Liturgical Balance

Ella and James Preece are a Catholic couple living in Kingston Upon Hull in Yorkshire in the UK. This is our blog.

NOTICE: CHANGE OF WEB HOST

If you can read this then I have successfully finished moving my blog to my new hosting company. There will almost certainly be bugginess somewhere - please let me know if you see any!

Blogged by Ella Preece on 14th July 2010

“The liturgy is the celebration of the mystery of Christ and in particular his paschal mystery. Through the exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ the liturgy manifests in signs and brings about the sanctification of humankind. The public worship which is due to God is offered by the Mystical Body of Christ, that is but his head and by it's members”

As we can see in the quote from the compendium above there are three important elements which are required for liturgy to take place, these shown in the diagram below:

Liturgical Balance

The Congregation are the lay faithful who are attending the event or liturgy.

The Ordained Ministry are those who have taken the vocation of Holy Orders and Priests or those of Religious Orders (note: some religious orders have lay members - see the comment by Ludolphus below).

The Rite is the way the Church instructs how the celebration should be carried out. For example, there are rites of the celebration of the Mass, rites for the celebration of the Sacraments but there are also rites for liturgies outside the Mass.

It is interesting to note that there are four main types of rite Roman, Antiochian (Syria), Alexandrian (Egypt) and Byzantine. It is from these four that over 20 different rites have derived.

Update: Thanks to Ludolphus and Joseph Shaw for the comments below. I do appreciate criticism when it helps make things more accurate.

Rate this blogentry:+-

This Item Tagged With:

Reader Comments

Ludolphus said...

"The Ordained Ministry are those who have taken the vocation of Holy Orders and Priests or those of Religious Orders."

Care needed here:

Religious brothers in say the Jesuits are not neither Priests or Deacons - their vocation is to assist the Priests of the Order. So they are religious but also lay rather than clergy.

One can be a secular priest or if one is a Jesuit priest one is a Religious Priest.

NB: St Benedict of Nursia and St Francis of Assisi were not priests.

Richard Reeves said...

Ludolphus why are you are always so critical of Ella's wonderful reflections? I find them very helpful. I thought St Francis was a deacon, and as such in Holy Orders.

Mark Dobson said...

Yes, I’ve often wondered the same thing. Perhaps you are not really so very critical (in the unpleasant sense of the term), but it’s easy to come across badly on the web.

Correcting errors is a good thing, but I don’t think that Ella is some kind of heresiarch, so perhaps thinking a little more about tone would be a good idea.

Mark Dobson said...

Scratch that – I was thinking about previous comments without looking at this thread. The tone is perfectly suitable here.

Sorry!

-1

Ludolphus said...

Dear Richard Reeves,

Here I am inviting them to change their article to make it more accurate.

Many people, even Catholics, do not know who are clergy, clerics and who are lay and religious. Ella has made a mistake that many Catholics make.

Ted said...

Ludolphus, just a quick question.

Do all Catholic clergy/ clerics/ religious know who they are?

Joseph Shaw said...

Thanks for this Ella.

I'm not sure of the source of your idea that 'lay faithful who are attending the event or liturgy' is one of the three 'important elements'; the Compendium doesn't say this. What are we to make of priests saying private Masses?

The important thing is that even a Mass without any congregation is still offered by the Mystical Body of Christ, and is offered for the sanctification of mankind.

Ella said...

Hi Joseph,

I suppose arguably at a private Mass the congregation is the heavenly congregation that is present.

Joseph Shaw said...

Exactly. The whole Mystical Body is present.

The laity physically present are part of the Mystical Body, and their participation is in virtue of that fact: the Sacrifice is offered by the whole Church, by the whole Mystical Body.

So Masses without congregations may not be having much pastoral effect, but they are not in any way liturgically defective.

The Cellarer said...

http://www.byzantinecatholic.com/Supplement2.htm

A Byzantine Catholic parish's chart of 'The Particular Churches of Christendom'

Mark Dobson said...

A diagram? You’re not thinking about becoming an evangelical are you?

(If so, you need more bullet points and alliteration!)

Ella said...

Well they do have good music... maybe I could write my next entry with alliteration that seems fun. Then the youth's will be interested! It's win win.

Thanks Mark!

Mark Dobson said...

Well, if you like that kind of thing...

Always a pleasure :)

Go on, boo me you random killjoy!

To the Blessed Virgin Prayer for England

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy "Dowry" and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee.

By thee it was that Jesus our Saviour and our hope was given unto the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more.

Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross.

O sorrowful Mother! intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold they may be united to the supreme Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son.

Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee, in our heavenly home.

Amen.

Couple's Prayer

O God, our heavenly Father, protect and bless us. Deepen and strengthen our love for each other day by day.

Grant that by thy mercy, neither of us may ever say one unkind word to the other. Forgive and correct our faults, and make us constantly to forgive one another should one of us unconsciously hurt the other.

Make us and keep us sound and well in body, alert in mind, tender in heart, and devout in spirit. O Lord, grant us each to rise to the other's best. Then, we pray thee, add to our common life such virtues as only thou canst give.

And so, O Father, consecrate our life and love completely to thy worship, and to the service of all about us, especially those whom thou hast appointed us to serve, that we may always stand before thee in happiness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Disclaimers

Content Disclaimer

The contents of this website and blog are provided for your personal use only. No warranty or guarantee is provided as to the accuracy or suitability of the information and materials found on these pages. Any information posted may contain inaccuracies or errors and no liability for any such inaccuracies or errors is accepted by the author. Your use of this website and blog is entirely at your own risk and the author accepts no liability. Links to external websites are provided for your convenience and do not signify endorsement of the linked content. No responsibility is accepted for the content of external website.

Comments Disclaimer

Comments on this blog are unmoderated and the presence of a comment cannot be interpreted as meaning that I approve of that comment. I reserve the absolute right to remove at any time without explanation any comment posted on this blog. I do not accept any legal responsibility for the content of any comment unless I have refused to delete the comment following a complaint that I have expressly determined to be invalid. Any such complaint must be in writing and set out in full the grounds for the deletion of the comment. They should be sent to james@lovingit.co.uk Furthermore, any such complaint will only be accepted if made from an open email address that clearly identifies the person making the complaint. For purposes of verification, any complaint must also contain both telephone and postal contact details for the complainant. I shall reply to any such complaint within 7 days confirming what will be done with the comment objected to.

Images Disclaimer

All images and photography on this blog are the property of the author except where stated. Credited images are used under license or with permission or under the fair dealing provisions of copyright law (e.g. for the purposes of criticism or review). If you are the owner or the licensor of an image on this blog and you believe I have misused your image please contact me. Furthermore, any such complaint will only be accepted if made from an open email address that clearly identifies the person making the complaint. For purposes of verification, any complaint must also contain both telephone and postal contact details for the complainant. I shall reply to any such complaint within 7 days confirming what will be done with the disputed image or photography.

Catholic and Loving it!