An authentic faith—which is never comfortable or completely personal—always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better than we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters.
~Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, no. 183.
Don’t forget to register for the diocesan retreat. If you want to know more about it, I can put you in touch with other students who have been before. And at the end of this bulletin, you’ll find a FAQ about the mass, part of what we talked about at the CCM retreat earlier this month. Have a great week! ~ Karen
DIOCESAN COLLEGE RETREAT
Our annual fall retreat for Catholic college students in the diocese is November 21-23, in Black Mountain NC. Registration for the retreat is now open at this site: http://www.catholiconcampus.com/retreat. Registration closes on November 7th. Cost is $50 (but don’t let the cost keep you away). This year we are focusing on Pope Francis’ work called The Joy of the Gospel. We’ll have students from different campuses giving talks, and there will be opportunities for different kinds of prayer and for mass. This retreat fills up, so don’t wait too long to register! We’ve got 3 CCMers going so far, so you won’t be alone!
FAQ…. Mass seems really complicated! How can I make some sense of it???
The liturgy of the Sunday Eucharist is indeed a complex arrangement of prayers, songs, readings, responses, and actions. It can be confusing. It’s easy to get lost in all the words. At the Second Vatican Council, the first document the bishops wrote was about the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. In this document, which radically changed how we celebrate together, they emphasized the need for “full, conscious, active participation” on the part of every person at mass. So to help you participate—to participate actively, rather than passively—consciously, with knowledge, understanding and reflection, rather than apathy or ignorance—fully, body, mind and spirit—I’ll offer occasional columns on the mass.
To begin with, I offer you a visual image to help give the Sunday liturgy some structure in your mind. Think of the mass as two big books—like a dictionary and a thesaurus—held together by two smaller bookends. The two ‘books’ are the two primary parts of the service: the Liturgy of the Word, in which we hear about the story of salvation and God’s presence in our world and in our lives, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in which we give thanks and praise to God through Jesus Christ in the Spirit. They are the two most important pieces. As it happens, during mass they each involve two really fat books! The Lectionary holds the readings for the Liturgy of the Word, and the Missal holds all the prayers for the whole mass, including the Liturgy of the Eucharist. And each book has a special table associated with it: the ambo, from which the Word is proclaimed, and the altar, at which the sacrifice of the mass is offered.
These two main sections are book-ended by two smaller parts of the mass: the gathering rite, which gets everything going and sets the context for what’s to follow, and the concluding rite, which wraps everything up and pushes us out into the world.
So next week at mass, I invite you as you are celebrating, to pay attention to these four parts, and try to be aware of when we transition from one to the next!
___________________
Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423
