Counting the Days of Lent

If we count a day as was traditional in more ancient cultures from sunset to sunset and thus mark the completion of day one of Lent at sunset on this Sunday evening – the First Sunday of Lent – when you reach sunset on April 13th – Holy Thursday – you will arrive at 40! So, Lent officially begins today – the First Sunday of Lent! The days since Ash Wednesday are known as the “porch of Lent” a time to practice what we must more fully embrace – intensified praying, stricter fasting, and more generous alms giving – so that we may be faithful to these traditional penitential disciplines over the entire 40 days.


SUMMIT AND FONT:

The Second Vatican Council reminded us that the celebration of the Eucharist is the summit and font of our Christian life in that it is our closest encounter with Christ on this side of eternity and the source of greatest grace empowering us to be who we are called to be as his body, and to do what we are called to do in his name in the world. So the liturgy is the most important thing that we do as a community of faith and it deserves our best effort to carry it out with the greatest of care.

To that end we are making a few rather slight but not insignificant changes to the Mass at Christ the King beginning this weekend. First we will use some different vessels, most obvious will be a large paten that can hold most of the hosts that we need to consecrate at any one Mass on a weekend. The purpose of this is to bring ourselves closer to the ideal of seeing on the altar “one bread / one cup” which symbolizes our unity in the one Christ, and also closer to the ideal of distributing to the congregation hosts consecrated at the same Mass in which they are participating. This is the Church’s preference as hosts previously consecrated and stored in the tabernacle are supposed to be primarily for the communion of the sick and homebound. Also, during the preparation rite in order to allow sufficient time to “set the table” before the bread and wine are brought forward, we will have the ushers take up the collection during which the corporal, purificator, book and chalice can be placed on the altar and then the procession with the gifts will take place. For logistical reasons at this time we will not bring forward the monetary donations with the gifts of bread and wine but we will work toward the implementation of that ideal for the future. At the Lamb of God which is an ancient chant for the “breaking of the bread” remembering the original custom of breaking the one loaf into pieces for communion, the deacons or the priest will divide the hosts consecrated in the large paten into smaller dishes for distribution. Also, at communion both the host and the cup will be offered to all the ministers in the sanctuary-because the primary symbol of communion is “eating and drinking in the Kingdom of God” and thus more than the priest and deacon should be fully participating. Ideally the whole congregation would be offered communion under both species, but again for logistical reasons in a resort community this is very challenging to do well, so we will retain the custom of offering the cup for all on Holy Thursday, the Vigil of Easter, and the feast of Corpus Christi, as well as in the celebrations of First Eucharist and Confirmation.

We will discontinue the practice of allowing members of the congregation to approach communion with their back toward the altar as all who are able should be processing forward in the direction of the sanctuary. The communion procession is meant to be symbolic of the people of God moving through life toward the Kingdom of God where at journey’s end they hope to meet Christ face to face. In the Liturgy we process toward the sanctuary where we encounter the very same Christ who comes to us on the altar veiled under the sacramental signs of bread and wine. It is hoped that all will understand and cooperate with these simple changes which while seemingly small should help us to do even better what we are already doing well in obedience to Christ’s command to “do this in memory of me”.

Fr. Edward Healey