Priests’ Study Week
As a way to provide continuing education for priests, each year the Archdiocese offers a study week during the 2nd and 3rd week of June. So half the priests of our Archdiocese attended the 2nd week and the other half attended the 3rd week. With the implementation of the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal on the horizon Advent of 2011), the theme for this year’s Study Week was “The Spirituality of Mass.” It was a wonderful way for us to reflect on the mass that we pray each day and to gain insights from different theologians.
Our guest speaker was Dr. Bob Hurd, who currently teaches at Santa Clara University, had taught at St. Patrick’s Seminary, and had at one time been a seminarian. At the Seminary, he was one of my favorite professors because he has the gift of introducing difficult topics with clarity, and he brings a joyful spirit to his work. You might also be familiar with his name because he has composed and published many songs found in our music issue, songs such as “Envia tu Espiritu” and “I want to Praise your Name.”
Among the different topics discussed was the use of chants in the Revised Roman Missal. Although the new missal does not require us to use only chant music, but it was discussed as the Revised Missal includes them and makes it available among a repertoire of different music that we already use. A few things stood out for me in our discussion of the Liturgy of the Word. In an article by Mariano Magrassi, O.S.B. entitled “Praying the Bible: An introduction to Lectio Divina,” he wrote that:
Prayer is, first of all, listening. So if we are truly listening,
then we are already praying. The ultimate goal of listening is
obedience, total submission to the Word of God. The mystery of the
Word reveals its secrets not from teachers’ desks, but in churches
and in the lives of the saints. And the Bible is not only a book to
read, to learn, to pray over… it is essentially a story to be relived.
Perhaps the most interesting thing that happened all week, was trying to pray the mass in the “new” form each day. Although we have discussed the changes and understood them, however, it is certainly difficult to break old habits. For example, the new response to “The Lord be with you,” is “and with your spirit.” It is a response praying that the Spirit of God that the priest received at ordination, may also be with him as he
celebrates the mass. Inevitably, many of us revert back to the current response of “and also with you.” Even though we had a booklet to help us with our responses, however, juggling between that and our song sheet showed us it was a little difficult. So we got a taste of how our parishioners might feel with the upcoming changes and thought of different ways to make the transition less traumatic and smooth.
Fr. Paul Zirimenya, who is deaf and serves at St. Benedict Parish for the Deaf, said through an interpreter that to calm his community who is anxious over any changes in their lives, that there are only 15 changes in the New Missal that will affect them. He said that once people knew this, that calmed many of their fears. The committee planning with me for the upcoming changes recommended that during the month of October,
we discuss these upcoming changes with you at Mass. Thank you for your support of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal that has made study weeks like these available to us.
Happy 4th of July!
With prayers and blessings,
Fr. Dan
