Silence and Stillness

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 9:49 AM

This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, from Chapter 1, "Preparing for Prayer".


Silence and Stillness

Do you listen to the radio as you drive to work?  Do you listen to music on an iPod as you run?  Do you turn the television on as soon as you get home?  Many of us live with constant background noise; silence is seen as a void waiting to be filled.  When was the last time you sat still for an hour or two?  Maybe it was while watching a movie or otherwise being entertained.
Silence and stillness are not burdens to be endured but treasures to be sought after.  The “still small voice” (1 Kgs. 19:12) of God can often be drowned out by the constant noise and activity of the world.  Jesus surely hears the prayers we express in the silent sanctuaries of our hearts (cf. Catechism 2616), and it is in “this silence, unbearable to the ‘outer’ man, [that] the Father speaks to us His incarnate Word.” (Catechism 2717)  In contemplative or meditative prayer, the words of the psalmist ring true, “For God alone my soul waits in silence” (Ps. 62:1), and the words of God come in reply:  “Be still and know that I am God.” (Ps. 46:10)
During the Mass, there are periods of silence – not just silence on the part of the congregation while the priest or someone else speaks or sings, but total silence among all those present.  It can be difficult, or even uncomfortable, to people who are used to constant action and ambient noise.  Just as uncomfortable is stillness, whether standing or sitting or kneeling.  We might often think “Did someone forget what to do?” or “What is the priest waiting for?”
Rarely do we think to ask ourselves in this silence and stillness, “Whose presence am I in?  What am I doing?”  God’s transcendence and majesty should give us pause:  “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” (Hab. 2:20)  Spend time before Mass in silence contemplating these things, and when there is silence during the Mass, put it to good use.

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Reading the Bible

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 9:47 AM

This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, from Chapter 1, "Preparing for Prayer".


Reading the Bible

Along with the Church’s liturgy (and even everyday life) the Bible is a “wellspring” of prayer because it gives us “surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ.” (Catechism 2652-2653; Phil. 3:8)  Reading the Bible is an excellent way to pray, and reading it regularly will help you form a habit of prayer.
One of the benefits of a liturgical calendar is that the readings for any given day are determined ahead of time (except in a few cases where there is a choice of readings).  This means that you can become familiar with the Scripture you are going to hear by reading it yourself.  In his response to the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, Pope Benedict wrote that the celebration of the Mass
is enhanced when priests and liturgical leaders are committed to making known the current liturgical texts and norms, making available the great riches found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and the Order of Readings for Mass.  Perhaps we take it for granted that our ecclesial communities already know and appreciate these resources, but this is not always the case.  These texts contain riches which have preserved and expressed the faith and experience of the People of God over its two-thousand-year history. (SC 40)
He draws attention specifically to the Order of Readings for Mass, thus expressing a desire that the faithful would become better acquainted with the Scripture they will be hearing at Mass.  Some parish bulletins include the Scripture citations for the coming week.  Some Catholic bibles have an appendix with the readings listed for the Sundays and feast days of the year.  You can use the USCCB web site’s calendar to pull up a digital version of the readings for the day. [1]
Some parishes provide missalettes with the Sunday readings in them, or perhaps you have a private daily missal or a periodical like Magnificat; if this is the case, you can come to Mass a few minutes earlier than usual and spend some private time with the Word of God.  Some parishes hold Bible studies which look at the coming Sunday’s readings.  There are also free resources on the Internet which provide meditations and reflections on the readings at Mass; three such web sites are “The Word Among Us” (www.wau.org), “Mobile Gabriel” (www.mobilegabriel.com), and the Passionists’ web site (www.passionist.org).
Although such preparation is not required, it can help you pay closer attention when the readings are proclaimed at Mass.  We only hear them read once, and if we become distracted for some reason, we might miss an important word or verse (and they’re all important words).  But if you read them ahead of time, you can read them as many times as you want, as slowly as you like, and meditate on them without missing anything.
This practice is even more strongly recommended for families.  The home is the “domestic church,” the primary place where children are to learn – by the example of their parents – to encounter Christ on a daily basis.  This includes introducing them to the liturgical life of the Church.  Try to find the time during the week to sit down together to read the Scriptures for the upcoming Sunday Mass and discuss them.
Even if you only go to Mass on Sundays, daily reading of Scripture (whether from the Mass readings or not) is a way to keep your prayer life going.  For example, if you are having trouble thinking of things to say to God in prayer, try praying the Psalms.  The Church does this as one body through the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office), by which the Church sanctifies the hours of the day, dedicating them to God, through prayer.  Priests and religious pray the Liturgy of the Hours as part of their vocation, and many laypeople pray it as a private devotion as well; the Church even encourages the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours as a parish family on Sundays and feast days. (cf. CSL 100)
Daily reading of Scripture is so important because of what the Bible is.  Imagine you receive a love letter from your spouse.  Your spouse’s love for you is why he or she wrote the letter; your love for your spouse is why you should read the letter!  The Bible is God’s love letter to mankind, and to each one of us individually; in its pages we learn Who God is, what He has done for us, and what He is doing in our lives even now!  The Scriptures are so important to the Christian life that St. Jerome wrote, in the early 5th century, that
if, according to the apostle Paul, Christ is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24) and who does not know Scripture does not know the power or the wisdom of God, then ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. (Introduction to Isaiah)
If we are going to be in conversation with God, we should give Him a chance to speak:  in prayer, we speak to God, and in reading Scripture, He speaks to us. (cf. Catechism 2653)

[1] The USCCB calendar of readings is at http://www.usccb.org/nab/.

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Personal Prayer

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 9:45 AM

This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, from Chapter 1, "Preparing for Prayer".


Personal Prayer

At the Second Vatican Council, the Church confirmed five times that the Eucharistic liturgy is both the source and summit of the activity of the Church, and therefore of each of her members:
[T]he liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. (CSL 10)
Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It. (Lumen Gentium 11)
[P]astors should see to it that the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the center and culmination of the whole life of the Christian community. (Christus Dominus 30.2)
[T]he Eucharist shows itself as the source and the apex of the whole work of preaching the Gospel. (Presbyterorum Ordinis 5)
By the preaching of the word and by the celebration of the sacraments, the center and summit of which is the most holy Eucharist, He brings about the presence of Christ, the author of salvation. (Ad Gentes 9)
The Eucharist is the ultimate aim (but not the only aim) of life in Christ:  communion with God and His Church in Holy Communion.  It is also the primary source (but not the only source) of that Christian life.  During the years following Vatican II, there seems to have been a misconception that going to Mass once a week was all a Catholic should need.  But the Council said exactly the opposite, that although the Eucharist is the source and summit, the spiritual life
is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy.  The Christian is indeed called to pray with his brethren, but he must also enter into his chamber to pray to the Father, in secret; yet more, according to the teaching of the Apostle [Paul], he should pray without ceasing.  We learn from the same Apostle that we must always bear about in our body the dying of Jesus,[1] so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame. (CSL 12)
That quote from the Constitution on the Liturgy was referring to your personal prayer life.  Another document from the Council relates those same aspects of the spiritual life to the laity:
[The laity] should all remember that they can reach all men and contribute to the salvation of the whole world by public worship and prayer as well as by penance and voluntary acceptance of the labors and hardships of life whereby they become like the suffering Christ. (Apostolicam Actuositatem 16)
Devout participation in the Mass gives life to your personal prayer, and by nurturing your prayer life, your participation in the Mass becomes deeper and more fruitful.  A deeply personal life of prayer is the key to an immensely fruitful life of faith.  The Church describes the necessity of an intimate relationship with Christ in these words from Vatican II:
[T]he success of the lay apostolate depends upon the laity’s living union with Christ, in keeping with the Lord’s words, “He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  This life of intimate union with Christ in the Church is nourished by spiritual aids which are common to all the faithful, especially active participation in the sacred liturgy. … In this way the laity must make progress in holiness in a happy and ready spirit, trying prudently and patiently to overcome difficulties. (Apostolicam Actuositatem 4)
If you don’t have a “life of intimate union with Christ,” then the seed of the Eucharist ends up on “the path” or on “rocky ground” where it will not bear fruit. (Matt. 13:4-5)  Prayer is the door to that union with Christ; it is “the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.” (Catechism 2559)

“Warming up”

The liturgy (and in particular the Mass) is the “corporate” worship of the Church.  The word “corporate” might make you think of businesses and companies and corporations, but it comes from the Latin corporare which means “to form into a body.”  The word means “pertaining to a body,” and since the Church is the Body of Christ (of which you are a member), it makes sense that the public, official worship of the Church is her corporate worship.
Just as when engaging in full-body exercise, you need to warm up by stretching individual muscle groups, each member of the Body of Christ needs to engage in a similar discipline to prepare for corporate prayer:  “warming up” with personal prayer.  This can be done at home or at your church, although you can pray anywhere, anytime.  Prayer can be vocal, meditative, or contemplative. (cf. Catechism 2720-2724)  The Church also recommends devotional prayer, such as the Stations of the Cross, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and novenas and litanies.  A most excellent form of prayer is Eucharistic Adoration, time spent in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament either reserved in the tabernacle or exposed in a monstrance.  The Church encourages these devotional forms of prayer because they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, are shaped by the liturgy, and lead us back to the liturgy itself. (cf. CSL 13)
However and whatever and wherever you pray, just pray!  Build a habit of daily prayer.  If you don’t warm up before exercising, your body will not react properly (and you might injure yourself).  If you don’t “warm up” before the prayer of the Mass, you might find yourself too easily distracted by things going on around you.  If you find that your mind often wanders during Mass, you may want to pray before Mass for greater concentration.  Consider praying to your guardian angel for assistance:  because the Mass is a participation in the heavenly liturgy, all the angels of Heaven, including your guardian angel, are present at every celebration of the Eucharist.  Ask your angel to help you stay focused on the spiritual realities present at the Mass, especially the mystery of faith, the miraculous change of the bread and wine into the Eucharist.

[1] This is probably a reference to mortification, that is, practicing self-discipline and penance to overcome sinful tendencies and grow in virtue.  See page 21 for an example.

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Pope John Paul II on Participation

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 9:42 AM

This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, from the Introduction.


Pope John Paul II, in an address to Bishop of the United States in 1998, explained the three terms describing participation:
Full participation certainly means that every member of the community has a part to play in the liturgy … [but it] does not mean that everyone does everything, since this would lead to a clericalizing of the laity and a laicizing of the priesthood; and this was not what the Council had in mind.  The liturgy, like the Church, is intended to be hierarchical and polyphonic, respecting the different roles assigned by Christ and allowing all the different voices to blend in one great hymn of praise.
Active participation certainly means that, in gesture, word, song and service, all the members of the community take part in an act of worship … [but it] does not preclude the active passivity of silence, stillness and listening:  indeed, it demands it. …
Conscious participation calls for the entire community to be properly instructed in the mysteries of the liturgy, lest the experience of worship degenerate into a form of ritualism.  But it does not mean a constant attempt within the liturgy itself to make the implicit explicit, since this often leads to a verbosity and informality … [nor does it] mean that the Latin language, and especially the chants which are so superbly adapted to the genius of the Roman Rite, should be wholly abandoned.

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Divine Liturgy on EWTN

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 7:38 AM

EWTN is broadcasting a Divine Liturgy from the eparchy of Lebanon this morning at 9 AM (ET).  I look forward to watching it while I work!

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Sisters of Life on Praying the Mass

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 2:27 PM

I donated three copies of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People to the Sisters of Life in New York City, and recently received a letter from them.  Sr. Mary Gabriel, S.V., wrote in part:

Here at the novitiate of the Sisters of Life, we are particularly grateful for your donation of three copies of your book Praying the Mass.  This is a most welcome addition to our library.
I met two of the sisters many months ago at Princeton, when they visited for the afternoon to talk about their vocation and apostolate.  One of them, Sr. Miriam, is very interested in the liturgy, and we talked briefly after the Q&A session.

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Review by Tim Troutman

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 8:52 PM

Tim Troutman
Blogger, Army of Martyrs

This book is a quick and easy read explaining not only which translations are changing next year but more importantly, why they are changing. It also doubles as a walk through of the mass explaining the sacred liturgy in a rich way. I've been to many seminars and have read several explanations on the mass but the book has several nuggets that I've never heard. I'd recommend this book especially for RCIA classes and those being introduced to the mass for the first time, for those who want to get an idea of the new mass translations, and even for those who are familiar with the mass but might need a refresher on why we do what we do.

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2nd Edition of "The Prayers of the People"

Posted by Jeffrey Pinyan at 1:55 PM

I've been adding a fair amount of content to the Introduction, Chapter 1 ("Preparing for Prayer"), Chapter 7 ("Profession of Faith"), and Chapter 9 ("Offertory Prayers"). Look for a second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People in early 2010 (at the same low price of $12). All new content will be made available digitally, free of charge, for people who've already bought the first edition.

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