Synodal feedback identified the need for liturgical experiences that are life-giving and accessible to Catholics. Because many New Zealand Catholics no longer identify with symbols and signs used in the Sacred Liturgy, the liturgy has become a foreign land. People who feel this way might describe the Liturgy as boring, clericalist and formal and themself Read more
The most substantive change in the last sixty years has been the renewal of the Sacred Liturgy and its sacramental rites adapted to our languages and cultures. We have two great gifts from the Council: first, the treasury of the Sunday and weekday lectionaries so that God’s Word will fill our days and minds; and Read more
In part II, Bishop Peter Cullinane clarifies some of the areas in Pope Francis’ Decree Traditionis Custodes, where there is potential for misunderstandings and superficiality. Liturgical misunderstandings and superficiality develops Part I: Like charity, Christian unity begins at home. Wasn’t the Traditional Latin Mass the “Mass of the ages”? Yes, which is why it adapts Read more
When Jesus’ first disciples were signing on, “Philip found Nathaniel and said ‘we have found the one Moses wrote about… Jesus from Nazareth’. Faced with Nathaniel’s scepticism, Philip simply said ‘come and see” (John 1:43-46). And that did it. If this same Jesus is now “Christ among you, …” (Col.1:27), then people’s experience of Christian Read more
In his recent apostolic letter, Desiderio desideravi, Pope Francis addresses a fundamental religious problem of modern humanity, especially in the global north: symbols are no longer symbolic. We could rephrase this in the following different ways: Symbols are just symbols – and ignored. Symbols no longer speak to us – and we miss what they Read more
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