach inactive Catholics •Easy to use and effective
Visit www.AwakeningFaith.org for more info
A Ministry That Gets Results!
• Free Webinar
Thursday, September 26 at pm ET Discussion with Fr. Kenneth Boyack and Fr. Frank DeSiano
Register at www.LivingtheEucharist.org/Webinar1
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