Team member Rita Ferrone recently received a “Best of the Christian Press” award from the Associated Church Press. The award is for her April 10, 2009 Commonweal article, “Virgil & the Vigil: The Bees Are Back in the Exsultet.”

This Award of Merit (second place) in the category “seasonal article” was judged by Bill Droel. It says: “Readers will more intelligently and more fully worship for reading the article. The research is good. The transitions are good. The tone is right.”

The Associated Church Press, founded in 1916, is “a professional organization brought together by a common commitment to excellence in journalism as a means to describe, reflect, and support the life of faith and the Christian community,” according to its mission statement.

Congratulations Rita!

It’s good to see you again. If you enjoyed this post, please share with a friend or colleague. Thanks for visiting!

Here are some wonderful meditations for Holy Week from Rita Ferrone:

• “Spy Wednesday”

 

• Holy Thursday

 

• Good Friday

 

• Holy Saturday

 

• The Easter Vigil

The Paschal Triduum is the center of the liturgical year, and the Easter Vigil is its high point. It is the liturgy at which night turns into day, and death into resurrection.

Why vigil? St. Augustine had a pithy insight into this question: “We now need not wait for the Lord to arrive…. And yet our annual celebration is not simply a commemoration of a past event; it implies a present action on our part, which we accomplish by our life of faith and of which this Vigil is the symbol. The entire course of time is in fact one long night during which the church keeps watch, waiting for the return of the Lord, waiting “˜until He comes.’”

The Easter Vigil is a masterpiece of inculturation. The oldest annual celebration in the calendar, it bears the marks of its creative handling over almost two millennia. Let it wash over you, and lead you into the mystery of Easter tonight.

This liturgy is full of unsuspected delights.

One of the fabulous images for Holy Saturday is that of Jesus—after his descent into death—pulling Adam and Eve out of their tomb, their prison, and into the light and air. Their shackles fall away. Their eyes blink at the light. It’s the so-called “harrowing of hell” theme (it’s not really hell of course, but Sheol, “the land of the dead”—in Christian terms, the reality of having lived and died without knowing God’s gift in Christ). It reminds us that Jesus came to save all people, from the very beginning to the end of time.

Of course, it’s a human feeling to wonder about the fate of people who have died. For catechumens, coming for the most part from non-Christian families who did not hear or embrace Christ and his message, there is the special poignancy here. They have found Christ. They wish to celebrate his victory fully. But sometimes there is a shadow of sadness that someone dear will not be “at the table” with them on Holy Saturday night.

I do not think it’s always easy to put these things into words. But the image helps. The hands of Jesus reach out to Adam and Eve. He can do this.

Today’s Triduum liturgy includes a proclamation of the Passion according to John. Whether sung or spoken, this scripture passage is powerful. The symbolism in John’s account gives us much to meditate on-especially those of us engaged in the ministries of Christian initiation.

Here is one example: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother “˜Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, “˜Here is your mother.’ And from that hour, the disciple took her into his own home” (John 19:26-27). From the cross, Jesus forges a new relationship between Mary and John. We may be tempted to see this as a devotional message, or a sentimental one. How sweet. But it’s about something more fundamental.

As scripture scholar Raymond Brown observed in his great commentary on John’s gospel, the relationship between Mary and John shows us the Christian’s relationship to the Church. The relationship is reciprocal. Mary is mother to the beloved disciple, and the beloved disciple cares for Mary and takes her into his home. All of this speaks eloquently of the love of the community of disciples that Jesus leaves behind.

There are commands for us here, in the ministry of initiation. Church, take care of your disciples! Disciples, bring the church to where you live. Take her into your home!

The event of central importance on Holy Thursday will be the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper—the liturgy which begins the Triduum. I hope everybody is going to take part in this wonderful celebration! I won’t try to anticipate what takes place. Better to experience it for yourself.

Perhaps Holy Thursday is also a good time to pay some attention to how we dine at home. As you set your own table and prepare a meal on this day, be mindful of what a blessing it is to share food. The fact that Christ’s total self-giving love is wedded to the event of a meal should give us pause.

1. Rehearse on the Saturday before Palm Sunday (not on Holy Saturday)
2. Catechumens and candidates are not at rehearsal; their sponsors are and godparents are
3. The pastor and the Vigil presider (if it is not the pastor) do not need to lead the rehearsal, but they need to be there
4. Rehearse with the lectors—a lot
5. Create a retreat day on Holy Saturday for the elect
6. The elect do not choose a baptismal name and candidates do not choose a confirmation name
7. Keep the focus of the Vigil on baptism
8. Begin after complete darkness
9. Build a bonfire for the new fire. Ask a boy scout. Better, ask a fire fighter (because they’re not afraid of big fires)
10. Notify the neighbors ahead of time about the fire
11. Buy a real candle for the Paschal Candle, not a white tube filled with oil
12. Don’t give individual candles to the elect until after they are baptized
13. Buy or rent a portable sound system for the blessing of the fire and candle
14. Choose music the entire parish knows well and can sing in the dark
15. The Exsultet is sung by the best singer in the parish. It is only sung by the presider (or deacon) if he is the best singer in the parish
16. The Gloria is sung by all; it is never spoken
17. The Alleluia is sung by all; it is never spoken
18. Make the Gospel procession the biggest of the year, processing throughout the assembly
19. Proclaim more than the minimum required number of readings
20. Proclaim the Romans reading from memory, looking directly at the elect
21. Baptize by full immersion
22. Chant the blessing over the water
23. Pour more water into the font as the blessing is chanted
24. Invite the children present to come close enough to the font to see well
25. Chant the names of the elect instead of speaking them when you call them forward
26. Include the names of the elect in the Litany of Saints
27. The Litany of Saints is only sung if there are candidates for baptism
28. If you baptize someone, confirm them, including children
29. Use a handful of Chrism for each confirmation; rub it in, don’t wipe it off
30. Plan the ritual so the communion of the newly baptized is the climax of the liturgy
31. Just before saying, “This is the Lamb of God,” call the newly baptized forward, by name, and speak a short, poetic reminder “of the preeminence of the Eucharist, which is the climax of their initiation and the center of the whole Christian life” (RCIA 243).
32. Plan a reception for the newly initiated following the liturgy
33. (click on comments to add another best practice)
34. (click on comments to add another best practice)
35. (click on comments to add another best practice)
36. (click on comments to add another best practice)

For guidelines on how to celebrate the Easter Vigil, get a copy of The Three Days: Parish Prayer in the Paschal Triduum. Click here for more information.

We have a new pastor, and he told us that we are not supposed to be confirming adult Catholics at the Easter Vigil. If confirmation is an initiation sacrament, what’s wrong with celebrating it at the Vigil?

Your question raises a larger issue of who should be celebrating sacraments at the Easter Vigil. I’ve seen group weddings celebrated at the Vigil because the couples were being “initiated” into married life. Simply attaching the word “initiation” to a sacrament does not automatically mean is needs to be celebrated at the Vigil.

Primary purpose of the Easter Vigil

The Easter Vigil is primarily for the initiation of unbaptized adults. If you turn to RCIA 23, you’ll read, “The celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation should take place at the Easter Vigil itself.” There are exceptions, but initiating unbaptized adults at the Vigil is the norm.

Children of catechetical age are considered “adults” for the purpose of the rite, but the Easter Vigil norm is a bit more flexible if they are under 14 years of age. Turn to paragraph 304 in the section on adaptations for children: “[C]elebration of the sacraments of initiation should preferably take place at the Easter Vigil or on a Sunday…” (emphasis added).

That’s really about it for the norm—the usual situation envisioned by the RCIA. Every other situation is some kind of an exception. Unfortunately, in some places, the exceptions are starting to become the norm. Let’s look at some of them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Paprocki has some serious concerns about Catholics celebrating a Seder Meal that I think are worth reading. His first point is the strongest:

First and foremost, the Seder Meal is a sacred Jewish ritual. For Catholics to re-enact this sacred ritual is disrespectful of the Jewish tradition. (Imagine Jewish or Muslim children re-enacting a Catholic Mass, complete with the giggling and awkward moments that are part of any children’s production). The Seder Meal is a Jewish tradition that Catholics should enjoy only if we are privileged to be welcomed to a Jewish Passover table.

Read his entire post here.

The preparation rites on Holy Saturday include an optional ritual for choosing a baptismal name (turn to paragraph 200 in your RCIA text to follow along). In the United States, we do not ask the elect to do this. (Keep a finger in the book to mark your place and flip back to paragraph 33.4.) The United States bishops have said that there is to be no giving of a new name. This is the norm for every diocese. However an individual bishop can make an exception if one of the elect comes from a culture in which it is the practice of non-Christian religions to give a new name.

Now flip back to paragraph 200. Note the final sentence in that paragraph.

Where it seems better suited to the circumstances and the elect are not too numerous, the naming may consist simply in an explanation of the given name of each of the elect.

So while you would not ask your Britneys, Tiffanys, and Jamals to choose a new name, you could easily celebrate and bless their given names as an expression of God’s delight in them. Miriam Malone, SNJM, has provided a very simple and doable example of this in her Holy Saturday Retreat and Preparation Rites outline (click here).

Confirmation names

While we’re on the subject, let’s discuss confirmation names. There are three groups of people who are involved here, and let’s look at each one. Read the rest of this entry »