Parable and Conscience Meditation October 24

Liturgy  October 24

Our liturgical and community prayer is a special offering of praise to the Father . . . (Const. 17.1).

By his death and resurrection, Jesus became the High Priest of the New Covenant.  His prayer is an eternal intercession before his Father for the world.  "Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them" (He 7:25).  Christ is joined in his prayer by all those who are saved by his Cross and who form his Body.  The Church co-offers with the glorified Jesus his eternal prayer of praise, thanksgiving, reparation and intercession.  This is his liturgy and his mission:  he is the Sacrament of Salvation in the world.  Each time the Church, as the Body of Christ, remembers the Paschal Mystery, this is, makes the liturgical memorial of his death and resurrection, she is inserted into the prayer of her Head, becoming an instrument of salvation for the world.  Because this prayer is continuous, she can join him at every moment.  According to her ancient tradition, the Church enters into the intercession of Jesus through a daily rhythm of prayer.  Beside the Eucharist, which is the liturgical act par excellence, the Church unites with her Head in the Liturgy of the Hours,  in the morning, at midday, in the evening, before retiring for the night and at a undetermined moment during the day for spiritual reading.  By these liturgical acts, the community of Jesus prays with him without ceasing and creates moments of sanctification for the human family.

Where the harvest, there the beggar.  (Shi)

Parable and Conscience Meditation October 23

Liturgy  October 23

(The Crosier) fulfills his obligation to pray the Hours personally in so far as possible outside the choir when he must be absent from the community (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).

The Crosier as a Canon Regular is a man of rhythmic prayer, even in his personal life outside the common prayer.  He is convinced of the value of making the memorial of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus with the rhythm of the Hours, certainly in community, but also in solidarity with the community in his private prayer when he is not able to pray with the community.  The Canon Regular is a man of rhythmic prayer by profession.  Previously, the tradition of the Order obliged every seminarian from the time of his solemn profession to pray the Hours privately outside the common prayer.  The current Constitutions do not prescribe this, expecting ony that the confreres comply with Canon Law.  In Canon Law, all priests and transitional deacons are obliged to pray the Hours each day (276, §2,3 ; 1174), including religious who are clergy (662, §3).  The Congolese Regional Statutes imply an obligation on the part of all the confreres, ordained or lay, to assume this practice.  What a privilege of service to be sacramental men, opening to the world the grace of the Cross of Jesus, no matter where, no matter when!

One donkey ate flour and all the donkeys had white snouts.  (Mali)

Parable and Conscience Meditation October 22

Liturgy  October 22

In this way we follow the example of Mary . . . who united with the apostles in prayer for the coming of the Spirit (Const. 16.3).

The assembly of the Cenacle anticipated the rhythm of prayer that characterized the whole history of the Church.  Immediately after the Resurrection, the disciples began a program of prayer at fixed hours, notably at the beginning and end of the day.  Into the fourth century, this same Liturgy of the Hours, paschal and eschatological in theme, included psalms and biblical canticles.  All Christian felt obligated to participate.  After the fourth century, Lauds and Vespers, by now well developed, were prayed in the cathedral around the bishop.  The monks developed several Offices separately, including vigils.  Little by little, the pressure pastoral life caused the cathedral Liturgy of the Hours to become private and be prayed personally.  The Hours became the business of the clergy who used “pocket breviaries.”  This privatization was reinforced from the thirteen century onwards, particularly by the Orders of Mendicants and later by the Jesuits, despite the preference of Church law for prayer in common.  The Roman rite breviary knew several simplifications up to the twentieth century.  The Second Vatican Council reformed the Liturgy of the Hours and recommended it as the prayer of the entire community of the Church.

The branch of palm nuts hangs down from the palm tree.  (Luba)

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) 

Parable and Conscience Meditation October 20

Liturgy  October 20

Only then will our prayer in common have a true source in deep and personal dedication (Const. 16.3).

“Mary!”  “Rabbouni!”

“Put your finger here.”  “My Lord and my God!”

“Simon, do you love me?”  “You know well that I love you!”

“What are you talking about as you walk?”

        “Are you the only inhabitant of Jerusalem not to know . . . ?”

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  “Who are you, Lord?”

Christian life is founded on the personal experience of the risen Christ.  In seeking one's own life, a person is stopped somewhere by the Great Seeker.  In this encounter, the person discovers the source of goodness and abandons self to it.   A permanent dialogue is established.  But the dialogue never remains limited just to the Seeker and the one sought.  Mary goes to tell the others; Thomas goes to evangelize those who have never seen him; Peter feeds the lambs; the two from Emmaus return to Jerusalem; Saul goes to be instructed at Damascus.  All these personal dialogues had to become finally a great concert where Christ and his disciples celebrate the one redemptive experience.  In fact, the personal saving dialogue anticipates and awaits its grandest moment in liturgical prayer.  There is no true liturgy without these blocks of personal prayer and personal prayer remains incomplete without the liturgy.

What is not said is not a word.  (Nande)

Parable and Conscience Meditation October 19

Liturgy  October 19

As a Canon Regular, the Crosier is concerned with the care of the liturgy (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).

The most eminent act of the assembly of the Crosiers is the celebration of the liturgy.  As the memorial of the Paschal Mystery, the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours are the first formators of the community.  It is there that the community finds its own Christian identity and the vitality of its apostolic mission.  The liturgy provides the community with counsel and nourishment for its life at every level.  The liturgy as rhythmic prayer provides the basic structure of the daily life of the community.   While the liturgy belongs to the whole Church, the Canons Regular take it in hand as its devoted promoters, celebrating it well with the for the Church.  Because the liturgy makes present the grace of the Cross of Jesus to the whole world, it represents the first obedience of the community:  is there another work more central in the Church that that of this sacramental reality?  The liturgy must be given vigorous attention, being the faithful celebration of salvation in Christ and the expression of the faith of Christians of every time and place.  The liturgy should be welcoming of everyone, making them feel at home in Christ.  The words, gestures and symbols ought to speak the Good News of Christ in a direct and contemporary way.  To care for the liturgy means to study it, pray it conscientiously and promote its development in collaboration with the pastors of the Church.  The whole Church is blessed by this concern of the Canons Regular.

The stick at a distance can’t help kill the snake.  (Nyororo-Hema)

Parable and Conscience Meditation October 18

Liturgy  October 18

We must listen without ceasing to the word of God, which gives depth to human life (Const. 16.3).

Blessed are you, O Christ, Word of the living God,

            You, our Banquet of Wisdom!  

Assembled at the Table of the Eucharist,

            we venerate your presence in the reading

            of the marvels in the history of our salvation,

            read by simple brothers and sisters. 

Accept our psalm of gratitude.

Standing in anticipation of your appearance, we chant:

            Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

We communicate with your person

            in the proclamation of the Gospel by your ministers.

            The Gospel of the Lord!

            Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

You teach us the contemporary practice of the Word

            through the sharing of our pastor.

Inspired, we proclaim:

            We believe in one God, in one Lord, in the Spirit!

With confidence we pray:

            hear your Church, your world, all your brothers and sisters!

The chicken coop is the hen’s refuge.  (Batetela)