SAYING that a decorous and solemn celebration of the liturgy is a mandate imposed on priests by virtue of their ordination, a young Catholic prelate called on his clergy to celebrate the Eucharist with the dignity and solemnity it deserves.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, in a fraternal letter sent to his priests on December 31, said it is a solemn duty of priests to celebrate the Mass with utmost reverence and attentive care.
“Although we have many duties and functions as priests, in the mind of the ordinary Catholic faithful, we are priests because we can preside at the Eucharist and absolve sins in the confessional. We are priests called to bring to the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving from His worshipping people. We are priests called to bring the blessings of God to His chosen people. We are caretakers of the mysteries of God.” Villegas said.
The young prelate said a solemn and inspiring liturgical celebration does not just happen. Instead it becomes so because of the ardent and careful preparation that goes with it.
“Within this spirit, I wish to raise some issues in our Catholic parishes and communities to help bring about a more inspiring and truly edifying liturgical worship,” he said.
‘Cleanliness next to Godliness’
Quoting the maxim that cleanliness is next to Godliness, Villegas encouraged his clergy to preserve the cleanliness of sacred vessels even advising them to regularly subject these to “metal plating to maintain their luster befitting the divine worship.”
“God deserves the best,” he stressed.
He said the altar linens—corporal, purificator, and finger towel—should be used according to their specific purpose, and not to be interchanged with the other.
Explaining further, he said the corporal is called such because it receives the “corpus” crumbs that may fall from the Host when the priest breaks the Host at the Lamb of God.
“The corporal must be laid out on the altar only at the presentation of bread and wine and folded back after the purification of the vessels,” Villegas said, stressing that “it must not be left on the altar.”
He said the purificator is used to wipe the chalice for droplets of water and wine during the preparation of the gifts and for purifying the chalice, paten and ciborium after Communion, while the finger towel is used for drying the hands after washing.
The purificator has an embroidered cross in the middle while that of the finger towel is normally in the corner.
Villegas reminded the priests to instruct their sacristans and altar servers to observe the proper use of the altar linens.
He said it is important to keep the vestments used for liturgical celebrations clean and dignified while stressing that “cleanliness and dignity need not be expensive.”
“The church and its surroundings must be kept clean too from trash candy wrappers, soiled missalettes and even stuck chewing gums on the church flooring,” Villegas said, adding that “the church must be the cleanest place in the community.”
Singing together promotes unity
Villegas also reminded his priests on the importance of animating seriously the liturgical singing in their parishes. As a form of worship, singing together also promotes the spirit of unity and communion, he said.
“Please encourage the choirs to undertake their task as a ministry and not as a performance for public adulation,” the prelate said.
He said secular love songs, even with religious themes, should not be used for liturgical rites.
Villegas also advised the clergy to “refrain from the practice of having children or young people dance in the parish sanctuary” during liturgical celebrations until the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy approved the rules pertaining to dancing within the liturgy.
Observing silence in church
The prelate said it is likewise important to observe silence as a means of communing with God.
Quoting St. Charles Borromeo, he said: “You must realize that for us churchmen, nothing is more necessary than meditation. We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. Would you like me to tell you how to give God more pleasing worship? Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter.”
Villegas told the clergy to teach again their parishioners the practice of genuflecting before the tabernacle, the observance of prayerful silence in the church, modesty in dress and the discourtesy of chewing gum or using cell phones in the church.
The archbishop concluded his letter by saying that celebrating the liturgy should bring the priest-celebrant to “become more caring and attentive to the needs of the least, the last and the lost.”
“Good liturgy can sanctify only to the extent that it leads us to serve, imitating the example of Him who stooped down to wash the feet of His disciples,” he said, adding that “Sunday must not only be the dies Domini. May it become too our dies caritatis.”
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