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Thursday, August 05, 2004
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Whatever Happened to Reverence?
Just ran across this article by Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria (fine diocese, from what I hear). He's not, in the words of my old boss, 're-writing Rahner' here, but it has a few good reminders. A few excerpts:
 Sadly enough, sometimes before Mass there's so much chatter that you might think you're in a theater before the movie starts instead of in church . . .There are all sorts of prayers in our tradition to help us dispose ourselves for worship. Can you imagine a lawyer going in to plead a case without doing his homework, or a teacher coming into class unprepared? For any important event, you get yourself ready, asking yourself, "What will I be saying? What will I be doing?" Our approach to the liturgy should be that way as well. I grew up with the practice that whenever you hear the name of Jesus, you bow your head to show reverence. The recently revised GIRM seeks to restore that gesture. We are also reminded to bow at the words of the Creed where we profess the Incarnation: "By the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became Man." Today on TV and in nearly every movie, you hear the Name by which we are saved used thoughtlessly, even as in blasphemy. Shouldn’t Catholics, especially at worship, do a little something to offset that? We should tremble at the name of Jesus, out of awe, out of love. We should go back to bowing our heads whenever we hear that name, especially at worship, but better yet, wherever we may be.
# posted by Jamie : 2:24 PM
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