When the Mass is changed to try to create more relevant, more engaging liturgical experiences, the reverse happens: people stop outwardly participating.
Continue reading »A recent Gallup poll indicates that Mass attendance is down in the United States over the past ten years. The most significant drop is found in the demographic of those 60+ years old, which declined from 59% to 49% in just a ten-year span.
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In the ancient English city from which our own New York takes its name, a centuries-old tradition of Sacred Drama flourished from the late 1300s to the late 1500s. Each year for two hundred years and more, the civic authorities of the City of York worked together with religious and lay leaders to produce biblical mystery plays which were substantially shaped by Christian liturgy.
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The octave day of the Lord’s Resurrection opens a pathway for the Church to appropriate more deeply and take into herself the Mystery of the Lord’s victory over death.
Shawn Tribe at Liturgical Arts Journal recalls the medieval use of the “Exsultet roll” by the deacon when singing the praises of the Paschal Candle—and the bees who helped make it—at the Easter Vigil. Even if not in use today (but why couldn’t it be?), these rolls are a reminder of how even books are a beautiful element of the liturgy’s sacramental tapestry.
The Liturgical Institute podcast, The Liturgy Guys—Denis McNamara, Jesse Weiler, and Adoremus editor, Christopher Carstens—offer some mystagogical meanings about the Cross. As we meditate upon Christ’s Cross during the Paschal Triduum, see if these insights let the Cross stand out more fully in its glory.
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Mt 13:16–17).
With liturgical celebrations devoted to St. Joseph dating as far back as the eighth century, it may come as no surprise that the Solemn Feast of St. Joseph has been observed in the West on March 19th since the 1400s.
A Catholic can frame worship as a personal love for Jesus, but Benedictine Father Cassian Folsom shows how Romano Guardini’s The Spirit of the Liturgy sees a bigger picture.
