Formation for Liturgical Prayer
2004 New York, New York
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2004
Ken Hannon, O.M.I. (professor of pastoral and liturgical theology at Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas)
Seminar Participants 2004
Seminar members: Stanislaus Campbell, F.S.C.; James Challancin; Gerald Chinchar, S.M.; Paul Colloton, O.P.; Joseph Dougherty, F.S.C.; Peter Fink, S.J.; Jeremy Gallet, S.P.; Paul Janowiak, S.J.; Donna Kelly, C.N.D.; Jovian Lang, O.F.M.; Larry Madden, S.J.; Anne McGuire; Sharon McMillan, S.N.D.deN.; Roc O’Connor, S.J.; Joyce Ann Zimmerman, C.PP.S.
Visitors: Kathy Brown, Patricia Hughes, Michael Prendergast
Seminar Report 2004
The seminar devoted the bulk of its time to the discussion of four members’ papers.
Peter Fink offered a draft of his paper, “The Sacrament of Penance: a Liturgical Event.” The essay explores the differing understandings of the pre-reform and post-conciliar Order of Penance especially as these are expressed by the roles of penitent, confessor and liturgical assembly. The analysis of the shift in understanding provides a basis for a second section which offers elements of a better-grounded catechesis for the reformed Ordo. Fink suggests that the catechesis ought to begin by exploring how people relate to God in their lives and then seek to offer an experience of the “God who summons us into his own love and who is merciful to us when our journey runs awry.” The second issue to be examined is the relationship to Jesus Christ and one’s association with the Lord precisely as disciple. Finally, he suggests that the reality of sin and the nature of forgiveness must be explored in order to ground a genuinely personal and ecclesial sense of forgiveness and healing.
Roc O’Connor’s paper was a discussion of “Exposition and Benediction: the Rites and Celebration.” O’ Connor analyzes eucharistic adoration and devotion from the perspective of three seminal documents, Inter oecumenici, Mysterium fidei, and Eucharisticum mysterium. This analysis yields a rich background for the interpretation of the General Introduction to the rites. At the heart of all of these treatments is the concern to maintain the central unity between the Eucharistic celebration and the prolongation of that reality in various forms of devotion and adoration. The second part of the paper offers a detailed proposal for further reflection and catechesis which integrates Built of Living Stones, the 2000 USCCB publication. The intent of this proposal is to provide a more explicitly Eucharistic basis for the understanding and practice of the rites and to ground discussions of such matters as architecture and tabernacle in that same theological perspective.
Anne McGuire uses the interplay between mimesis and anamnesis to analyze the celebrations of Holy Week in her “Holy Week and the Paschal Mystery.” She studies the rites and texts for the celebrations of Palm Sunday, the Triduum, and Easter to find the challenges and opportunities in each for the fruitful proclamation of the Lord’s own journey and the communal assimilation of that journey into the lives of the members of the assembly. The very detailed and probing analysis of each of the celebrations provides background for planning and for catechesis which can be used to enrich the whole experience the paschal mystery at this central moment in the liturgical year.
Finally, in “Penance and Reconciliation—Finding the Connections,” Jeremy Gallet works from current theological literature and specific pastoral experience to open questions about the place and practice of reconciliation in the Church at the present moment. She questions how the “person in the pew” might perceive the Church’s mission of reconciliation in a time in which the communal sense of that mission is poorly understood and appropriated. The pastoral concern is rendered more poignant because it is integral to the effort to respond to, for example, the needs of a church to be healed in the context of clergy sexual abuse or such catastrophes as the bombing in Oklahoma City or the World Trade Center. Both analyses point to the urgency of appropriating the mission of reconciliation as belonging to the whole Church and to each member.
Plans for next year’s meeting: Next year the seminar expects to discuss papers by Anne McGuire (on time), Rodica Stoicoiu (on eschatology), and Stan Campbell (on the Liturgy of the Hours). There will also be open discussion on the general question of “What is expected of people when they come to worship as the Christian assembly?”