Pastoral Liturgy for Lent: This joyful season.

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1 Pastoral Liturgy for Lent: This joyful season. Lent is about conversion. We review our Christian commitment in preparation for renewing our Baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil. Lent offers an invitation to move into quietness and simplicity in order to hear the voice of God. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the spiritual practices of Lent coming from a deep reflection on how we are living our Christian commitment in response to God s love. Sunday Gospels with the season determine Liturgy planning. The first two gospels are always the stories of the Temptation and the Transfiguration and the sixth Sunday is Palm or Passion Sunday. In Year A (2014) Sundays 3-5 invite us to a new understanding of Baptism through the story of the woman at the well (living water); the man born blind (light) and the resurrection of Lazarus (new life). The tone: reflective (not miserable!). There are planned moments of silence and the penitential rite may be emphasised. Environment: Uncluttered, with a minimum of decoration. No flowers. The use of the colour purple on pillars or the ambo is simple and striking. Altar cloths simple literally no frills. (On St. Patrick s day and Laetare Sunday church and altar can be decorated brightly.) - A visual piece which may be developed over the course of the season. This may also be a good way of involving children. For example: A journey: pathway, shoes, stones. As the weeks go on, items like a water pitcher; signs of light and darkness etc can be added. A wilderness space. The wooden cross to be used on Good Friday could provide a focus for this. This space could be transformed into the Easter garden later, perhaps with a white cloth draped over the cross.

2 Liturgies other than Mass Parish Service of Reconciliation In preparation for celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation focus not only on how our personal lives reflect our Baptism, but how our life as community could bear stronger witness to Christ how we treat each other, or welcome new people, our engagement with justice issues, etc. A meeting to discuss and reflect on these issues could be held in advance of the Reconciliation service. Prayer around the Cross This tradition has been renewed by the Taizé community and is a prayer for all who suffer in world. There is a time of prayer and singing, followed by intercessions, and then each person present has an opportunity to bring their own needs and to reverence the cross. Stations of the Cross There are many beautiful reflections available. This prayer should not be left until Good Friday but can be prayed during Lent especially Holy week. Trocaire Resources Each year Trocaire provide liturgy resources for parish celebrations around different global justice themes. This year s theme is that of clean water. The resource is available online parish-resource.pdf Morning or Evening Prayer.. Many people like to make an extra commitment to prayer for Lent. Why not put on a celebration of the Morning or Evening prayer of the church on one day in the parish? This takes about 15 minutes. This might be organised and led by Ministers of the Word.

3 The Sacred Triduum: The Paschal Mystery What is it? The sacred Triduum is one liturgy celebrated over a three-day period. We begin with the sign of the cross at the opening of the Holy Thursday Mass and do not make the sign of the cross again until the final blessing at the Easter Vigil. What do we celebrate? The sacred Triduum celebrates the paschal mystery: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 1. Holy Thursday: The Mass of the Lord s Supper - The first celebration of Eucharist. - The Washing of the disciple s feet. - The poor. - Altar of repose. Do Wash the feet of a number of parishioners. Have Holy Communion under both species. Make more of the offertory procession, including gifts for the poor. A good time to present Trócaire boxes. Create a prayerful environment for the altar of repose, where people can return for quiet prayer later. Some music or reflections may be provided for a holy hour. This is not a good occasion to commission ministers of the Eucharist (Eastertide for this), or to renew priestly vows (priests have done this at the Chrism Mass). The celebration as set out in the Missal is enough.

4 2. Good Friday - The Death of Jesus - The reading of the Passion and Veneration of the Cross (3pm). - The suffering of the world. Do Read the Passion with a number of voices. Have a large cross which people can approach and venerate in whatever manner they choose and without rush. Have musical accompaniment. This is not a time for passion plays or pageants. These should have taken place earlier in the week. 3. The Easter Vigil - Light - Word - Baptism - Eucharist. Do Celebrate the Vigil after dark (8.30pm onwards). Light a fire outside church and gather around it, then process into church with candles lit. Have a good selection of readings (if not all). Sing the Gloria as the lights are turned on. Spinkle the congregation after the renewal of Baptismal promises. Have Holy Communion under both species. Take your time and savour this is the highlight of the Church s year.

5 Some thoughts for Lent and the Triduum God s outreach and inbreaking into our lives is unrelenting. As an old Gaelic proverb goes: There is an ebb to every tide, except the tide of God s grace. Thomas Groome Will There be Faith? P16 (Veritas 2011) People are often unreasonable and self-centred. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well-pleased with ourselves; when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O Lord when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life; when, having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim. Stir us, O Lord to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas where storms show Thy mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow. Amen Desmond Tutu Lenten Prayer The simplest and most practical lesson I know is to resolve to be good today, but better tomorrow. Let us take one day only in our hands, at a time, merely making a

6 resolve for tomorrow, thus we may hope to get on taking short, careful steps, not great strides. Catherine McCauley I used to worry about sin; now I have no time for this. When I pick up the Scriptures, the light streams out at me The words tremble with life, and shout Abundant Life. Hildegarde of Bingen (interpreted by Mary T Malone Praying with the Women Mystics) This is the proof of the authenticity of my love for Christ. If I am united with Christ, I am together with my neighbour, and this unity is not limited to the moment of communion, but only begins here. It becomes life, becomes flesh and blood, in the everyday experience of sharing life with my neighbour. Joseph Ratzinger Eucharistic Congress a dialectic of disaster and powerful human love through which the gracious God of Jesus enters into solidarity with all those who suffer and are lost. The cross in all its dimensions, violence, suffering, love, is the parable that enacts Sophia-God s participation in the suffering of the world. Elizabeth Johnson She Who Is I could almost leave El Salvador except for the children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch so as to favour the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine. Jean Donovan (interpreted by Mary T Malone Praying with the Women Mystics)