Franciscan at Home

Carole Eipers carefully explores the complementary work of liturgy and catechesis in the mission of the Church.

As God’s grace continually invites us to deeper conversion and a more intimate embrace of Jesus Christ, liturgy and catechesis play interrelated roles. The National Directory for Catechesis says, “What the Christian faith confesses, the Christian sacraments celebrate and the Christian life animates. Christ calls his disciples in every age to live lives ‘worthy of the gospel.”1 Liturgy and catechesis form God’s people for living lives worthy of the gospel, for the dance of discipleship -- the mission of Jesus Christ carried on by his Church. In this context of mission we see liturgy and catechesis as complementary and concentric-focused on Jesus Christ—but not coterminous.
Evangelii Nutiandi reminds us the Church ‘exists in order to evangelize.’2 Within this mission are both liturgy and catechesis, for evangelization ‘Is the totality of the Church’s efforts to bring the Good News into all strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new.’3 The dance of discipleship is one of witness and proclamation—witnessing to our beliefs, proclaiming Jesus Christ.
Fidei Depositum refers to our Catholic Beliefs and practices as the ‘symphony’ of the faith. We dance to the symphony of the faith. Oriental dancer Morocco wrote, “The audience’s ears hear the music and their eyes see you being the music. Dance is the music made visible. You are the music.’ How do liturgy and catechesis enable disciple-dancers to embody the beliefs that we hold and celebrate?

If we catechize well about the Liturgy, we will find that the Liturgy itself will catechize well.

‘Every form of catechesis necessarily leads to the sacraments of faith.’[i] These are the words of Pope John Paul II, written in the first year of his pontificate, and they are crucial for our understanding of catechesis. The relationship between liturgy and catechesis is a theme John Paul II chose to carefully develop in his apostolic exhortation to catechists.
The liturgical-catechetical relationship is a subject alluded to by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. The purpose of that document was to renew and reform the Church’s sacramental life, and the Constitution makes clear the importance of the relationship between liturgy and catechesis in the Church’s mission.

The phrase from Sacrosanctum Concilium which has become perhaps the best-known and most prolifically quoted in these subsequent decades is the call for ‘full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations’ on the part of the People of God.[ii] The Council set in motion a period of substantial renewal of the Church’s liturgical life in order to facilitate this level of participation on the part of the faithful. While many believed that ‘active participation’ was possible only through an adaptation of the liturgy to the capacities of the faithful (for example through a restoration of the use of the vernacular language), it is clear that in the minds of the Council Fathers, the heightening of liturgical understanding was also understood to be necessary.

I shall begin with a confession. Of all the miracles and divine manifestations in the New Testament, I often experienced awkwardness when I encountered the Transfiguration. For a number of years, I complacently listened to, and read, the passage, tiptoeing around the event, not wishing to disturb it, because I did not know how to grapple with its mystery.

My complacency was shattered when I read Jean Corbon’s The Wellspring of Worship. Originally a Parisian and a Roman Catholic, Father Corbon became a priest of the Greek-Catholic eparchy of Beirut.
When I encountered Corbon’s Eastern Catholic exegesis on the Transfiguration in The Wellspring of Worship, I imitated St. Peter - I did not know what to say! I was aware that my literal reading of the Transfiguration had been shallow, and now I was meeting, through Corbon, the patristic tradition, which gave me completely new insights, particularly in respect to who was transfigured. Corbon quotes from St. John Damascene’s Second Homily on the Transfiguration: Christ ‘was transfigured, not by acquiring what he was not but by manifesting to his disciples what he in fact was; he opened their eyes and gave these blind men sight.’

This liturgical meditation is reprinted from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.
Man has many powers. By knowing them, he can seize upon all things around, stars and mountains, seas and rivers, trees and animals, and all manhood which surround him, and he can draw them all into himself. He can love them; but he can also hate them and repel them from him. He can set himself against them, or he can long for them and draw them to him. He can grasp and transform the world round about him according to his will. Waves of all kinds pass through his heart, of joy and longing, of sorrow and love, of peace and excitement.

But his noblest power is that of recognising that there is a higher Power above him, of reverencing this Power and of dedicating himself to It. Man can acknowledge God above him, he can adore him and give himself to Him, ‘so that God be glorified.’

We are to let our souls be lit up with God’s greatness: we are to adore that greatness, we are not to remain selfishly enclosed within, but we are to stride beyond ourselves and set ourselves to the task of glorifying God in the highest. This giving of ourselves is sacrifice.

The right use of images remained a concern of the Church’s pastors in the centuries after Trent, and one of the most significant documents was Pope Benedict XIV’s Brief Sollicitudini Nostrae of 1745, which provided a concise summary of current questions. However, it was only in the twentieth century that the Supreme Magisterium of the Church made general pronouncements about sacred art and its relationship with the sacred liturgy.

‘On the Spot’ aims to highlight some of the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by Catechists, teachers and parents. It tries to outline the knowledge necessary to be faithful to Church teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us. [cf I Peter 3:15]
Amette Ley looks at the benefits—and challenges—of using the church building as a focus for catechesis.

In an age where equality and non-discrimination are taken by many as the highest and even as the sole principles of morality, among the most difficult truths for many present day Catholics (or would be Catholics) to understand, accept or justify, is the reservation of the priesthood to men alone. The objective here is to give a clear presentation of what the Church herself says about this issue in the hope that this will be useful to those handing on the Catholic faith, especially those engaged in RCIA programs, and the like, who are dealing with people more than likely influenced precisely by these two modern ‘dogmas’ of equality and non-discrimination.

The topic of sacred architecture is both timely and timeless. Timely because of the contemporary crisis that surrounds the sacred. Timeless because God never ceases to call man to himself. In the revelation of the divine economy of salvation, God never neglects time and space. As the eternal, invisible, and infinite God, whose dwelling place is in Heaven, he reveals himself, and encourages mortal, visible, and finite human beings to call upon his name. As he makes known the hidden purpose of his will, he summons us to a sacred space in an acceptable time.
There are three practical and grounded guiding principles the cardinal reflects upon concerning the vocation and mission of the architect and artist in the life of the Church.

The English-speaking world has been preparing for a new translation of the Mass. This translation is a more literal translation from the Latin. It includes more challenging words and terms such as “consubstantial” and “grievous fault.” It is common knowledge that there has been a decline in the understanding of the Catholic faith among Catholics since the 1960s. This continues to be a challenge in catechesis. The new translation of the English in the Mass will help catechists not only teach towards the Mass, but can give the catechists a focal point when teaching the entire Catholic Faith.

The theme of this issue of The Sower is liturgical catechesis, with a particular emphasis on the place of art and architecture. It was a topic dear to the heart of the very first editor of The Sower, Canon Francis Drinkwater, who founded this catechetical journal in 1919. Drinkwater was a pioneer in the movement to root catechesis more closely in the liturgy. In 1948, for example, in an article, ‘Catechesis and the Liturgy’, he argued that teaching the faith should be an ‘overflow’ from the celebration of the Mass and should explain ‘the real inward meaning of the Mass’, that of ‘sacrifice, as between man and God’.