Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Liturgical-Catechetical Resources for the Parish

I always myself thought something like this would be a very good idea -- and at one time even intended to pursue it myself but didn't for lack of time. What I am referring to are pamphlets and bullet inserts related to important points of liturgical catechesis; things such as ad orientem for instance. The idea here -- in my mind at any rate -- is that they both provide catechesis and also lay the necessary pastoral and catechetical groundwork to implement change within the parish setting.

As I noted 8 years ago when I first considered this sort of project myself, this idea is potentially quite fruitful if one can take the results of the Cambridge Camden Society as representative. That society -- also known as the Ecclesiological Society -- was an Anglican society which successfully managed to re-catholicize the ordering of Anglican churches to such an extent that today we would almost recognize no other arrangement when we think of Anglican churches. Their particular strategy involved the creation and distribution of free pamphlets for clergy and laity alike to promote their cause.

We can be very thankful to Fr. Jay Finelli (the iPadre) for taking the efforts to see this done.

As many people are concerned about the fate of the new liturgical movement now that Pope Benedict XVI is no longer with us (papally speaking), might I suggest that it is precisely these kind of initiatives that would be good for people to work on? (On that front, permit me to also share a conversation I was having with a friend. We were discussing the reactions that have taken place since the announcement of Benedict XVI's resignation, and the comment was made that some had perhaps become overly complacent about the new liturgical movement, perhaps assuming that it would be simply accomplished for us or was a fait accompli. I agreed. The reality has always been that for the new liturgical movement to advance, people -- priests, religious and laity alike -- need to roll up their sleeves and get down to work.)

Back to Fr. Finelli's initiative, here is an example of their ad orientem pamphlet:


The full pamphlet is available here. There is also a bulletin insert on the Liturgy as source and summit amongst some others.

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