St Julie Billiart

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Mass and our worship of God is all about a gathered community. But when the community isn’t all present from the start of Mass and when people leave during Holy Communion, the mediation afterwards or prior to the procession of the ministers (practically knocking down the servers and the priest to get out ahead of them), then you haven’t really got a community which is gathered. What you have is a significant number of individuals who happen to be in the same place at roughly the same time—more or less. This “more or less” is what breaks the spirit of the liturgical assembly and indicates that those individuals don’t really believe that God has gathered them and is truly present in the worshipping assembly—something that our Church believes and teaches. If one truly believes that God is present in those who gather then, of course, you’d want to show up on time and stay through the final hymn—because God is present!

This same reasoning applies to the question of appropriate dress. If one truly believes God is present, that we are in prayerful dialogue with the Holy One at liturgy, then you’d want to dress for the occasion! What does what we wear say about our own attitude towards church?

In the same way, gum (or any other candy or foods) is something that is best left outside the Mass. The only thing that should be in our mouths at Mass is words of praise. Our mouths should be used only for responding, singing, praying. Our mouths should be empty , we should be fasting in order to feast on the word and the Eucharist in order to receive the heavenly food at the Lord’s Table. The only thing we should be chewing on at Mass is the Word of God and the Eucharist.

It’s not so much formality that I’m talking about. It’s more the expectations that we set for ourselves. If everything is so casual and easy-going at Mass (like a hike in the woods or a mere gathering of friends), then we are definitely communicating to our children and ourselves something about God.

God is certainly our friend, and yes, we can even “commune” (of sorts) with God by walking in the woods. But God is also much more. He is just judge, he is everlasting life, he is Lord and Redeemer who comes with the fire of the Holy Spirit to change our lives.

If everything is casual and common-place at Mass, if we come when we want and leave when we want, then we have also, sadly, reduced our God to the level of the inconsequential and made his awesome, breath-taking grace into something cheap and unappreciated.

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St. Julie Parish Bulletin