Anyone attending a Catholic liturgy for the first time is struck by the number of gestures, images, and items of clothing that one just never sees anywhere else. Some of the leaders might be resplendent in silks with gold embroidery – straight out of a painting by Benozzo Gozzoli who lived between 1421-1497. In some Read more
Lockdown liturgy such as online Mass, walk-up communion and drive-in Eucharist during the liturgical lockdown have shown us the dominant culture of the Church. Where these practices became the default of bishops, the potential failure of the synodal process is high because these practices were made possible by sidelining the laity. What is the potential Read more
When we gather for worship, we always find ourselves in a strange place. On the one hand, the God we worship transcends the whole creation. Usually expressed using a shorthand that was a brilliant joke in the mid-second century – creatio ex nihilo – this is a phrase that for us is often less than Read more
Covid is bringing everything to the point of unstoppable change. The pandemic experience is reforming and reconfiguring our presumptions of contemporary life and liturgical practice and community. The constraints imposed through social lockdown have reframed our church life and will influence how we “do” church for years to come. For Catholics, the experience of Covid Read more
Life is full of ironies. And life in the Church is no different. In fact, this past week we just witnessed a bit of irony that stretched right across the Atlantic Ocean, though most people seem to have missed it. On October 4, as English Archbishop Arthur Roche had just finished giving his first major Read more
One of the issues for today’s religious, is that many men and women in religious life can be tempted to focus on the decline in numbers of vocations in their orders. Francis made the comments to an online conference on religious life in Latin America. Urging the religious to renounce the criterion of declining numbers Read more
Despite the recent decision of Pope Francis to curtail the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, we are not going to see it disappear anytime soon for a simple reason: Local bishops can and will still permit it. Francis’ new rules on the old liturgy were laid out in “Traditionis Custodes” on Friday (July 16). Read more
Reactions to Pope Francis’s decree Spiritus Domini have not been explosive. Indeed, the reverse is the case: bishops and presbyters around the world have said that it is merely a matter of words. After all, women have been reading for years at the liturgy – so calling them ‘lectors’ is just a needless formality! Women have Read more
The Tablet reported last week that the New Zealand bishops are now – like so many other English-language episcopal conferences – thinking about a new translation of the scriptures for use in the liturgy. This is a process that is commonly, but inaccurately, referred to as having ‘a new lectionary.’ In this debate, there will Read more
Contemporary worship music is often banal. No matter the content, the form by itself trivializes what takes place in the liturgy. We keep trying to put asunder what God has joined together—medium and message, form and content—but invariably the divorce does not end well. I’ll never forget when our kids came home with a new Read more