Ten Questions on Influenza/H1N1 (Swine) Flu and the Liturgy

All the People of God at Prayer

Obstacles to Good Liturgy

Four Key Points from the Revised General Instruction

Easter Season

Sing A New Song Unto the Lord

Ten Questions on Influenza/H1N1 (Swine) Flu and the Liturgy Throughout the years, the Committee on Divine Worship's Newsletter has addressed the liturgical implications of the transmission of pathogens on numerous occasions. With the H1N1 (swine) flu virus appearing in the United States, the Secretariat for Divine Worship, having consulted with experts, offers the following brief reflections on "influenza/H1N1 (swine) flu and the Liturgy." What is H1N1 (swine) influenza? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “2009 H1N1 (referred to as “swine flu” early on) is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. This virus is spreading from person-to-person worldwide, probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread. On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) signaled that a pandemic of 2009 H1N1 flu was underway.” Why is there particular concern for the spread of H1N1 (swine) flu at this moment? Numerous cases of H1N1 (swine) flu have been confirmed in the United States, with more expected during the fall and winter of 2009.  The CDC continues to monitor this health issue and will provide further guidance as the situation warrants. What is the best way to prevent the transmission of the H1N1 (swine) flu virus? The CDC suggests that, "as with other infectious illnesses, one of the most important and appropriate preventive practices is careful and frequent hand hygiene. Cleaning your hands often using either soap and water or waterless alcohol-based hand sanitizers removes potentially infectious materials from your skin and helps prevent disease transmission." How is the influenza virus transmitted? According to the CDC, "influenza viruses are spread when a person who has the flu coughs, sneezes, or speaks and spreads virus into the air, and other people inhale the virus. When these viruses enter the nose, throat, or lungs of a person, they begin to multiply, causing symptoms of the flu." Does transmission of the flu require direct contact between persons? "The viruses can also be spread when a person touches a surface with flu viruses on it (for example, a door handle) and then touches his or her nose or mouth. A person who is sick with the flu can spread viruses – that means they are contagious. Adults may be contagious from one day before developing symptoms to up to seven days after getting sick. Children can be contagious for longer than seven days." How can the spread of the influenza virus be prevented? The single best way to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated.  In addition to the yearly seasonal flu vaccine, the CDC is monitoring the production of a vaccine for the H1N1 (swine) flu, which should be available in the fall of 2009.  The CDC recommends these other ways to prevent the flu: "Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too; stay home when you are sick. If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness; cover your mouth and nose. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick; clean your hands. Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth." In previous years, what has the Church done in localities where the outbreak of Influenza is most significant? In those localities where the outbreak of the disease has been the most significant, bishops have introduced several liturgical adaptations in regard to such practices as the distribution of Holy Communion and the exchange of the Sign of Peace in order to limit the spread of contagion. What measures should be taken in Roman Catholic liturgies in the United States of America now? Priests, deacons, and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion should be especially reminded of the need to practice good hygiene. Ministers of Holy Communion should always wash their hands before Mass begins; a further precaution suggests using an alcohol-based anti-bacterial solution before and after distributing Holy Communion.  The faithful should be instructed not to receive from the cup if they feel ill. What about further adaptations or the restriction of options at Mass? The Diocesan Bishop should always be consulted regarding any changes or restriction of options in the celebration of Roman Catholic Liturgy. However, the need for the introduction of widespread liturgical adaptations for the prevention of the transmission of influenza in the dioceses of the United States of America is not evident at this time. What is the Secretariat of Divine Worship doing to address this question? While the Secretariat will continue to monitor the situation and provide the best advice possible to Diocesan Bishops and their Offices for Worship, it is ultimately the responsibility of the Diocesan Bishop to recommend or mandate liturgical changes in response to influenza in particular local areas.  The Secretariat likewise appreciates whatever information Diocesan Offices for Worship are able to provide concerning local conditions and the pastoral responses developed by Diocesan Bishops. Continuously updated information is available from the CDC at www.CDC.gov/h1n1flu. Copyright © 2009, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Dioceses and parishes may reproduce this resource, provided that it is not offered for sale and that this copyright notice is included on all copies. Email us at bcl@usccb.org Secretariat for Divine Worship | 3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington DC 20017-1194 | (202) 541-3060 © USCCB. All rights reserved.

All the People of God at Prayer

“Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and
increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” (Mk. 4:8)

THE DREAM: Call to mind a Mass well celebrated, a mountaintop moment – Easter Vigil; Holy Thursday;Thanksgiving Day; Christmas, etc. An experience of heaven on earth.

Good liturgy is the responsibility and joy of all who gather for Mass.
Good liturgy is essential to bring about the end of war, the work of justice, the healing of the sick, the conversion of sinners, the making of Christ present in the world, and our transformation as God’s people. Liturgy and Social Justice are linked together.
The Vatican Council called for: Full, Active, Conscious Participation by Everyone (FACE)

OBSTACLES TO GOOD LITURGY:

• 1 – ABSENCE – EMOTIONAL, INTELLECTUAL, SPIRITUAL, or OF IMAGINATION. Sometimes people are present physically, but just not there in other ways. They may lack faith, or awareness of the meaning of the Mass. Out of ignorance or spiritual immaturity they may not know how to dress or act in Church.
  
  
• 2 – ARCHITECTURE – The cavernous size of a Church building, meant for the Latin Mass, may lead to ‘Private person syndrome’, ‘spectator worship’ rather than common prayer. What is the message of the building? How far away from the action are the people?
  
  
• 3 - ENVIRONMENT AND ART – Does the environment encourage awe and mystery? Do we sense the presence of God in the windows, the quality of the building materials, the beauty of the vestments, sacred vessels, candles and floral arrangements? Are they a treat for our senses? Do the people dress appropriately? Do we?
  
  
• 4 – MINISTERS – Are they actors or facilitators of the prayer of the entire assembly? Are they prepared or just going through the motions? Are they fully participating, even when not ‘doing’ ministry.
  
  
• 5 – LACK OF HOSPITALITY – When you enter the holy place, are you immediately greeted with a warm smile, welcoming words? (Is there a Hospitality Ministry for after Mass hospitality at some of the Masses?)
  
  
• 6 – LACK OF IMAGINATION – All who come to Mass need to hold onto the Vision of full participation and make it happen. Do we?
  
  
• 7 – MISSION IS LACKING – Is the congregation aware of the strong link between good liturgy and social justice? Are we as ministers?
  
  
• 8 – A FLAT LITURGY AND ITS IMPACT – future generations of Catholics are being formed at Mass. How are we doing?

Four Key Points from the Revised General Instruction
(Clergy Update, November 2003)
 

1. Christ is the center of what we do and the reason we do it.  Our celebration of the Eucharist is not meant as an entertainment or a personal up uplift.  The word of God is a two-edged sword.  A preacher is not called by the church to say and do what will make them popular.  It is not about what he and the people want to hear, but what he and the people need to hear.  The General instruction makes clear that we need to take better account of the signs through which Christ is present and active among us: the Eucharistic elements, the proclaimed word, the person of the priest, and the whole assembly praying and singing together.

2. We pray at mass with our whole selves.  We are human beings, not disembodied angels.  We profess faith in Christ who understood humanity from the inside.  We worship, not as individuals, but as the body of Christ.  We use our human gifts of singing, gesture and posture, movement in procession, and silence as well.  All reflect and express the true nature of the people who are worshiping and the true nature of the one to whom we worship: Jesus Christ fully human and fully divine.  Singing is important because it gets the words into our hearts as well as into our minds, and it involves our whole being because it requires of us mind, body, and spirit.  Singing heightens the biblical text, calling us to pay attention to what we have to say to God and about God.                                                       

3. Liturgy is an action of the people of God.  We are saved not as individuals primarily, but as members of the living body of Christ, the Church.  We offer worship united to the great and perfect worship of Christ.  It is the whole Christ, the head and the members, offering perfect sacrifice to the father through the power of the Holy Spirit.

4. Liturgy is about Christ, not about us.  At its core, liturgy is Christ acting in and through the church to give glory to the father and to make holy the world in which we live through the work of believers. The liturgy transforms us so that we may more clearly the Jesus to all the people we meet.  We are Christ with a face.  We are called to be Christ with a face.  We do this with full active and conscious participation by everyone in the liturgy, but also in Christ's whole mission of redemption and sanctification.  Our worship prepares us and sends us forth on mission.  When we gather for liturgy, we do not wonder "what can I get out of it?"  But "how can I be transformed by it?"  At the end of mass we are going toward something-going to be Christ in the world, going out to do good works, praising and blessing God

   Easter Season

        Josef Pieper once remarked that the human capacity for festivity arises from the ability to affirm all creation as good– from the ability to embrace, in one resounding “yes,” the length and breath, the heights and depths of our experience in this world. We can hear this yes in Mozart’s music--the play of light and shadow in the later piano concerti; the poignant song of an oboe rising above a steady pulse in a divertimento for winds. We can hear it in the delighted squeals of a child as it face is licked by the moist tongue and hot breath of a new puppy. We can hear it in the contented, prayerful whispers of an elderly woman—full of love, grace and years —as she prepares to meet death with quiet courage and dignity.
        Saying yes to all of life, letting all of it in— that is festivity’s sustaining source. But there’s the rub. Few of us can say yes to anything for very long. We live, after all, in an intensely mobile culture of fast food, faster cars, disposable diapers, and planned obsolescence. Our greatest goal (as    Andy Warhol once quipped) is to be famous for fifteen minutes. At parties, we do not carry on conversations, we posture—repeating to one another snippets of dialogue from movies, beer commercials, sitcoms, or interviews with sports’ celebrities. Small wonder that many in our society feel so isolated and lonely, so unable to connect, so incapable of forming relationships that last. Small wonder, too, that as a people we find ourselves increasingly bored, angry and violent—enraged and terrified by the awful emptiness that seems to stretch in every direction around us.
        Given such cultural conditions, the Christian celebration of “the blessed Pentecost” will strike many as mad indeed. Fifty days of “dwelling in” the paschal mystery! Fifty days of surrendering in joyful faith and love as the Spirit of God takes possession of our lives! Fifty days of mystagogy, of walking with the neophytes ever more deeply into the baptismal mysteries of death and resurrection. Good heavens! What an order!
        One reason why such a prolonged celebration strikes us as difficult—if not downright absurd—is that we tend to link feasts and holidays with mindless hoopla. “Party time,” for many, in an invitation to obliterate consciousness, to get wasted, to veg out, to forget. But a season of Christian festival is precisely the opposite. It is a time of intensified consciousness, finely tuned awareness, awakened memory. The great fifty days of Pentecost are no an unwelcome, unrealistic, obligation to “party on,” even if we don’t feel like it, but an invitation to explore more deeply “the weather of the heart,” to awaken our memory of God’s presence and power in our lives, to look more closely at all the rich and varied textures of creation. In short, Pentecost is a season for learning how to say yes in a culture that wants to keep on saying no.

   Taken from “The Blessed Pentecost,” Nathan Mitchell, in Assembly, Volume 20:1.© Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, Notre Dame, IN

   
   

"Sing a joyful song to the Lord, for God has done marvelous things (Psalm 98)."
    
Our US Catholic bishops have approved a new document on music in our worship as Catholics. Entitled "Sing to the Lord", you can download the complete document at www.USCCB/liturgy. This new publication updates to previous documents on the importance of music in Catholic worship.
    
"Faith grows when it is well expressed in celebration. Good celebrations can foster and nourish faith. Poor celebrations may weaken it. Good music "makes the liturgical prayer of the Christian community moralize and fervent so that everyone can praise and beseech the triune God more powerfully, or intently and more effectively. (Sing to the Lord]
    
"The one who sings prays twice"-(St. Augustine).
Some of the best parties I have attended in my life had singing and dancing at their center. Wedding receptions certainly involve guests and playful singing and dancing. Song in our liturgies, joins words and melody and allows even the youngest members of our congregation to learn important doctrines of our faith in an uplifting manner. Simply because music involves our bodies and our deepest selves, our souls, it can express the depths and the heights of the human condition far more than speech along. At its best, music can transport us into the presence of God. Music serves our worship services, joining us to one another in a common effort of praise.

The Vatican Council's, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, called for full and active participation by all the people of God in their worship of God. Singing makes such participation possible at a high level. The new document by the bishops encourages those ordained to sing parts of the liturgy themselves, and join in the congregational song as well.

While orchestral music is marvelous, the document makes clear that the human voice is the primary liturgical instrument. The organ is given first place among church instruments, but other musical instruments may be included in liturgical celebrations that are appropriate for sacred use.
     "The primary role of music and liturgy is to help the members of the gathered assembly to join themselves with the action of Christ and to give voice to the gift of faith." Music serves the needs of the liturgy and ought not dominate it, seek to entertain, or draw attention to itself or to the musicians and choir members. Music ought to draw us to God and to the praise and adoration of God.
     What may be sung during Sunday mass? Almost everything. The entrance song, the penitential rite, the blessing and sprinkling of water, the Gloria, the Scripture readings, the responsorial Psalm, the Gospel acclamation, the gospel itself, the creed, the prayer of the faithful, the preparation of the gifts, the Eucharistic prayer including the Sanctus, the memorial acclamation and the great Amen, the Lord's prayer, the lamb of God, the communion song, the song after communion, the final prayer and blessing, and the recessional hymn! Of course, the solemnity of the occasion will determine how much of the mass will be sung by the Priest, Deacon, music ministers and the congregation.

"You should sing as wayfarers do- sing, but continue the journey. Do not grow tired, but sing with joy!" (St. Augustine)