St. Clement Parish Cincinnati, Ohio

This past Thursday evening, members of our St. Clement Worship  Commission – Kathy Harcourt (chair), Deacon Dave Harcourt and I, gathered in Mount Carmel at St. Veronica parish center with parish  Worship Commissions from the greater Cincinnati area. We had been invited by the Archdiocesan Office for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to a continuing faith formation, two-hour workshop on The Role of the  Parish  Worship  Commission.  It  was  inspiring  to  see how  many  of  those worship commissions within the same Family of Parishes had already formed a combined Family Worship Commission.  What are some insights I gained from this helpful, interactive workshop as they relate to the St. Clement/St. Francis Seraph Family? One insight is that becoming a parish with different churches does not necessarily mean the dismantling of how worship is done in either church. As parishes discern together, they might decide to continue certain traditions, or discover     common ground where the two churches could cooperate with the worship and sacraments in each church. An important point made repeatedly was that “unity” does not mean “uniformity.” Take a family for example. The members of a family make up a family unit. But family members are different in looks, age, gender, experience, interests, personalities, dreams, and relationships. No two family members are perfectly identical in everything, not even identical twins.  Another insight I remember has to do with the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches that the Mass is the source and summit of the whole Christian life. The Mass is the essential moment for building up and strengthening the faith community, along with the sacraments and other celebrations of the paschal mystery – the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So why does it seem like, numerically speaking, most of the Catholic people of the St. Clement/St. Francis Seraph Family of Parishes don’t experience the Mass as “the source and summit of the whole Christian life?” Why is it that most Catholics don’t seem to consider Mass as “the essential gathering of the faith community?” The Church teaches that the Mass must be “life-giving, beautiful, and transformative.” I presume that means on important levels, i.e., intellectual, spiritual, emotional, relational. How can the Mass be more appealing to these levels of experience for more people? What do worship commissions need to do to help worship be more of an encounter with the living God?  Research suggests that preaching and music are the two areas which most people use to evaluate their experience of liturgy. Hopefully, as the process of bringing parish families together develops, effective plans for improving these areas in every liturgy will emerge and take effect in reaching out to the People of God.  Have a good week everyone! May the Lord bless you and all you love!   Fr. EJ