Serratelli on the sacred, part 3

The Most Reverend Arthur J. Serratelli continues his four part series on the sacred reflecting on the Eucharist as the "sacred adventure of life." Says His Excellency:

Christ who will come again at the end of time comes to us in every Eucharist. This eschatological aspect makes the Eucharist an event that draws us up into heaven. Thus, the Eucharist fills our life journey with hope. In every Eucharist, we enter the Holy of Holies, the Body of Christ, and we are sanctified (cf. Heb 90:11-14). The Eucharist is the privileged place where life becomes sacred. The Eucharist makes our life a sacred adventure of ever-deepening communion with God.

Serratelli on the sacred, part 2

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Arthur J. Serratelli, continues his teachings on the sacred in the second installment of his four part series. If you missed the first part, you really should give it a read.

"The Liturgy of the Church is a moment where all the dimensions of our lives come before the living God," said the Bishop of Patterson. "It is the place where we have an active encounter with God. It is the place, therefore, where we can rediscover the sacred in our lives."

We might well ask how many people today are aware of the presence of God Almighty within the church building? There is a great need for a renewal of the awareness of the sacred and His Excellency is helping us recover it.

Certain settings demand their own particular etiquette. Dress at a wedding reception differs from dress at a sports event. Conversation in a bar is louder than in a funeral home. The more we realize we are coming into the Presence of God in Church, the more respectful and reverent our whole person becomes. Chewing gum in Church, loud talking, beach attire and immodest dress simply do not belong!

In church, we need to cultivate a sense of God who is present to us. This is why we are called to observe moments of silence. Both before Mass begins and during Mass. Liturgy is much more than our joining together. It is our opening ourselves to God. By our singing and praying, we respond to the God who addresses us in Liturgy. A constant torrent of words and songs filling every empty space in the Liturgy does not leave the heart the space it needs to rest quietly in the Divine Presence. [more]

Bishop Serratelli's words are timely and much needed. Keep it up, good Bishop!

Kudos to Bishop Seratelli

Ever so slowly the tide is turning. Each day, if one looks properly, the signs are readily apparent.

As just one more example, the Most Reverend Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Patterson, has recently begun a series of articles exploring the "loss and the recovery of the sense of the sacred in Catholic life."

His Excellency says:

Even within the most sacred precincts of the Church, we witness a loss of the sense of the sacred. With the enthusiasm that followed the Second Vatican Council, there was a well-intentioned effort to make the liturgy modern. It became commonplace to say that the liturgy had to be relevant to the worshipper. Old songs were jettisoned. The guitar replaced the organ. Some priests even began to walk down the road of liturgical innovation, only to discover it was a dead end. And all the while, the awareness of entering into something sacred that has been given to us from above and draws us out of ourselves and into the mystery of God was gone. [more]

This first installment is quite good; do read it in its totality. Fr. Z. adds his own comments here.

It is interesting to compare Bishop Serratelli's thoughts with those of Bishop Trautman.