Creativity - Initiation We sometimes miss opportunities to be creative within the constant principles of sacramental liturgy. How the living church might celebrate them: Creativity: discover what is the core, the heart of something, then find ways to enhance that meaning, all the while being true to it, not distorting it, not changing the heart. Artists do this: impressionism, architects do this: FLWright house Church architects do this: LA Cathedral How can liturgists, those who prepare the liturgies for our parishes, be creative, within the principles of sacramental liturgy? Some times people think that to be creative you have to break all the rules but that s not so. One of things we have to do is learn how to read the rites to discover how we can be creative. READING THE RITES AND GETTING IT RIGHT When I worked in a parish in Flushing Queens, in the shadow of Shea stadium, Fr. Ray and I were charged with revising the way we celebrated the Rite for Baptism for Children. So we read the entire rite, prayed with it. We did this with care, and paid attention to what you read in the rubrics what ministers you need, where you move, when and why; what and where you sing, and who can do what. And, or course, we discussed what might work. We formed a baptism committee and invited them to join us in studying the rite and sharing ideas. The validation of our work came one Sunday when someone asked me where I had gotten the rite.etc. So what did we do what didn t we do? what didn t we do we didn t change the pre-baptism meetings that were in place There were 2 an initial interview pastoral outcomes from this and a gathering one evening for the couples and the baptism team at this gathering conversation about baptism, membership in the church, eucharist, and so on with a very brief overview of the ceremony, with a short music practice of the refrains we would sing. Fr. Ray added the creation of a newsletter for new parents, and a one year anniversary celebration. We considered the baptismal ritual: decisions: we would celebrate the rite outside of Mass, on one Sunday a month. If someone asked for Sunday Mass we would be happy to accommodate them.
Why we chose not to do it so families are unchurched, just have them focus on baptism, What characterizes this assembly gathered for the babies baptism We saw this ceremony an opportunity for evangelization, for conversion, for maybe overwhelming the people with a really good celebration of the sacrament. Good liturgy, you know works its own miracles! Music in Catholic Worship told us and Sing to the Lord reiterates: Good celebrations nourish faith What ministers: priest or deacon cantor organist lectors (family members?) ministers of hospitality (lots of them) sacristan servers maybe members of the baptismal team, or older brothers or sisters of infants The assembly: then there s the infant, parents, godparents, grandparents, siblings, cousins and uncles and aunts all those invited some of whom get to take a part in the ritual We wanted music! When people hear the organ, and are asked to sing, it s like saying pay attention now, we re here in church. (don t want to call this crowd control but.it was.) The Celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism of Children Reception of the Children: Gathering of parents, godparents, and children in the rear of the church, at the door of the church this is where initiation rites always begin so that people can be invited in priest/deacon vested, and with a mike so grandma and Uncle Tony can hear ministers in procession to the rear of the church we asked everyone to turn around and face the back of the church Priest/deacon speaks of the joy of the parents here the deacon or priest mentioning something that might have struck them from interviews or the 2 nd session. Questions to the parents: what answer from the ritual, or their own answer trust the answer. Question to the godparents Signing the forehead - in silence. Who does this??? The sign of the cross begins the child s life as a Christian, it will follow them throughout life, and be the final act of the church when they are buried in the sign of the cross.
Procession into the Church Led in procession by servers, cross and candle Where do you go?? to the font, wherever that is Here we sang a hymn. Baptized in Water (tune: Morning Has Broken) most people know this tune rely on grandparents and guests to sing it, parents are busy with the baby Other hymn or songs might well be appropriate: Liturgy of the Word We used the Romans reading or the one from Galatians; this gave one of the team members or a parent or godparent the opportunity to be the lector Try to make connections: Galatians reading, ( on the powerpoint )sung refrain at baptism; and mentioned in homily We sang the psalm, The Lord is my shepherd, Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. A gospel acclamation: We used the chant tune for all baptisms and again for the baptisms at the Easter Vigil. Homily Intercessions: mention the children by name Let us ask our Lord Jesus to look lovingly on these children..names. who are to be baptized, etc. and sang short response Sung Litany: here we added the names of the children sometimes we got at little desperate: name of the parish, neighboring parishes, our patron saints, etc. Sing the response: pray for us easy. Prayer of Exorcism and Anointing with Oil of Catechumens alternative prayer at #221 You sent your only Son to rescues us from the slavery of sin and to give us the freedom only your sons and daughters enjoy team member here is important: gives the name of the child so the priest can use the name deacon/priest uses a mike; maybe very soft music underneath the ritual action then lays his hand on the head of the child Baptism Blessing of the Water (have a bowl of water??) there are alternative prayers at 223,224 form of a berekah recounting God s goodness then do something for us the prayers are long, so we used short David Haas refrain Blessed are you O God a few times priest put his hands in the water splashed around a bit, especially at the end, where the rubric is for him to touch the water with his right hand Renunciation of Sin and Profession of Faith
Baptism baby held by mother or father sing refrain after each baptism: priest to hold the baby up and we all sing. a visiting uncle can help with the baptisms as long as he does what he s told! Explanatory Rites Anointing with Chrism again, call the child by name God now anoints you name with the chrism of salvation White Garment it is desirable that the families provide the garment Now is the moment for the white baptismal garment talk about Resurrection-Ascension parish, and how they did it by immersion Lighted Candle Someone from each family (father or godfather or.)are called up to receive the light of Christ from the Easter candle. the candle remains with the family; anniversary of the baptism, birthdays, etc Ephphetha Conclusion of the Rite Procession to the Altar being brought to the altar brought to Christ, since the altar is Christ processional music: Come and Join the Circle (suggestions in Chris Walker s book on RCIA (OCP) The Lord s Prayer be careful to arrange them so it s not so much of a photo op. Blessing and Dismissal Closing Hymn an Easter hymn (relating baptism and Easter) maybe Holy God grandparents know this maybe a great organ postlude What are some other sacramental moments, where reading the rite right, can be of great help? Marriage:
After the Questions, the vows are pronounced. The rite says that they are to join their right hands. make it obvious a stretching out to join hands Join your right hands a declare your consent. How would you do this so that people can see, so that this is a graced moment for the couple? Ordination prostration throughout the cathedral Anointing wide choice of readings other readings from scripture accompanied by someone let s call them a sponsor be with the sick person, next to them, keep their hands on their shoulder a beautiful vessel for the oil of the sick if the sick person has a special host, this person would get it maybe be their EM for the mass So what can we say about reading the rites carefully, and getting the rite, right? Liturgy means what we do, and how we do it, not just what we say. Read Richard McCall s book Do This: Liturgy as Performance We immerse ourselves in the rite, how does it move, what does the movement say? When we prepared the Rite of Baptism of Children, we were surprised with the comments we received. It seems to me that by studying the liturgy the act as well as the words, we did discover what is the core, the heart of the rite,.we found ways to enhance that meaning, and so were able to invite others to enter the liturgy, to celebrate it, even to enter it s heart.