Franciscan at Home

En 1927, el gran teólogo Romano Guardini redactó su introducción a una breve serie de meditaciones que compiló bajo el título, Signos Sagrados. Explicó que los “capitulitos de este libro […] tienen por objeto ayudar al esclarecimiento del mundo de la Liturgia.” No se proponen para la catequesis en el sentido común; no son explicaciones del significado de los signos utilizados en la Liturgia, ni son descripciones de cómo llegaron a usarse en la Liturgia. Sus “pequeños ensayos” son más bien un auxilio sencillo para ayudarnos a “descubrir en la forma corpórea el fondo, en el cuerpo el alma, en el suceso terreno la virtud sagrada oculta.” Estos son los signos vivientes, los objetos y acciones por los cuales podemos empezar a comprender la gracia invisible que obra en la Liturgia. “La Liturgia es un mundo de realidades santas y misteriosas, representadas en forma sensible; tiene carácter sacramental.”

Esto, dice Guardini, “sí que es […] educación litúrgica” – proporcionar una “visión viviente” de lo sagrado en y por medio de estos signos. “La contemplación y la acción […] son las dos columnas”, afirma el autor, “en que más acertadamente descansa el edificio” de la enseñanza. Después, podemos iluminar mediante clara doctrina y acompañar nuestras explicaciones con una perspectiva histórica. Pero ante todo, intentemos proporcionar algo de la visión de lo sagrado.

Las entradas de este breve libro nos dicen lo que quiere decir: ‘Las manos’, ‘Arrodillarse’, ‘Caminar’, ‘Estar de pie’, ‘Dar golpes de pecho’ – acciones sencillas y básicas que acompañan a toda la Liturgia. Luego expone sobre los objetos que vemos alrededor nuestro – ‘Los escalones’, ‘Las puertas’, ‘Las velas’, y así sucesivamente. El Sembrador presentará una selección de este libro hermoso e irresistible en nuestros próximos números, como material de apoyo para los catequistas en su educación litúrgica y catequesis, con el doble anhelo de inspirar y de informar.

¿Cómo se catequiza sobre la Señal de la Cruz? Estos puntos pueden ayudarnos a ver la riqueza de una catequesis litúrgica que trate de las palabras y del gesto corporal.

How do we catechise on the Sign of the Cross? These points may help us to see the richness of a liturgical catechesis on the words and on the bodily gesture.
For example:
Express our baptismal birthright
Proclaim the promise of Christ
Present saving doctrine
Act as a fourfold prayer
Are an expression of the primacy of grace and of our personal response

Full of Mystery

Water is full of mystery.  Quite clear and simple – chaste, as St Francis calls it.  Quite unpretentious, as if it would signify nothing in itself.  Selfless, we might say: only there to serve others, to cleanse and to refresh.

There is only one rule in prayer, and that is ‘pray as you can and not as you can’t’. Some people like to use the rosary as vocal prayer, others for intellectual meditation, others in contemplation, and yet others with a sort of amalgam of all three. And all are correct - if we offer people any particular way of praying we must be ready to reassure them that they are perfectly free to explore other ways if they find ours not to their taste.

Kyle Neilson helps us to find ways to awaken Catholics to their baptismal gifts.

The Spiderman movie provides an evocative analogy for Baptism. Most of us know the story: after Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically-modified spider, he discovers he possesses strange new powers: he can shoot webbing from his wrist, his reflexes and eye-sight are uncommonly sharp, he can climb walls, and more.

I was baptized in the Protestant tradition at the age of 18, and experienced its effects in dramatic ways. To offer but one example, prior to my Baptism I habitually treated my exemplary parents very poorly. Within a few weeks following my Baptism, I realized the gravity of my behaviour; I understood the fourth commandment: ‘Honour your father and mother.’ I also experienced a new desire and capacity to love my parents. After a sincere apology, we enjoyed a beautiful reconciliation and started afresh.

At the time, this change in me surprised all of us. Only years later, after becoming a Catholic, did I come to understand that such a change was, in fact, par for the course. Like Peter Parker, I discovered powers given ‘from above.’ The virtue of faith allowed me to grasp the truth about honouring one’s parents, even though I knew about the commandment since childhood. Through charity, I was given a new heart for my mother and father. I possessed an immediate growing desire and power to love them.

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

We have often gone into church through the door. And each time it has said something. Have we realised it? What is the door there for? Perhaps this question astonishes you. ‘So that we may go in and out,’ you answer. It is not a difficult question – you are right: but to go in and out there is no need of a door! Any opening in the wall would be enough, with a few planks and beams for opening and closing. People could go in and out; it would be cheap and just as useful: but it would not be a door. A door does more than merely serve this purpose – it talks.

Just think – when you pass between the portals you feel: ‘Now I am leaving outside things – I am walking in.’ Outside is the world – beautiful, full of life and activity – but also with much that is ugly, low. It has the character of a market: everyone is running about, everything is spread out on show. We will not call it wicked, but still something of that kind the world has in it.

Dr. Alan Schreck begins his commentary on the first part of Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, which teaches us of the primacy of the gift of the Eucharist for us individually and as members of the Body of Christ.

‘The Church draws her life from the Eucharist’, which is ‘the heart of the mystery of the Church.’ (EE 1). It is to draw the Church more deeply into this mystery that Pope John Paul II issued his final encyclical letter on Holy Thursday of 2003, a day that the Holy Father traditionally issued a letter to all priests. But on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate, John Paul wished to ‘involve the whole Church move fully in this Eucharistic reflection, also as a way of thanking the Lord for the gift of the Eucharist and the priesthood’ (7). Especially in this ‘Year for the Priest,’ it is fitting that we should all reflect on this great gift of the Lord to his Church.

The Eucharist, ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’ (cf. Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 11), is one way that Jesus fulfills his promise: ‘Lo, I am with you always to the close of the age’ (Mt 28: 20). The Eucharist ‘contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and our living bread.’ Christ’s own flesh is ‘now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit’ (Vatican II, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, 5).

In this article Fr. Vivian Boland discusses the vocation to catechesis within the context of Religious Life.

Pope John Paul II’s post-synodal exhortation Vita Consecrata (1996) is now the best point of reference for a reflection on the vocation to catechesis within the context of religious life. The exhortation is in three main parts, concerned with the confession of the Trinity, the sign of communion, and the service of charity. Religious life, the Pope says, is the icon of these things, realizing for the whole Church a total dedication to contemplation, communion and mission. The work of catechesis also finds its deepest theological and spiritual meaning in relation to contemplation, communion and mission.

A properly Christian understanding of any profession or occupation requires that we refer it to the Blessed Trinity, the communion of life and love that God is. All gifts, ministries and services find their ultimate significance in the mutual presence, communion and giving of the Persons of the Trinity. This mystery, revealed to us by the Son in the Holy Spirit is the source from which we draw our understanding of Christian life. This presence, communion and giving flows from the Father into the Church through the Son and the Spirit giving rise to myriad forms of religious life, Christian ministry and charitable care.

We know that all Catholics are called to witness to the Gospel and to tell others of their Catholic faith.[i] However, religious could be said to be prime witnesses to the faith: ‘those who are called to the consecrated life have a special experience of the light which shines forth from the Incarnate Word... “How good it is to be with you” (Matt.17:4), to devote ourselves to you, to make you the one focus of our lives!’[ii]

They have (or should have!) the time to ‘imbibe’ Christ, so-to-speak, to sit at his feet so that they can go out, reflecting this light of the Incarnate Word.

This light of Christ grows brighter through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience - and in my own Dominican tradition, it grows brighter also through the assiduous study of sacred truth and through the monastic observances. Through these observances we endeavour to give something back to God, to ‘praise Him, to bless Him and to preach His Gospel’. Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare is the motto for the Dominicans. And how appropriate is the motto for the work of catechesis, for in catechesis we are surely assisting others to respond to his grace so as to praise, bless and preach Him.