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Monday, February 09, 2004


Thoughts on Liturgy

On Sunday I traveled with my Gospel Mission small group to St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Austin, IL (a suburb west of Chicago). It was an excellent service and I really felt the Holy Spirit moving through that place. The music, in particular, touched me because it was so alive. Afterwards, our group got into a discussion about what the difference was in praying and saying the liturgy. I said Fr. Reed (the vicar of St. Martin's) definitely prayed the liturgy. They asked me how I could tell. I said, "His congregation was interacting with him, saying 'Amen!' and 'Yes, Lord' and 'Thank you, Jesus' at parts particularly touching to them. Plus the keyboardist was playing softly in the background, incorporating music into the worship. You could definitely tell he was praying and not just saying." My colleague challenged me, "So, do you mean to say that the only time the liturgy is prayed is when there is musical accompaniment and the congregation affirms it with a shouted 'Amen!'?" I said not at all, but that was just the example from this parish's context. Without the medium of example, it became harder to define with the difference between praying and saying the liturgy was. I decided finally that the real difference is in the mindset of the priest celebrating, and that the difference can then be discerned by the worshipper. If the mindset of the priest is holy, but with the edge of complacency, an attitude of "just another day on the job", or mediocrity, then they are likely saying the liturgy. But if the priest is totally present in the moment, thereby totally present with God, in communion with God, having a conversation with God and the people, then they are likely praying the liturgy. I won't use examples of particular priests here because not only is that judgmental of me, but it is unfair - I may not have seen them on their best of days or years.

In reading for my Spirituality class tomorrow I came across a quote that I thought completely resonated with the above thoughts: Don E. Saliers has this to say, "The hunger for holiness coexists uneasily with the practical atheism of our way of life." We go to church out of the hunger for holiness, but end up looking at our watches because our practical atheism says its high time to be at the beach (applicable in Florida). Clergy, out of their hunger for holiness come to the table to celebrate the liturgy, but because of their practical atheism, they sometimes end up simply saying it, like so many black and white words on a ruffled page of a well-read novel. We, those of us who will be clergy one day, must strive to fight against the practical atheism of our lives. Yet, not on our own accord, but by the grace of God alone can we so do.

-R

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