The Final Word

Volume 18, Issue 12 

Volume 18, Issue 11 

Each year, on the 29th of June, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul. The Gospels for this day focus on the ministry of Peter. At the Vigil Mass we read about Peter’s great commission from the Lord from the Gospel of St John: “Feed my sheep.” (Jn 21:16) At the Mass for the day, we read the famous promise of our Lord to Peter from the Gospel of St Matthew: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.” (Mt 16:18)

Of course, as Catholics, we are well aware that this commission and promise applied not only to Peter himself, but to his successors in the Church, the bishops of Rome.

Volume 18, Issue 10

Of all the things taught by the Second Vatican Council about the Eucharist, perhaps the two most often remembered are that the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit’ of the Church’s mission and that there should be a ‘full, conscious and active participation’ by the laity in the celebration of the liturgy.

Ever since the Council, this second statement about the ‘active’ participation of the laity in the Eucharist has been repeatedly misinterpreted. There has been a huge change in our culture, so that the visible has come to be valued over the invisible, and activity has been prized above restfulness and silence. ‘Active participation’ used to suggest outward busy-ness rather than an interior reality expressed with heart and voice focused on the profound mystery of our meeting with our God.

Volume 18, Issue 9

The occasion of the annual feast of Pentecost gives me the opportunity in this, the third part of my reflection upon Pope Benedict XVI’s Post-Synodal Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, to reflect upon the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist.

    1. The Holy Spirit Guides the Development of the Liturgy
There have been many changes in the 40 years since the Second Vatican Council to the way in which the Mass is celebrated in the Catholic Church. Where the liturgical norms have been faithfully observed (the phrase the
Holy Father favours is “with docility!”) these changes have been enriching for the life of the Church and have borne great fruit.