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September 15, 2017This past Tuesday, our Worship Leadership Team celebrated sung Evening Prayer, also known as The Liturgy of the Hours. We were praying over this coming Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew 18: 21-35, and during the time of faith sharing, one of the members exclaimed with great enthusiasm, “What if everyone in the world were to heed this call to forgiveness? Even if sometimes, the recipient of our plea isn’t open to what we are saying, but we still need to persist.” Yes! We are reminded to 'Go forth, gloryifying the Lord by our lives!" at the end of our liturgies. Spreading God’s love is hard work, sometimes, but day by day, sometimes minute by minute, we persist.
As we read this Sunday’s gospel passage, we receive a lesson about how we are to share God’s mercy and forgiveness. Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. Ok, so basically we are asked to forgive our sisters and brothers always. We must remain thankful that God doesn’t put a limit on how much we are loved!!
Each day, we have a new chance to say thank you to God for all that we have been given. Through our own private prayer life, we can certainly begin and end the day by recognizing the abundant presence of Christ in our lives. We are also called to pray together, as we celebrate the liturgy and we give thanks and praise for all that God has done for us. Actually, the word liturgy, derived from the technical term in ancient Greek (Greek: λειτουργία), leitourgia, which literally means "work of the people" is a literal translation of the two words "litos ergos" or "public service".
The liturgy is ‘expertly’ arranged so that it is a communal act of prayer, together with our presider. Throughout this coming year, you will continue to hear about The Year of the Eucharist, making the Sunday Mass a priority and receiving the fuel we need to go forth and share what we have heard. We will feature weekly bulletin and online reflections about the Mass. As our diocese celebrates 150 years, we will focus on what we know as ‘the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10)
The Worship Leadership Team(WLT) is committed to the vision of assisting all ages to ‘fully conscious and active participation’ at our Mass. We strive to help others recognize the giftedness and holiness of each person and assist them in living out their baptismal call. In this Year of the Eucharist, we are studying the Mass in a deeper way as a team and welcome all who would like to join us. We are also taking a closer look at our worship experience and finding ways that we can improve how we recognize the presence of Christ among us and how we, as a parish, take the message of God’s love and mercy to all.
Here are some concrete ways that individual members of the WLT are living out their faith and sharing God’s love with others: involving their whole family in liturgy preparation and involvement, learning more about the mass and teaching others, team building with others involved in liturgy preparation, leading prayer in small groups, extraordinary ministers of holy communion at Mass and to the homebound, lectors; proclaiming the Word of God, greeters, information ministers, ambassadors to welcome new parishioners; helping them to find ways of parish involvement, working with the RCIA Team, Caring Hearts - homemade cards to homebound and grieving families, knitting ministry – hats, blankets, prayer shawls for all ages, catechist for elementary age children, and so much more.
As Bishop Salvatore Matano shares in his Pastoral Letter on the Eucharist, “But the Christ of the Eucharist has not left us orphans; He has called us by name. Our Lord has extended the invitation: “Come to me all you who find life burdensome, and I will refresh your souls!” (Matthew 11:28). As a diocesan family, let us respond to Christ’s invitation and open our hearts to Him present in the gift eternal, the gift of life, the Most Holy Eucharist, as we pray: “Grant, O Lord, we pray, that we may delight for all eternity in that share in your divine life, which is foreshadowed in the present age by our reception of your precious Body and Blood. Who live and reign for ever and ever.” (Prayer after Communion, Solemnity
of Corpus Christi).
“How can we bring God’s love to others? How can we better understand our role in the building up of the kingdom of God? Let us know if we can help you on your journey of faith! See you in church!
More information on the Worship Leadership Team? Start here: http://sjcpenfield.com/vision-leadership-team-1
