Worth Revisiting - Lasting Gifts to God and to Ourselves - Part II

We thank Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with them and their followers.

Monday Musings - Lasting Gifts to God and to Ourselves - Part II

(Originally posted on March 11, 2019)

 

A few months ago, I shared some suggestions as to how we, as individuals, could approach Mass attendance differently and as a result receive greater graces and benefits from participating in the Holy Sacrifice.  If you missed that post, you can read it here. All the suggestions made in that article, were things we could do and which required no one's permission.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today's post offers another list of suggestions to reinstate a sense of the Sacred within our Churches and during Mass, to encourage greater Mass attendance, to increase reverence for and belief in Jesus's Real Presence among us, and to help others rediscover awe and amazement in the great gift of our Lord's physical presence  among us. 

Unlike the first post, all of the suggestions that follow will require the consent, catechesis and support of your pastor. Let us not be fearful in seeking such support. Those parishes who have engaged in this effort, have found their parish and members enriched.

None of these suggestions originated with this author: 

Instruct parishioners as to the proper manner of conducting themselves while in Church incorporating in such instruction the points highlighted in my first post.

Post signs at all entrances:

    THIS IS HOLY GROUND. REVERENT SILENCE IS THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN HERE.

Following the example of St. Teresa of Calcutta, post sign in sacristy:

O Priest, say this Mass as if it was your first Mass    
O Priest say this Mass as if it were your last Mass.

O Priest say this Mass as if were you only Mass

If not already positioned there, return the Tabernacle to the center of the Sanctuary directly behind the altar.

Reinstate male only altar servers.

Offer the Mass ad orientem, facing the tabernacle where the God we are worshiping resides, instead of facing the people, so that we all lift our prayers upwards to the heavens.

Use Latin During Mass: Kyrie Elison, Sanctus, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. 

Include Gregorian Chant as the primary form of sung hymns.

Install altar rails and/or kneelers.

Encourage parishioners to receive Holy Communion on the tongue and while kneeling.

Offer the Sacred Blood in the chalice on only rare occasions.

Use extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist on only those very rare occasions where the failure to do so will prolong the time needed to distribute Holy Communion.

When Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are utilized, they should not enter the sanctuary but remain outside where the altar rails are or should be and have our Lord brought down to them.

Play soft, meditative, instrumental music while Holy Communion is being distributed and for a reasonable time thereafter so receipients can properly adore and thank God for such a great gift. 

Offer a sung Communion hymn after this period of quiet reflection is over and before Father resumes the Mass.

Before the Recessional Hymn, all kneel to recite the Prayer to Michael the Archangel. 

Exit the nave of the Church at the end of Mass in silence.

Explain and offer the Traditional Latin Mass periodically.