Let's Pray More Than One Hour A Week
In the Jan. 10 issue of The Message, I wrote about the similarities between the Advent/Christmas Season and the initial RCIA Inquiry Stage. It is my belief that Catholics who celebrate the Church’s feasts with faith and active participation are spiritually renewed – just as our new members experience God’s grace during the four stages of the RCIA.
This is not to say that Catholics do not need to participate in continuing Adult Faith Classes, Small Faith Sharing groups, or take part in the RCIA. My point is that the RCIA’s goal is to help our new members live as the Lord’s disciples and to lead them into the Church’s worship (par 76). In the church’s worship, they, with us, will find their faith continually deepened.
This week, I want to begin connecting the Catechumenate – the RCIA’s second stage – with the Church’s Ordinary Time. The Catechumenate is to continue for one full year for the unbaptized. (In the Church’s early years, the catechumenate lasted three years. Of course, they were real sinners back then and needed real conversion from the sinful values of their society!)
The Catechumenate may be compared to the Church’s Ordinary Time. “Ordinary Time” doesn’t mean that “nothing special is happening” in the Church. Every Sunday is called a “little Easter” as we gather to remember the Lord’s resurrection. Ordinary Time is simply the way the Church counts its Sundays – First Sunday, Second Sunday, etc. We use the “Ordinal” numbers instead of the “Cardinal” numbers (One, Two, and Three).
This year on Sundays, we hear from Matthew’s Gospel (Year A) until next Advent; then Mark’s Gospel (Year B); then Luke’s Gospel (Year C). John’s Gospel is proclaimed during the Easter Season. During the course of three years, we hear the greater portion of three gospels.
Before Vatican II, most Catholics will remember that we did not commit “mortal sin” if we missed the Scripture readings (however, most Catholics were present for them). We had to be present by the Offertory (now “Preparation of the Gifts”). This rule downgraded the importance of God’s Word in our worship and personal lives. In my own family, we rarely read the Bible. Catholics, in general, were not “Bible readers”. Today the Church considers both the Liturgy of the Word and the Eucharist important. We feed upon God’s Word and Sacrament.
In my preparation sessions with engaged couples, “church attendance” usually comes up. Even if both spouses are Catholic, they may not attend Sunday Mass. Sometimes they claim that they “pray better at home,” or if the man is a hunter, he prays better in the woods. My hope is that during the course of a week (with 168 hours), every one of us prays more than the one hour at Mass – otherwise, God really gets short shrift. The problem with that behavior is Catholics never hear God’s agenda proclaimed in the Sunday readings. They never hear what God wants us to work on in our lives to become better people. They never allow themselves to be fed by God. Where do they allow God to inspire, encourage, motivate, and challenge them?
The Introduction to the Sacramentary (the collection of biblical readings used in the liturgy) summarizes the Church’s teaching on the importance of God’s Word. God’s people are spiritually nourished at “two tables” – the table of God’s Word and the table of the Eucharist. Both God’s Word and the Lord’s Body and Blood are food for us (an ancient belief in the Catholic Church). God speaks to us in his Word now! Catholics are to love Scriptures to reinvigorate us. We must listen gladly to God’s word so that “When they hear God’s word and reflect on it, we can respond to it actively with faith, hope, and charity through prayer and self-giving – not only during Mass but in our daily Christian living”. We must be messengers of God’s Word in the Church and in the world by how we live. We must become “doers of the word, not hearers only” (James 1:22).
