Children's liturgy of the word during regular Mass

[cssirk]

Is the children’s liturgy of the word liturgically correct or another abuse like holding hands during the our father and where can I find something orthodox written about why it is or not correct?(program where kids ages 4-10 or so are taken out of a regular Sunday Mass during the liturgy of the word to read from “kid’s version” etc… then brought back to their parents for the liturgy of the Eucharist)

 

[MarkThompson]

Is the children’s liturgy of the word liturgically correct or another abuse like holding hands during the our father and where can I find something orthodox written about why it is or not correct?(program where kids ages 4-10 or so are taken out of a regular Sunday Mass during the liturgy of the word to read from “kid’s version” etc… then brought back to their parents for the liturgy of the Eucharist)

Please see the Directory For Masses With Children (1973). For instance:
17. . . . Sometimes, moreover, if the place itself and the nature of the community permit, it will be appropriate to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word, including a homily, with the children in a separate, but not too distant, room.

 

[cssirk]

The Lectionary for Masses with Children was given “experimental approval” back in 1991 and the site adoremus.org gives more info dating Feb. 2001 (“Do we really need a Children’s Lectionary”?) which concluded with another 2 year study but I can find nothing since that date. The Lectionary we are using is outdated and I’d like to see a church document approving the use of a new Lectionary AND stating church approval for doing a children’s liturgy program like we have @ our parish every Sunday Mass.(?) Simply put, there should be something written from our bishops approved by the vatican that gives a parish permission to do this program; am I wrong to want to read this (?)

 

[MarkThompson]

The Lectionary for Masses with Children was given “experimental approval” back in 1991 and the site adoremus.org gives more info dating Feb. 2001 (“Do we really need a Children’s Lectionary”?) which concluded with another 2 year study but I can find nothing since that date.

No offense, but you obviously did not look that hard. A revised Lectionary for Masses with Children was approved by the USCCB on November 15, 2005. Much further information here. And from the USCCB’s FAQ about the NAB:
3. Is the New American Bible the only translation of Scriptures we can read from at Mass?

Since May 19, 2002, the revised Lectionary, based on the New American Bible is the only English-language Lectionary that may be used at Mass in the dioceses of the United States, except for the current Lectionary for Masses with Children which remains in use.

The Lectionary we are using is outdated and I’d like to see a church document approving the use of a new Lectionary AND stating church approval for doing a children’s liturgy program like we have @ our parish every Sunday Mass.(?) Simply put, there should be something written from our bishops approved by the vatican that gives a parish permission to do this program; am I wrong to want to read this (?)

There is; I linked to it previously – Pueros Baptizatos, the Directory for Masses with Children – but you apparently don’t seem to like it. Also, special liturgical rubrics are contained in the General Introduction to the LMC, which is not online but about which you can read a description here.

 

[Phemie]

In 2006, the Canadian Bishops (CCCB) published “Celebrating the Liturgy of the Word with Children”. Here are just a few of the points made in this book:

• It must be liturgy.  The Church’s liturgy is first and foremost  ritual prayer.  The liturgy celebrates the Word of God in narrative and  song and makes it visible in gesture and symbol (LMC #24)

• The description ‘children’s Liturgy of the Word’ is reserved for celebrations which parallel the Liturgy of the Word at Mass in content, structure and symbol. Religious instruction or simply completing activity sheets should be called ‘Sunday School’, or some other appropriate designation, but not children’s Liturgy of the Word. (As they put it in one line "If pencils are involved you’re doing it wrong.)
• The participants are usually children of primary school age. Children younger than this are generally unable to participate consciously and actively in liturgical celebrations. It is not a child-minding event. (They specify children between 4-8 and they insist that regardless of the reason for holding a CLW, no child is to be made to attend since their normal place is in the congregation with their parents.)
• Because the DMC says ‘sometimes’, these liturgies should be infrequent, not every week by any means. (The suggestion is made that content of the readings should be a major consideration.)

 

[cssirk]

Thank you Phemie for this info. , we have been doing children’s lit. EVERY week, which is wrong and the Lectionary we are currently using need to be updated…I will continue to look @ the other sites that you and others have given me…when you are a simple lay person recognizing soooooooo many abuses but not willing to follow others opinions it seems to ruffle the prideful feathers of those who would rather that you not ask questions. My intention is to make sure this program is Liturgically correct, I recognized a “red flag” and it’s my right as a Catholic to seek what is true (and do so respectfully w/love) Much prayer is needed!

 

[Phemie]

Thank you Phemie for this info. , we have been doing children’s lit. EVERY week, which is wrong and the Lectionary we are currently using need to be updated…I will continue to look @ the other sites that you and others have given me…when you are a simple lay person recognizing soooooooo many abuses but not willing to follow others opinions it seems to ruffle the prideful feathers of those who would rather that you not ask questions. My intention is to make sure this program is Liturgically correct, I recognized a “red flag” and it’s my right as a Catholic to seek what is true (and do so respectfully w/love) Much prayer is needed!

How far you get will depend on the pastor. We tried to implement this document when it came out, at the pastor’s behest. We talked to the parents and told them what we were going to do. We showed them the book, we offered them copies to read to see we weren’t pulling this ‘out of our hats’, etc. One mother of a particularly rambunctious 2 year old had the nerve to say to us, “Well, this is it, If she can’t go to the children’s liturgy I won’t be able to come to Mass.” My reaction to that, albeit unspoken, was “what you mean is that you aren’t willing to be a parent.”

The result was that in the next couple of days parents and even one grandmother went to the pastor to complain and he totally caved. That was the end of the true “Liturgy of the Word” and the resumption of the “Parents and children’s craft hour”.