Sunday celebrations of the word and hours.

It is starting to happen. The priest shortage has become so acute that some churches now have a priest for Mass on only an occasional weekend. What do the people do on the other weekends?

One answer is to have a deacon or lay leader do the readings and give Holy Communion (or readings only) with the associated Mass prayers. Of course, one omits the Eucharistic Prayer (containing the Offertory and Consecration). Since only the priest may say "The Lord be with you" and give his blessing, these elements must be omitted or modified.

In 1988, the Holy See published a six-page Directory for these "Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest" (henceforth, "SC Vatican"). Paragraph 36 (of 50) tells us to find, "as a rule," the texts and readings in the Missal (Sacramentary) and Lectionary. The National Liturgical Office (NLO), on the other hand, has seen fit to publish a four-hundred-page book for this, with no readings but plenty of prayers, entitled Sunday Celebrations of the Word and Hours (henceforth, SC Canada). We now examine these two. SC Vatican is included as part of the "Pastoral Notes" in SC Canada at pp. vi-xi.

Ballooning liturgicalism

The first thing to notice is the enormous size of SC Canada, even though it contains none of the readings. It has 43 pages of dense "notes" (including the 6 of SC Vatican), each averaging about 55 lines per page, and about 20 words per line. This runs to about 42,000 words, not counting a few thousand more in the rubrics scattered throughout the book.

A competent reader-minister could learn from a qualified priest in one or two short sessions how to lead a priestless Sunday service. But who will persevere in ploughing through this huge book? It is designed for enthusiastic specialists, not for ordinary parish helpers. It recalls the equally humungus Canadian Funeral Ritual, and the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) published in Canada. These were 318 and 450 pages respectively. Their official Vatican Master Editions were only 90 and 185 pages, which is about 35%.

What is more, the Sunday Celebration book is not even necessary, as everything essential is already in our existing missals and lectionaries. We seem to be facing a new ballooning of liturgicalism in which the books become so wordy and bulky in their mega-contents that only an elite of intellectual sacristans and gung-ho readers will succeed in mastering them.

Another difficulty with studying SC Canada is the small print size in the study edition (a photo reduction of the main edition). One helpful detail is the provision of "summaries" of the service, on pp. 202 and 254. These show the whole service at a glance.

Liturgical Hours

The term Hours in the title of SC Canada needs explaining. The "Hours" are the various portions of the breviary or divine office or "liturgy of the hours" prayed daily by priests and religious, especially Lauds (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer). These prayers are found in the priest's breviary, in the official format of the Church. It is highly appropriate to pray them in a church on Sunday, and they do not require a priest leader, as the Mass does. But SC Canada does not present the authentic Catholic format of these prayers; instead, it provides a modified, "home-made" version produced by the Canadian Liturgy Office, under its own copyright. The reason for this change is doubtless to strive for a style thought to be more suited to ordinary people than is the Roman breviary. Time will tell how successful these "Canadian" forms are going to be.

Before the readings

The "home-made" principle is applied likewise to the prayers beginning and ending the Sunday word service (readings). Those before the readings are: the Liturgical Greeting (an invitation to praise), Introductory Remarks (a fervorino), the Opening Rite (choice includes a penitential rite, Gloria, Kyrie, a Litany, Asperges, and more), and the Opening Prayer (Collect, the one found in the Missal). All of these, except parts of the two last-named, are "home-made" by Ottawa, or by ICEL (International Commission on English in the Liturgy), the body that translates the official Latin Liturgy, and also attempts to create new prayers and rubrics. Most, if not all of these prayers etc., are not approved by the Vatican and represent steps away from the world-wide Catholic identity of our liturgy toward a Canadianized substitute. True, a non-Mass Sunday service is not strictly bound to the Roman Missal. But the Roman Directory (SC Vatican) says, "the prayers. . .for each Sunday, are, as a rule, to be taken from the Roman Missal. . .In this way, the faithful. . .will follow the liturgical year and will pray. . . in communion with the other communities of the Church" (n.36). Now SC Canada has created a substantially original "Canadian" set of prayers for each Sunday. In addition, the many options are somewhat bewildering, and may defy that familiarity and memorization that liturgy traditionally requires and displays.

After the readings

After the readings, SC Canada calls for the following: Homily/Reflection (no texts supplied), Creed (Nicene or Apostles'), General Intercessions (seven sets are provided, for the seasons), Proclamation of Praise (a prayer of thanksgiving), the Lord's Prayer (usual), the Sign of Peace (as in the Mass, but with a home-made invitation), Announcements, Collection, Blessing (one of seven expansions, in three or four lines, of "May God bless us"), and Dismissal (much as in the present Missal: "Go in the peace of Christ.").

Here again, the principle of Canadianization is promoted, alongside familiar "Roman" elements. One prayer of praise, pp. 244-5, has 16 verbs in the wrong person: O God, who forgives us. . . (wrong), instead of O God, who forgive us. . .(right): (Oh God, you who forgive us). This is a common error, but unacceptable in a ritual. Numerous other "prayers of praise" are supplied (pp. 223-2246), some of which are "closing hymns," some psalms, some various Scripture passages, and some home-made. The Gloria is included. The sets of intercessions are home-made, not Roman, rather preachy and moralizing, and leave this writer uncomfortable.

A minor element in this book is a certain nervousness about the leader-minister. SC Vatican emphasizes he is "one among equals," who carefully avoids any confusion with priesthood in what he says or does, and rather faces front, not the people, when he is on duty. SC Canada seems bolder in promoting this leader (him or her). One wonders if the National Liturgical Office personnel might like to see married or female priests in the Church one day, drawn from the ranks of lay people who will be learning presently to use this volume. SC Vatican says these services "should not take away but rather increase the desire of the faithful to take part in (an actual Mass) and. . .more eager to be present at (Mass)" (n.22). The Directory asks that Mass be provided at least several times a year to priestless churches (n.26); that the bishop set norms for the priestless celebrations (n.24); supervise them through a person or committee; and choose those who promote them (n.26). It favours the expression celebrations in the absence of a priest, or in expectation of a priest, over without a priest. SC Canada discusses these angles at length in the CCCB Pastoral Letter, esp. nn. 18-22, on p. xvii.

After a year or so, a report on the actual use of this book would be helpful to the National Office of Liturgy, and illuminating to parishioners and clergy.