ISANG PAGDIRIWANG NG PAGSASALIN NG TUNGKULIN San Jose Major Seminary
Magtitipon ang pamayanan sa kapilya o iba pang angkop na pook. Magsisimula ang pagdiriwang sa pamamagitan ng isang angkop na awitin.
PAGBATI
Rektor:
Sa ngalan ng Ama, at ng Anak, at ng Espiritu Santo.
R: Amen.
V. Sumainyo ang Panginoon.
R. At sumainyo rin.
PAMBUNGAD UKOL SA PAGDIRIWANG
Ipakikilala ang pagdiriwang sa ganito o katulad na mga salita.
Mga kapatid, nagkakatipon tayo ngayong gabi upang ipagdiwang ang pagsasalin ng tungkulin sa mga bagong pinuno ng ating pamayanan.
Purihin natin ang Diyos para sa patuloy niyang pamamatnubay sa ating seminaryo. Pasalamatan din natin siya para sa matapat na paglilingkod ng mga naging pinuno ng ating pamayanan sa nakaraang semestre.
Ipanalangin natin sa Kanya ang ating mga bagong halal na pinuno upang sila ay tumanggap ng biyayang kakailanganin upang gampanan ang kanilang tungkulin nang buong puso at lakas.
Pakinggan natin ang pagpapahayag ng salita ng Diyos.
Sandaling katahimikan.
PAGPAPAHAYAG NG SALITA NG DIYOS
Magsusugo ako ng mga pinuno upang kayo ay pamahalaan.
Pagbasa mula sa aklat ni propeta Jeremias 3: 15-18
Noong mga araw na iyon, sinabi ng Panginoon: Bibigyan ko kayo ng mga pinunong sumusunod sa akin at pamamahalaan nila kayo nang buong katalinuhan at pagkaunawa. At kung dumami na kayo sa lupaing iyon, hindi na pag-uusapan ng mga tao ang tungkol sa Kaban ng Tipan ng Panginoon. Hindi na nila ito iisipin o aalalahanin. Hindi na nila ito kakailanganin o gagawa pa ng isa pa. Sa araw na iyon, ang Jerusalem ay tatawaging “Luklukan ng Panginoon.” Lahat ng bansa’y magkakatipon dito upang sambahin ako. Hindi na nila gagawin ang kasamaang kanilang gustong gawin. Magkakaisa ang Israel at ang Juda. Magkasama silang babalik mula sa hilaga at maninirahan sa lupaing ibinigay ko sa inyong mga magulang, upang maging kanila magpakailanman.
Ang Salita ng Diyos
Bayan: Salamat sa Diyos.
Sandaling katahimikan.
PAGHIRANG
Beadle:
Minamahal at ginagaling naming Rektor, Ikinagagalak kong ipakilala sa inyo at sa buong sambayanan ni San Jose, ang mga nahirang na pinuno upang maglingkod para sa unang/ikalawang semestre ng taong __________.
Tatawagin niya isa-isa ang mga bagong hirang na pinuno simula sa pinakamababang puwesto hanggang sa pinakamataas. Sila ay pupunta sa harap at sasabihin: Heto ako.
Rektor:
Sila ba ay angkop at karapat-dapat?
Beadle:
Matapos pakinggan ang pulso ng pamayanan, at sa mabuting pagpapasya ng mga may katungkulan sa aming paghuhubog, nagtitiwala kaming sila ay angkop at karapat-dapat.
PANALANGIN
Rektor:
Mga minamahal, ipanalangin natin sa Maykapal ang mga kapatid nating ito. Kasihan nawa sila ng kanyang banal na Espiritu sa kanilang pagtanggap sa mga bagong tungkulin.
Samantala, luluhod ang mga hinirang na pinuno. Iuunat ng Rektor ang kanyang mga kamay tungo sa kanila samantalang binibigkas ang panalangin. Maari ring iunat ng sambayanan ang kanilang mga kanang kamay tungo sa mga hinirang na pinuno.
Amang mapagmahal, walang maliw ang iyong pagkalinga sa amin. Sa bawat pook at bawat henerasyon, Tinutupad mo ang iyong pangakong magsusugo ng mga pinuno Upang pamahalaan at akayin ang iyong sinisintang kawan.
Igawad mo ang iyong masaganang pagbabasbas Sa mga kapatid naming ito na ikaw ang humirang. Palakasin mo ang kanilang pakikipagkaisa kay Kristo na pinahiran mo bilang pari, hari at propeta. Sariwain mo sa kanila ang biyaya ng Espiritu Santo na kanilang tinanggap sa pagpapahid ng langis upang sa kanilang pagtupad sa kanilang tungkulin, lingapin, akayin at pabanalin nila ang kanilang mga kapatid.
Sa liwanag ng Espiritung ito, patuloy mo silang lingapin at patatagin sa kanilang pagtupad sa kanilang mga gampanin. Alalayan at palakasin mo sila upang buong puso at buong lakas na maglingkod sa iyo, in opus ministerii.
Hinihiling namin ito sa pamamagitan ni Kristong aming Panginoon.
Bayan: Amen.
Tatayo ang mga hinirang at yayakapin sila ng Rektor. Ipahahayag ng sambayanan ang kanilang pagtanggap sa pamamagitan ng masigabong palakpakan.
PAGKAKALOOB NG MGA SAGISAG NG KATUNGKULAN
Ipagkakaloob ng mga nakaraang pinuno ang mga sagisag ng kanilang katungkulan, samantalang binibigkas ang ganito o katulad na mga salita.
LST Representative/ Academic Chairperson:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang LST Handbook, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na pagyamanin ang ating paghuhubog sa buhay intelektwal.
Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, tulungan mo ang ating mga kapatid na lumago hindi lamang sa kaalaman kundi sa karunungan.
SAPI Chairman:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang bandila ng Pilipinas, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na itaguyod ang ating pagmamahal sa bayan.
Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, tulungan mo ang ating mga kapatid na lumago sa kanilang pananagutan at pagmamalasakit sa bayan.
College Asst. Coordinator:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang susi sa pintuan ng kolehiyo, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na umalalay sa paghubog ang ating mga nakababatang kapatid.
Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, panatilihin mong bukas ang mga pintuan ng kolehiyo sa pagkilos ng Espiritu na siyang humuhubog sa ating lahat.
College Coordinator:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang sipi ng mga Panuntunan ng kolehiyo, sagisag ng iyong pagpapatuloy sa tungkulin na umalalay sa paghubog ang ating mga nakababatang kapatid.
Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, tulungan mo silang lumago sa kanilang pagiging Josefino, sa iyong mabuting halimbawa at pagmamalasakit sa kanila. Asst. Apostolate Coordinator:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang (lighter o) pamaypay, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na umalalay sa pagpapasigla ng ating buhay apostolado Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, Pagningasin at pag-alabin mo sa iyong mga kapatid ang diwa ng pagmamahal at paglilingkod sa kapwa, lalo’t higit sa mga mahihirap.
Apostolate Coordinator:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang pangbungkal ng lupa, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na manguna sa pagpapalago ng ating buhay apostolado Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, Tulungan mo ang iyong mga kapatid na iugat ang kanilang sarili sa kababaang loob at kasipagan sa paglilingkod, at tumubo sa kanilang bokasyon na ipahayag ang Mabuting Balita sa mga dukha.
Liturgical Celebrations Coordinator:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang susi sa sakristiya, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na mamuno sa ating buhay panalangin at pagsamba. Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, Tulungan mo ang iyong mga kapatid na magdasal at lumago sa kanilang pakikipag-unayan sa Diyos, lalong lalo na sa kanilang pakikipagtagpo sa kanya sa Banal na Eukaristiya.
Sub-sub beadle:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang walis at ang kaban ng yaman ng pamayanan, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na mamuno sa pangangalaga at pag-iingat sa mga pinagkukunan (resources) ng seminaryo. Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, Tulungan mo ang iyong mga kapatid na magmalasakit sa pamayanan at pangalagaan ang seminaryo nang may pag-ibig, pagsasakripisyo at utang na loob. Sub beadle:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang sandok, sagisag ng iyong pagtanggap sa tungkulin na pangasiwaan ang mga pangangailangan ng iyong mga kapatid. Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, Tulungan mo at alagaan ang iyong mga kapatid. Ipakita mo sa kanila ang kagandahan ng paglilingkod. Busugin mo sila hindi lamang sa pagkain kundi sa pagmamahal.
Beadle:
Kapatid, tanggapin mo ang bandila ng Seminaryo ni San Jose at ang martilyo na sagisag ng iyong tungkulin bilang beadle. Kasama ng iyong mga kapatid, itaas mong lagi ang ating mga adhikain bilang mga Josefino at ipagpatuloy ang mahaba at mayamang tradisyon ng virtud y letras at ng paglilingkod at pakikipag-ugnayan sa Diyos. Sa biyaya ng Maykapal, gamitin mo ang iyong kapangyarihan, nang may pag-ibig at karunungan, hindi upang pukpukin at saktan ang iyong mga kapatid, kundi upang ayusin at patibayin ang pamayanan ng seminaryo sa halimbawa ng ating amang panday na si San Jose.
Sa yugtong ito, maaring wisikan ng banal na tubig ang mga bagong hirang na pinuno.
HULING PAGBABASBAS
Rektor:
Sumainyo ang Panginoon.
R. At sumainyo rin.
At pagpalain kayo ng makapangyarihang Diyos, Ama at Anak at Espiritu Santo
Bayan: Amen.
Humayo kayong taglay ang kapayapaan upang ang Panginoon ay mahalin at paglingkuran.
A Primer on the Sacraments for High School Students
Leo R. Ocampo
The Sacraments, together with our beliefs and lifestyle, comprise the Catholic faith that we profess, live out and celebrate. For us, they are not just rituals to perform or events to attend. Rather, sacraments are precious gifts from God to help us grow in his love, visible signs of his abiding presence in our life and constant invitations for us to enter in his divine life of love. Below are some essential concepts from Fr. Kenan Osborne’s “Sacramental Theology: A General Introduction” that are important to understand.
1.The sacraments are instituted by Christ.
Like our parents, the Father makes his love felt in the best way we can and he did that above all by gifting us with his only beloved Son. Christ is “the” Sacrament, the ultimate concretization of God’s love. He is the one sent to help us grow in relationship with God, the incarnate God sharing our life, calling us to live in God’s love. While Jesus lived here on earth he made people feel the love of God: he accompanied them in all their joys and sorrows—touching, healing, forgiving, feeding, teaching. Finally, by giving up his life, “he showed the depth of his love.” While we did not have the same opportunity to see, hear, and touch Jesus during his lifetime, the sacraments allow us to experience him today. Saint Leo the Great tells us: “What was visible in Christ has since passed on to us in the sacraments.”
In the sacraments, it is Christ himself acting through his Mystical Body, the Church, who continues to touch, heal, forgive, feed and teach. The Church is the continuing sacrament of Christ in the world. In its broadest sense, everything that the Church does is a sacrament that continues to reveal the love of God in Christ. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who spent her life helping the poorest of the poor, loved to pray: “May they see in us no longer ourselves but only Jesus.” Her charity and compassion seen in concrete acts of love and service was a true sacrament, which allowed those who encountered her to experience Jesus! Saint Teresa of Avila reminds us that we are the hands and feet that continue his mission in the world.
So from earliest times, the Church has continued the work begun by Christ and belonging to Christ. This is what we mean by the term “institution.” It is not as if Christ himself designed seven rituals and prescribed them for our use. Rather, sacraments are the Church’s dynamic way of continuing the work which is truly and ultimately Christ’s. This she does primarily though the seven ritual sacraments. Through them, Christ himself accompanies people at every moment of their life.
When the Church baptizes, it is Christ who bestows the gift of new life. In the sacrament of Reconciliation, it is Christ who grants the forgiveness of God through the priest who says to us in his behalf “I absolve you.” That is why in the Eucharist, the priests do not say, “This is his Body.” Instead they boldly yet humbly, relying on the promise of Christ himself to remain with us until the end of time, proclaim: “This is my Body.” We celebrate these sacraments neither of our own accord nor by ourselves but always in his name and “through him, with him and in him”.
2.Sacraments are symbols of sacred things.
As humans, we need to hear and to feel love. Even among ourselves, we need to express and to show our love like when we send text messages or give gifts to our loved ones. The same is true of God who revealed his love “by words and deeds.” He designed for us a beautiful world to live in and gave us life. He established a Covenant with his chosen people, making known his plans to the Patriarchs and through the prophets, and showing his fidelity in his unfailing efforts to save them and lead them to himself. He showed his love most of all in His Son who by his Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection, revealed God’s love to us in all its fullness. This is the divine condescension or simply put, God’s way of reaching out to us for it is impossible for us to know his love without the aid of words and deeds.
The Church, as the sacrament of Christ, continues today through her sacraments, this revelation of God’s love through “words and deeds”. Sacraments as symbols make that love, which is otherwise invisible and beyond our grasp, heard and felt. Our immersion in and coming forth from waters of baptism outwardly expresses our inward sharing in the death of Christ and our rising to newness of life with him. In the sacrament of reconciliation, we hear only the words of the priest but it is God himself who bestows his forgiveness through his human instrument. In the Holy Eucharist, we see only bread and wine but we believe in faith, because Christ himself assured us so, that this is truly his Body and Blood, his gift of himself.
That is why in celebrating the sacraments, we need to take these signs seriously. Although they derive their effect primarily from the desire of God to communicate his saving love to us, our understanding and reverent execution of these signs will definitely help us to open ourselves more fully to his invisible action in our soul. When you will marry you husband or wife in the future, the sacrament will still have its full effect for as long as you satisfy the minimum requirements of the sacrament that is, that you truly love each other and express that commitment by proclaiming your vows before the Church. But knowing the meaning of and paying close attention to the signs, such as the joining of your right hands, not only brings out their great richness and beauty but also makes you experience more fully and enter more deeply the profound union that you will now live out together in Christ. (And that is why our study of the sacraments is very important!)
For those of you who read or serve at Mass, do you utmost to give justice to these holy signs. Proclaim the word of God as clearly as you can so it can more effectively penetrate the hearts of his people. Handle the things of the Lord with all reverence and devotion so that his people may be better led to pray and worship.
There is a movement today, popular among youth, called “I am Ninoy/ I am Cory.” The whole idea is to continue the legacy of these great Filipinos by concrete, even if small acts of heroism today. The sacraments also invite us to continue the work of Christ today. But there is something more here because it is Christ himself who continues his work in us. We are his living body, the signs of his love for the world. Most importantly therefore, all of us, as members of the Church that is the sacrament of Christ, need to be authentic signs and to signify by our every word and action, both within and outside the liturgy, the love of God in Jesus Christ.
3.There are seven sacraments.
Just to make sure that this wider, more basic notion is clear to you by now, let us take another look at the relationship between love and its signs. The most important expression of love is the person of the lover himself who shows love by his or her very self. Now that is rather abstract and too general so the lover needs to make use, as we said, of concrete and specific words and deeds, like text messages or gifts. In this case, God is the Lover and his revelation of his very self in Christ is the basic sacrament which continues in the Church. Concretely and specifically, the Church reveals the love of God through her words and deeds, which we also call sacraments. Why then do we speak in particular of “seven sacraments”?
The Council of Trent fixed the number at seven in reaction to some Protestants who denied the other sacraments and acknowledged only Baptism and Eucharist. Although this numeration is the result of historical circumstances, it is not without significance. Among the words and gestures that manifest love, there are some that stand out more than the others because of their solemnity and timeliness. We can say to our loved ones “I love you” on a regular basis but there are “I love you” moments that rise above the rest (like when you declare your love to your special someone for the first time?). The same is true of these seven special sacraments.
The Church has many ways of communicating the love of God to people. We do it by our service to the poor, which is a very important thing. In our family prayers and even our personal prayers, we truly encounter the God who loves us. At the same time, Mother Church, as a truly good mother, lovingly attaches particular importance to certain moments of our lives and accompanies us through these pivotal moments with specific sacraments. Baptism marks our entrance into the life of faith. Confirmation signals our attainment of maturity. Anointing of the Sick accompanies us in our struggle with old age and infirmity. Marriage and Orders put God’s seal on our life-charting commitments. In so doing, she makes them sacred, which means “set apart,” made special by no less than God’s sanctifying presence. Any man can say “I love you” to a woman and do it anytime. But when a groom says that to his bride as he proclaims his vows on the day of their marriage, it becomes an outstanding sign of his love in a most significant and very deep way. And God himself through the Church seals that commitment, making it his forever.
Apart from these “events”, there are also moments when we experience love in a truly special, even if more ordinary way. When you say “I love you” again to your parents after a long and serious misunderstanding, it is surely an “I love you” unlike any other. The same is true of more frequently received but no less sacred sacraments like Reconciliation. After hurting our relationship with God because of sin, we humbly express our love to him again. We experience the warm embrace of the father of the prodigal son and find ourselves home. Now that is a moment!
The Eucharist is the most special of these sacraments because it does not only mark “special moments” in our lives but makes every moment of our lives truly “special” that is, sacred, by uniting them with the life of Christ himself. Our weeks and years become marked not only by our own schedules and anniversaries but by the very life of Christ which we celebrate, and in which our celebration brings us to live and participate. In the Eucharist, we enter the life of Christ and Christ enters our life.
We may celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday or even everyday. Yet each time Christ not only repeats his great “I love you” to us, as though redundantly. He did that “once and for all” on the Cross! But in every Eucharist, we enter again and again into his sacrifice of love, the greatness and immensity of which we can never ever exhaust. And as often as we do so, he ever more deeply, ever increasingly, gives his very self to us, so we may grow in his love and his love may grow in us.
4.Sacraments confer grace.
Contrary to the impression some of us may get that we, even if as the Church, are the ones “performing” the sacraments, it is actually God who is the primary doer of the sacraments. God does not need our service but it is we who need God. In the Fourth Preface for Weekdays, we pray: “You have no need of our praise yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness but makes us grow in your grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Thus, we are not really the ones giving to God just as some of you may think because of the fees we are asked to contribute (these are actually not for God himself but the support of the ministers and other expenses of the community.) In return for our meager gifts, it is God who confers grace on us. O happy exchange!Sacraments do not just accompany us in our lives. They also produce an effect in us which is called grace. Grace here is more than those things that we usually ask from God in prayer like passing an exam or healing for a sick relative. It is even more than particular “graces” we can ask while receiving a specific sacrament like a deep sense of responsibility as we receive confirmation or becoming a good spouse and parent in marriage. Grace here is best understood as our participation in the life of God or more simply put, our relationship of love with him. Grace is first given in Baptism, which is the beginning of our life in and relationship with God. From there, it continues to grow with us and in us throughout our lives. (These two may seem different but they actually express aspects of the same truth.)
Grace grows with us. Most of us are baptized as infants and our way of living out our relationship with God must obviously grow as we advance in age. Even for those who were baptized as adults, there should always be some growth as one progresses in the Christian life. Thus with Confirmation, we begin to live this grace as mature individuals. As we enter into Marriage or Holy Orders, we live this grace in the specific context of married life or ordained ministry. Anointed at the coming of old age or infirmity, which are particularly trying moments of our life, we live this grace in heroic trust and sacrifice. Grace, which increases in us as we receive the various sacraments enables us to live our vocation according to our state in life. Sacraments therefore help us to grow in holiness as we go through life’s stages.
Grace also grows in us. Here, grace may be likened to a seed, which is initially planted in our souls at Baptism. For it to live and grow, to blossom and to bear fruit in us, we need to cooperate with God. The sacraments therefore are ways for us to constantly reconnect with him so that the plant that is our relationship with him may not wither but thrive to fruition. The sacraments act like the water, the sun and the soil and thus provide the refreshment, energy and support that we need to grow in the spiritual life. They continually sustain and nourish our relationship with God.
However, sacraments do not operate automatically. “It always takes two to tango,” as in any relationship. Although God himself and his desire to give his grace to us, guarantees their effectivity, we need to dispose ourselves to receive them worthily and celebrate them actively. For even if God is the one who bestows and maintains grace, we need to cooperate with him by opening ourselves freely and fully to his action and trying to minimize blocks and obstacles that come only from us like sin. It is also not enough to limit our life of grace to the sacraments or the spiritual life. We must also let this grace that we receive through them to overflow, permeate and transform the totality of our lives, even the lives of those we meet everyday. We must use, take care of and share the grace we receive through the sacraments.
5.Three sacraments confer a character
(For the teacher: According to Osborne, we do not know exactly what the character is, only that there is such a character. He therefore discourages us from speculating on what the character “is”. But since this Primer is a catechetical material, it seems necessary to offer some basic ideas because the students will almost always ask about the “what.”)
Three sacraments in particular produce a unique and abiding change in us, which is called character: Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders.
These sacraments produce a unique change in us, accompanied by mission.
Baptism transforms us, to use Biblical imagery, from being “no people” into God’s priestly, royal and prophetic people. We become no longer just children of our parents but children of God, truly belonging to him. Just as in the story of Harry Potter, the sacrificial love of his mother marked him for life, Baptism is the hallmark of our distinctly “Christian” identity as God’s beloved in Christ.
Confirmation, the extension sacrament of Baptism, also has the same effect. This second anointing, in affirmation of the first, strengthens us in our identity that we are Christ’s and Christ’s forever. It thus reminds us—usually in what is for most us, a crucial time of identity-building called adolescence—that our truest identity and therefore our mission in life is in our belonging to him.
Holy Orders has a similar effect on bishops, priests and deacons. Through the laying on of the bishop’s hands, they are incorporated permanently into the sacred orders. This signals change not only in their rank or dignity (for in truth, we are all equally children of God in baptism) but marks them out forever for specific roles of service in the Church. They are no longer their own persons, belonging to their own families, and justly pursuing their individual needs. Instead, they now belong to the entire Christian community and they are to look after not only themselves and their needs but the entire family and flock of God.
These sacraments produce an abiding change in us that lasts, even despite us.
They leave an “indelible mark” on the soul. In previous elections, you may have heard about the use of what is called indelible ink, which stays for some time but fades in a week or so. But this indelible mark that the sacrament imprints last a lifetime and that is why these sacraments cannot be repeated.
Through Baptism and Confirmation we gain our identity as children of God—truly his and his forever—even if sadly, we do not always measure up to this deep truth. Through Holy Orders, the sacred ministers radically become servants of God and the Church even if unfortunately, the lifestyles of a number of them as you may have heard of in the news, do not make the grade.
This doctrine may sound highly technical but it is actually very significant because it affirms a very important truth of our faith: God remains and will always remain faithful in his love for us, despite all these tragic and disheartening realities. He is not an “indian-giver.” He does not withdraw a character already bestowed. He does not take away a grace already given. He does not revoke his constant invitation to a uniquely personal relationship with him.Thus, even with sin, there is always hope of return and conversion. His abiding and unconditional love for us, his people and his ministers, far outstrip our infidelity. It transforms us for ever.
6.God’s action in the sacraments does not depend on the intention or probity of the ministers.
As we have repeatedly affirmed, the effectivity of the sacraments is guaranteed not by our worthiness or disposition, or by our doings and efforts but by God’s own saving action and unconditional love. Hence, even if the ministers are unworthy and unfit, even if completely unworthy and unfit as when they are in mortal sin, God is still able to communicate grace to the gathered assembly through the sacraments where they preside. So while it is truly tragic if the minister himself will not be open to the work of grace, he remains a channel of grace to many people, not because of himself but even despite himself—because of God’s merciful love. Sacraments at which he presides will remain valid, i.e. effective for those who are properly disposed to receive the grace that flows from then. If we can only make those priests realize what they’re missing! We must pray often for their conversion.
On a wider level, ministers here may be more widely understood not only as referring to the ordained ministers but to all of us. After all, it is ultimately Christ and the entire Church who celebrate the sacraments as one priestly people, which includes all of us and not just the ordained ministers. Here on the one hand is the assurance that God will continue to bestow his grace but it bears a strong reminder as well that if we truly desire to receive the grace of the sacrament in its fullness, we personally need to be open and receptive to his actions and not obstruct them.
Nothing can hinder God from his desire of communicating grace to us except our personal freedom to reject it which he himself has given to us so that our response to him may be authentic and not out of coercion or matter-of-fact. The sacraments too do not work just by coercion or matter of fact. Even if they always remain valid when carried out properly according to the mind of the Church, it is important to come to them freely as well as worthily, not being forced or out of mere obligation.
For this, the Second Vatican Council wisely declared that “something more” is required in the celebration than just validity and proper execution. More positively, we must concern ourselves with how we can BEST celebrate the sacraments and benefit from the grace they confer by participating in them as actively, as fully and as worthily as we can. Participation here means more than just singing or standing during the liturgy but also implies an attitude of co-operation, involving our whole mind, heart and strength, with God’s steadfast efforts to lead us to salvation.
But who among us is completely worthy? The Psalmist asks: “Who can climb the mountain of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place?” None among us I believe, can ever lay claim to being the blameless one. Hence our attitude towards the sacraments must not be one of fear and paranoia, like some who even avoid receiving communion even if they only have venial sin, but of faith and confidence in God’s love merciful. One of my students confided to me his experience of learning about the sacrifices his parents were making despite his rebellious attitude. This realization turned his fear of his parents into love. So should it be with us when we realize the great generosity of God to us, especially in the sacraments.
Here we realize that the sacraments are truly signs of God’s love, truly gifts of his unconditional love. If we are given a “gift” because we are worthy or we “earn” it, it is no longer a gift but a reward. A gift is always given freely, without ifs and buts. Christ alone is the perfect and blameless sacrament. We, the Church despite our flaws and failures, remain a sacrament only because of Christ. The sacraments too despite our unworthiness remain sacraments because of his unfailing love.
7.The Teaching of the Church
The Church, through her official teaching, which is technically called Magisterium, carefully puts order to the celebration of the sacraments. This order is meant to foster our active, prayerful and joyful participation in the celebration but not to hamper it. The lack of order, even in a school program for example, causes the people to be distracted and disoriented. In the liturgy, the lack of order also makes it difficult to attain an atmosphere conducive to prayer and encounter with God. However, too much emphasis on order can cause people to become rigid and stiff, spoiling their experience of the sacrament, which then becomes a chore rather than a celebration. Order should create harmony and not stifle the joy of the Spirit in us.
Those of you who are quite active in church will know that liturgy and sacraments, particularly the question of how they are supposed to be celebrated, can sometimes (even oftentimes!) be a highly contentious and alienating topic among believers. Ironically, these sacraments, especially the Eucharist, which are supposed to express and strengthen our unity in Christ, can sometimes become the unhappy source of our division! This even leads to the point when lectors and altar servers would flinch and quiver during the Mass for fear of committing mistakes, robbing them of the sure sign of the Spirit which is peace and joy. That is why I would emphasize to our lectors and servers in Xavier School whenever I would prepare them for their tasks, the summons of the Psalmist: “Serve the Lord with gladness!”
We must always remember that the sacraments belong to the Church, to all of us. They reflect and contain what we believe in and value most as Christians. Thus, we should not tinker with the rites based only on our personal preference or ingenuity. For example, in preparing the rites for a marriage (some of you may become wedding planners in the future!), we must follow faithfully what the Church does. We should not invent our own vows or come up with supposedly “unique”, but often turning out to be silly additions, to what is an already rich and meaningful ritual that is offered to us. The sacraments are ecclesial celebrations and do not need to be “personalized.” The principle here is always to be one with the Church in the celebration of her sacraments for it is only when these sacraments are truly hers can they become our sacraments as believers.
The Church’s teaching on sacraments reflects her attitude of care and reverence towards them. All this, because we truly believe that the sacraments are signs of God’s love, gifts of God’s love. When one is grateful for the gift and even more importantly, deeply values the giver of the gift, he treasures and cultivates the gift with the same love with which it was given.
We end with some lines from an ancient Eucharistic Prayer (of Addai and Mari) that beautifully captures what we do in the sacraments and how we must do them:
And we too, Lord, your weak, frail and lowly servants, who have gathered and are standing before you at this moment, we have received from tradition the rite that has its origin in you. We rejoice and give you glory, we exalt and commemorate, we praise and celebrate, this great and awesome mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the deacon says: Be silent and reverent. Pray! Peace be with you.
In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs... (SC 7)
The signs speak for themselves when they are carried out fully and sincerely. For example, Anointing with Chrism should not be reduced to mere smearing. A good liturgy is one that brings out the innate beauty of the signs by doing them in just the right measure--neither overdoing nor understating them.
How beautiful the hands that serve.
Anointing of the hands of the newly ordained.
Presbyteral Ordination last September 25, 2010 at the Manila Cathedral.
Deacons serve at the bishop's side.
The Eucharistic prayer
Diaconate Ordination last October 2, 2010 in San Jose Seminary.
Must We Bring Back the Magic of the Medieval Mass?
Must We Bring Back the Magic of the Medieval Mass?
Leo R. Ocampo
Churchgoers today complain of a palpable loss of the “sense of the sacred.” In their efforts to purify the rites of medieval accretions and superstitions, did the reformers who implemented the liturgical vision of the Second Vatican Council drive out the Holy Spirit from the liturgy? Pope Benedict XVI, through his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, attempted, among other reasons, to address this problem by extending the use of the Tridentine Mass. Will this return to the pre-conciliar liturgy really solve the problem?
The Tridentine Liturgy traces its development to the fusion of the Roman liturgy with Franco-Germanic culture in the 8th century. Pepin the Short (751-768) and his son Charlemagne after him (774-814), desiring to reinforce political unity through liturgical uniformity, sought to impose the Roman rite throughout the empire. But when Charlemagne received, as he requested, a pure (immixtum) copy of the Sacramentary being used in Rome from Pope Hadrian I, he was disappointed to find out that it did not contain the desired formularies for funerals, blessings, and devotions very popular among his Gallican subjects. The Roman way of celebrating liturgy did not exactly correspond to the culture where it was being transposed. Romanitas, characterized by austere sobriety, simplicity and functionality, contrasted starkly with Franco-Germanic culture which was profusely sentimental, melodramatic, and elaborate. He then commissioned Benedict of Aniane (+821) to prepare a supplement and henceforth, Gallican customs would merge with the original Roman liturgy.
The Franco-Germanic peoples at that time already possessed a very strong, even graphic “sense of the sacred” to begin with. Their spirituality was based on a worldview where good and bad spirits battled for domination over the human person who was caught between these forces as a sinner unworthy to stand before God. This translated to a liturgy replete with minute rituals, mostly exorcisms, as well as apologiae in the form of deep bows and whispered deprecatory prayers stressing the unworthiness of the priest. Naturally, the Mass began to exude a more hieratic ambience and was then thought to produce miraculous effects, leading to some becoming obsessed with viewing the host at the elevation. Indeed by the time of the Renaissance, some believed that “during the time one hears Mass one does not grow older... after hearing Mass, one’s food tastes better; one will not die a sudden death; the souls in Purgatory will not have to suffer while one is hearing Mass for them.”[1]
In a desire to guarantee these effects, great emphasis was accordingly given to the precise execution of the rites. The words of consecration, in Latin, were especially thought to possess magical powers and there were even attempts to borrow them (hocus pocus) for occult use. Participation of the laity also decreased dramatically during this period, giving way to the priest, who alone was believed to possess the power to “confect” the Eucharist, which he received through the anointing of hands at ordination. In their desire to appropriate the “fruits” of the Mass for themselves and their loved ones, including the deceased, lay people would offer stipends to have numerous Masses said for them. Some went as far as building private chapels and endowing numerous benefices for priests to continue having Masses said for them even after death. Furthermore, this liturgical mindset would result in other curious liturgical practices such as private Masses, the Missa quadrifaciata, “altarist” priests like those of Cluny, Gregorian masses for the dead, privileged altars and others.
Meanwhile in Rome, increasing decadence invaded ecclesial life as Popes became more and more preoccupied with the temporal administration of the Papal States, global politics, and the highly secular lifestyle that went with it. John XII, perhaps the worst of these Popes, was accused by his own clergy of simoniacal ordinations—including that of a mere ten year-old boy, of gifting prostitutes with sacred vessels and of making the Lateran basilica and its adjoining palace “a brothel” rather than a temple. These accusations were highly emblematic of his mundane inclinations, which led to the neglect of the liturgy.
Otto I (951-973) discovered this when he went to Rome to be crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 962. Hence, in the following year, he brought with him to Rome a team of archbishops and bishops to promote liturgical reform among other reforms in line with his overall agenda of Renovatio Imperii. As part of their political strategy, the Ottonians also lodged Germans into the Petrine See from 1046-1057: Clement II, Damasus II, Leo IX, Victor II and Stephen IX. These Popes celebrated the liturgy according to the Gallican form, which they knew. With the absence of scriptoria in Rome to produce its own liturgical books, Gregory V (996-999) commissioned the Cluniac monks of Reichenau to regularly furnish him liturgical books in exchange for ecclesiastical immunity. Thus, the Franco-Germanic liturgy found its way back home with all its trappings and became standard Roman usage.
Sporadically, there were efforts in Rome to return to their original way of celebrating the liturgy and to purify it from Franco-Germanic influences. In the 11th century, Gregory VII, who was Roman by birth, called for the simplification of the rites in accordance with the regula sanctorum patrum. His initiative was carried on by liturgists and their success is reflected in the Roman Pontifical of the 12th century, where flourishes such as secondary rites that were primarily didactic as well as elements offensive to Roman sensibility including the Mass for energumens and the blessing of torture instruments were excluded.
But further than this, the Franco-Germanic influence proved very hard to shake off and it would spread even further with the publication of the Missale Curiae during the time of Pope Innocent III. Originally, the Missal was intended as a portable liturgical book that came with a similar Pontifical and Breviary, for the members of the Roman Curia, who functioned as an itinerant administrative body. The newly founded Order of Franciscans however, who were close to Roman Curia, requested to adopt it also and soon spread it in effect along their missionary routes. The inculturated Franco-Germanic liturgy, as contained in these Missals, thus extended further around the world—and not without its superfluous accretions and accompanying superstitions. These abuses would help launch the Reformation.
Thus, the liturgical agenda of the Council of Trent (16th century) was actually to get rid of this undesired clutter and recover the pristina sanctorum patrum norma in line with the previous attempt of Pope Gregory VII. However, the lack of ancient liturgical manuscripts would only allow the reformers to return to sources no earlier than the fifth century. Hence, its success was very limited although not insubstantial: among others, the magical treatment of the consecrated host was eliminated, stipends and private Masses were regulated, and some superstitious practices such as fixed Masses were abolished. Nevertheless, it was the Council’s universal imposition of liturgical uniformity that would possess the greatest impact. It would prove lapidary in the solidification of this way of doing liturgy, which, despite the various attempts to reform it, by and large remained medieval in ethos.
The Second Vatican Council, thanks to the recovery of ancient liturgical sources, would succeed more than any of its predecessors in recovering the ancient Roman liturgy. Yet by this time, the Mass of Trent had already acquired an air of tradition and universality, reflected in the continuing polemic which subtly labels the post-conciliar Order of Mass as “Novus Ordo” despite its basis on more ancient tradition, as opposed to what they call the “Mass of the Ages” or simply, the “Traditional Mass.” In fact, some groups like the Lefebvrists would go as far as rejecting the liturgy of the Council and denying its validity, thereby separating themselves from the mainstream Church. Pope John Paul II thus allowed the celebration of the Tridentine Mass on a limited basis in 1984 while Pope Benedict XVI finally liberalized its use, albeit calling it the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite in 2007.
More and more people, especially in Europe and the United States, are availing of this license from Summorum Pontificum in their longing for the “sense of the sacred.” Even here in the Philippines, we have begun to see, although still on a limited basis, the return of the Tridentine Mass as well as “Neo-Tridentinisms” even in the celebration of the reformed rites such as the revival of ad orientem, the reemphasis on surviving apologiae and the use of Latin in liturgy. So the question we have is truly urgent: “Will this movement really address our hunger for the presence of God?” Our brief historical survey offers some considerations.
The Mass of the Council of Trent is not after all the “Mass of the Ages,” as if it has always been so even in the time of Christ as some artistic representations from that period suggest, but is the product of historical evolution. Further on, this historical project, as we have seen, failed essentially in its express and consistent objective of promoting the pure Roman liturgy, resulting instead in its accidental fusion with Franco-Germanic culture. And while Gallican culture and its spirituality lent its inherent “sense of the sacred” to the originally sober and simple Roman liturgy through its elaborate and evocative rituals, we also realize that this medieval magic can actually lead not only to mysticism but also to superstition.
Furthermore, we notice here that the artificial transposition of liturgical practice to a different culture usually results in serious misalignment. The Carolingian attempt to impose romanitas in Gaul, for the extrinsic agenda of political expediency did not work as planned. Instead, it backfired and resulted in the loss of romanitas even in the liturgy of Rome itself until its final recovery by the Second Vatican Council. We seriously wonder then whether the return of the Tridentine Mass to our modern liturgical assemblies would really bring to us that “sense of the sacred” deeply connatural with the medieval ethos yet so patently absent not only in our liturgies today but also in our society at large. Or would it backfire in the long run?
Must we therefore try to bring back the magic of the medieval Mass or look somewhere other than ritual into the roots of this loss of the “sense of God”? †
Sources
Bokenkotter, Thomas. A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Doubleday Publishing, New York. (1990).
Chupungco, Anscar, OSB, ed. Handbook for Liturgical Studies Vol. I: Introduction to the Liturgy. Liturgical Press, Collegeville. (1997).
Kocik, Thomas. The Reform of the Reform?. Ignatius Press, San Francisco. (2003).
[1] J. Jungmann. The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development. (Dublin 1986) I: 129, note 10. quoted by Keith Pecklers, SJ in his article “History of the Roman Liturgy from the Sixteenth until the Twentieth Centuries” in A. Chupungco, OSB. Handbook for Liturgical Studies. (Collegeville, 1997) p. 154.
Leo is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Manila in San Jose Major Seminary. He is currently in his second year of theological studies at the Loyola School of Theology in the Ateneo de Manila University.
Every weekend, he is involved in parish apostolate at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Makati City. He is also a Center Moderator for the Ateneo Catechetical Instruction League.
