Parable and Conscience Meditation October 21

Liturgy  October 21

(The Crosier) invites others to participate in the community prayer (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).

Most Orders of Canons Regular in the Church were founded in periods when the liturgy had already become the activity of ministers in the sanctuary, a well-defined and privileged space.  From their choir stalls and often in archaic language and rites, the clergy or religious celebrated the divine mysteries, while the laypeople watched.  People felt obligated to have parallel devotions in order not to lose the sense of their Christian calling.  In such an ecclesiastical atmosphere, congregations like the Crosiers were seen as necessary to preserve the sense and maintain the practice of the liturgy.  Unfortunately, the liturgical life of the Church had very much distanced itself from the table of the Cenacle and how Christians gathered in the first centuries after the Acts of the Apostles.   The Second Vatican Council in the 20^th century caused a revolution, opting for a point of view more faithful to the early liturgical pratice.  The sanctuary became a place of service for the congregation, the language and rites more intelligible and lay participation more pronounced.  The liturgy became the “work” of the whole people, expressive of their faith.  That is why the Crosiers today are never at ease with community prayer that does not include the participation of the local people.  The liturgy of the Crosiers, whether Eucharist or Hours, is always an invitation to the people living around them to share the prayer.  

A birdless cage has no value.  (African proverb)