Members of the Liturgy Commission:

Mari Bett

Francis Bonner

Rev. John Carroll

Michael Currie

Pauline Gilmartin

Rev. Andrew McKenzie

Giovanna McMahon

Brenda Murray

Rev. David J Wallace (chair)
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Useful Publications

Liturgy Resources: On this page, a few basic resources are on offer to guide those involved in preparing for liturgical celebration to come to a better understanding of their role and purpose: Centre for Liturgy at St. Louis University A useful resource for Sunday liturgy with reflections on the Sunday readings, Prayer of the Faithful, and suggestions for music from a number of different parishes/ musical styles. “Pastoral Patterns” is a Decani Music Publication which offers a variety of thoughts and reflections on the Sunday liturgy including sample intercessions for the prayer of the faithful. “Sourcebook” is an annual publication from LTP and follows the daily liturgy of the Church, helping us to reflect on the scripture readings of each day as well as the Saint of the Day. It also offers bulletin inserts and help on how to animate the liturgical seasons. “Living Liturgy” is published annually by The Liturgical Press. It offers a variety of reflections for different liturgical ministers for each Sunday/ solemnity. The publication assists preachers in preparing homilies, writers preparing the Prayer of the Faithful and invites the whole assembly to reflect on their mission and purpose

 

Receiving from the Lord's table

 

There are few processions that have greater significance than the procession of the assembly to receive the Eucharist. The gifts that they once presented as bread and wine, the fruits of the earth, are now returned to them transformed; the body and blood of Christ. In our procession to the altar we reaffirm our identity and claim the food and drink that form us as the Body of Christ. Yet for all its importance we often over look this ritual movement. Our procession to receive from the Lord’s Table can sometimes appear more like a queue as we inch forward shuffling our way to the distributing minister.

 

Sharing at one table

It is important that we approach the altar. The practice of distributing communion from other parts of the church needs to be carefully reviewed and should only take place out of necessity. As we approach any table, as a group or as a community, we declare our poverty, our hunger for food to sustain us. We also affirm our need for the company of one another to make us whole. To approach the altar is to identify this heavenly food as our sustenance and our food for the journey. To approach the altar in the company of fellow believers is to say that we do not make this journey alone and that around this table we are truly aware of our unity in Christ.

 

Music that Serves

Music has a part to play here. Generally speaking, and within our tradition, music should accompany the liturgical action. The action of processing forward probably means that we need to sing free of hymnbooks. This challenges us since we feel a little naked without our supports. A different kind of hymn is called for in order to help transform this queue into a procession. Perhaps we need to hear music that is memorable with often-repeated refrains, or music that is so much part of us that we no longer need the words. Maybe we need to hear the accompaniment of the congregation whose concern is not in simply receiving communion themselves but also in supporting one another in prayer and in song. The ritual procession of the community to receive communion is personal, communal, music filled and highly significant.

 

Ministers who serve

On arriving at the communion minister, this procession reaches its high point. The manner with which the minister carries out his or her function can have an important part to play in maintaining the prayerful, communal nature of this movement. The reception of communion  is an important moment of encounter. It is personal, as I receive the very presence of the living Lord into myself; it is communal, because the bread that I eat and the wine that I drink is shared and broken for the life of all. Ministers need to present the bread and cup in a prayerful, reverential, not overly pious way, acknowledging the individual’s uniqueness and the distinctive journey that has brought them this way. Distribution that is casual, hurried, or overly fussy is to be avoided. In a similar way we might also reflect on the practice of communicants whose understanding of reverence for the Eucharist interrupts the flow of the communion procession. In  the communion procession we make reverence as a community.

 

Some ministers have developed the practice of naming each of the communicants as they receive communion, . This practice is unfortunate. What of those who are not named, or incorrectly named? I do not claim the Eucharist as my own; I receive it as a share in the one gift offered to all God’s people.

 

Give Thanks...

On return from communion it is important that we continue to sing supporting others as they make their way to the altar. Music after communion is of less importance since we may wish silence to recollect and give thanks as a community for the gift that we have received.                      AMcK