Liturgy Archives - Amazing Catechists

Living Advent: How to Cope with the Awkwardness of the First Week

I want to begin by acknowledging the difficulty of entering into the Advent season this year. I almost forgot it was the first week of Advent between the Thanksgiving travels and the craziness of the secular world that started celebrating the holidays weeks ago. Gone is the “PSL” craze, quickly replaced by everything flavored peppermint and dyed red in mid-November.

Mass this Sunday was sufficiently awkward since no one knew the Mass parts yet and everyone was still in Thanksgiving mode.

My confusion was exacerbated because I forgot that Advent starts with contemplating the second coming rather than the first two Joyful Mysteries.

I found myself overwhelmed, not knowing what to pray with or how to live fully this season which is supposed to be a time of peace. I thought, how can I begin to appreciate the Advent Season in such a noisy environment?

For those of us who work for the Church, in ministry, or in catechesis this is an especially busy time of year. The thought of finding and contemplating the silence of Advent and the Nativity only leaves us jealous of the Holy Family.

Here are a few tips that might be helpful for me and for you when it is difficult to live Advent.

1. Journaling. Sharing your thoughts with Jesus, I believe, is the first step towards sorting out the confusing and conflicting emotions of the secular world and its holiday season that started before Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas day.

Not a journaler? Try something else new such as an Advent devotional or making a gratitude list, something that can become a springboard to contemplation when your prayer feels dry or empty and you are tempted to quit because you have so many other commitments.

2. Liturgy. The Church has great tools for entering into Advent aside from the obvious Advent calendars and candles. The First Readings from Isaiah serve as great daily meditation for us to gain access to what the Lord has in store for each of us. I have found it helpful to see how the Prophet’s words are fulfilled in our own lives and in our own hearts.

3. Patience. The last thing Jesus wants is for us to be worried and anxious about doing Advent “wrong.” This year might feel different from other years, but that is because it is! It is a brand new opportunity for us to receive grace and deeper insight into the Love God has for each and every soul.

Happy Advent!

Bilingual Spirituality

By Mary Lou Rosien

I was discussing the Mass with a Youth Minister friend, Carolyn Grassmick. I was gushing about how beautiful the Traditional Latin Mass is and how uplifting the Charismatic Life Teen Mass is. I told Carolyn that I loved both Masses so much and that I felt blessed to have a variety of ways to experience worship. She laughed and said, “You are spiritually bilingual! You speak traditional and charismatic Catholic fluently!”

Reflecting on this, I have recognized a disconcerting trend within our beautiful Catholic faith. A rift is brewing between traditionalists and charismatics.

I’m not talking about traditionalists who don’t want to follow Rome (with a unique Pope currently in the seat of Peter) or charismatics who change the words of the Mass and add liturgical dancing; I’m referring to mainstream, truly Catholic groups who just worship differently.

The traditionalists often have little tolerance for contemporary Christian Mass, the music, or things like people ‘resting in the Spirit.’ They reject these experiences as not reverent enough to be valid.

The charismatic movement members, on the other hand, state that they are not moved by the Mass when it’s quiet and traditional. They mistakenly believe that if you cannot visibly see the fruits of the Spirit that you are just not open enough to experience them.

What? The Mass is the Mass!

Have we forgotten that Jesus is present in the Word and in the Eucharist? Whether the gifts of the Holy Spirit are running rampant or there is silent, intense Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, both are forms of Catholic worship. Equal members of the same Faith.

I have seen endless confession lines at the Sacrament of Reconciliation celebrated prior to a charismatic or Life Teen Mass and I have also witnessed incredibly devout traditional Catholics spending hours in Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament! Neither group can claim the market on loving Christ and wanting to serve him. Who am I, who are we, to determine who has the deeper Catholic faith?

The Body of Christ is complex and diversified. It has many parts, many talents and many ways of expressing ‘authentic’ Catholic Faith. What it does not have is an appendix (an unnecessary or disposable part).

The goal is to move towards embracing and appreciating our differences as complimentary pieces of the same spiritual puzzle. God bless.

Mass Explained App Review

By Christopher Smith, OP

I was recently contacted by Dan Gonzalez and asked to check out his new iPad app, Mass Explained. As someone who loves both the Church and technology, I was so happy he did!

I have gone through a dozen or more “apps” in the last couple of years which focus on Catholicism. As of today, I may only use three or four of them. As for the others, I got rid of them because I found the application either lacked intuitiveness or the depth of material was just not sufficient.

It is critical, from a technology standpoint, for an application to have a good “flow;” it must make sense when the user is interacting with it. If a user has to “hunt and peck” to find what they are looking for, then they’ll quickly become frustrated or lose interest. With the number of apps available today, a user will not waste time navigating a cumbersome product; they will just simply delete it and move on to the next one.

As someone who has spent over two decades studying the Catholic faith, I have found “apps” lack the level of detail and scholarship I would like to see in a product. I have concluded most Catholic applications built for smartphones and/or tablets are for people only seeking information at the introductory level.

Mass Explained for iPad hits a home run both in its easy functionality and for its scholarship! I can’t think of any other Catholic app which allows you to zoom in and out of pictures, spin 3-D objects, and view 360 degree panoramic images?

Mass Explained allows the user to use buttons, drop down menus, or swiping gestures to navigate through the material. That type of flexibility, allowing the user to customize their experience, is a great feature! The use of pop up windows also allows the user to stay a page while “drilling down” to the information they want.

From a scholarship perspective, Mass Explained, succeeds where others have failed! Hundreds of quotations and references to scripture, the Early Church Fathers, the Catechism, church councils, papal encyclicals and more! Mass Explained even has audio files, allowing users to hear prayers in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English. This is great application for people looking to go beyond a basic understanding of the Mass. I could easily see RCIA catechists using Mass Explained to introduce the Mass to prospective Catholics.

The current Mass Explained app is “Volume 1,” which looks at the Introductory Rites and the Liturgy of the Word. A planned “Volume 2” will cover the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Concluding Rites.

Congratulations to Dan on creating a beautiful, easy to use and informative product for Catholics and non-Catholics alike! I heartily recommend adding Mass Explained to your list of Catholic iPad Applications!

This is a slightly modified version of a post under the same title which appeared on Christopher’s Apologies on 17 Feb 2014.