Posted by Kevin Bates The other day I read a piece in the Catholic Telecommunications site, indicating that the Mass was not the place for such interventions - Anzac Day, Mothers' Day and so on. The author indicated that the mystery we celebrate in the Eucharist transcends in importance and significance all these other events, and should not be compromised by such a mixture of our liturgical seasons/feasts and our "non-liturgical" events. All through our history as a church we have welcomed the events of the day into our worship and integrated them there. Far from taking away from the dignity and uniqueness of the central Eucharistic mystery, these events are a refleshing of this mystery and become a means of connecting our people more deeply with that mystery. Our home-ground festivals and memorials, can be easily integrated into the liturgy without taking over, and without diminishing the liturgy in any way. The sacred/secular dichotomy that so removed the church from the world's concerns in the past, cannot be allowed to take over our liturgical agenda again. The liturgical purists may be technically correct from one point of view, but at the end of the day there will be no one present to celebrate with them if they insist on this old and worn-out dichotomy!
on April 25, 2004, 7:45 pm
Anzac day has come and gone for another year, and I would guess that in most of our churches, the Anzac story was woven into the liturgy in some form - through prayers, music, rituals and probably homilies too - it certainly was the case in the parish liturgy I presided at this morning.
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