Pope Francis :rediscover a 'sense of the sacred''

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From Today’s Homily 2/10/2014
**When we celebrate the Mass, we don’t accomplish a representation of the Last Supper: no, it is not a representation. It is something else: it is the Last Supper itself. It is to really live once more the Passion and the redeeming Death of the Lord. It is a theophany: the Lord is made present on the altar to be offered to the Father for the salvation of the world. We hear or we say, ‘But, I can’t now, I have to go to Mass, I have to go to hear Mass.’ The Mass is not ‘heard’, it is participated in, and it is a participation in this theophany, in this mystery of the presence of the Lord among us.”
**
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“We would do well today to ask the Lord to give to each of us this ‘sense of the sacred,’ this sense that makes us understand that it is one thing to pray at home, to pray in Church, to pray the Rosary, to pray so many beautiful prayers, to make the Way of the Cross, so many beautiful things, to read the Bible… The Eucharistic celebration is something else. In the celebration we enter into the mystery of God, into that street that we cannot control: only He is the unique One, the glory, the power… He is everything. Let us ask for this grace: that the Lord would teach us to enter into the mystery of God.”
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I have often noted that weekday Masses are more reverent than most Sunday Masses. I think that is because unlike on Sundays where it is an obligation people attending a daily Mass want to be there.
 
This is a good one, I particularly like this part:

"The liturgical celebration is not a social act, a good social act; it is not a gathering of the faithful to pray together. It is something else. In the liturgy, God is present,” but it is a closer presence. In the Mass, in fact, “the presence of the Lord is real, truly real.”

And I agree, weekday masses are often more reverent.
 
AndyP2010 said:
From Today’s Homily 2/10/2014

I have often noted that weekday Masses are more reverent than most Sunday Masses. I think that is because unlike on Sundays where it is an obligation people attending a daily Mass want to be there.
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Agreed. But did you know when I made a similar comment last year, that I was told, snottily, that it was because weekday attendees needed it more (aka more sinful and in need of help)?

God bless Pope Francis!
 
The thing that is striking about this is that most Daily Masses are as bout as plain vanilla as it can get. This leads me to think that reverence is a product of the heart. I wonder is the reverence found at most EF Masses a product of those attending those Masses? Obviously if you addend an EF Mass your there because you want to be there like the people who attend daily Mass.
 
Ok, I have to ask, why aren’t people here and in the Catholic blogosphere more excited about this homily? When I first read it, I thought Trad blogs and Catholic news sites would be all over this, jumping for joy, but no one seems to have batted an eye. What gives? What am I missing here?
 
This is good of Pope Francis. it is definitely true that we need to recover a sense of the sacred. I think that this starts by acknowledging the significance of the Mass.

There are various things that need to come about in my opinion for this to happen.
  1. There needs to be a renewal of the sacred found in the Sanctuary itself.
    Read this article for an idea of how many parishes have made the sanctuary modern and plain as well as dull
    newliturgicalmovement.org/2014/01/a-wreckovated-church-gets-un-wrecked.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNewLiturgicalMovement+%28New+Liturgical+Movement%29#.UvvzgreYaih
The above is about a parish in Brooklyn that was modernized during the 1980s and the sense of the sacred was being lost, not just in this particular parish but in others where this type of thing happened.
  1. Not only should the sanctuary be given a “sacred” look if your will, but the music that is found in it should be renewed as well. I am a strong advocate for a renewal of Gregorian Chant not only for the Tridentine Mass but also for the Novus Ordo. It is in my opinion the best music for the Mass and Sacrosanctum Concilium also says this about Gregorian Chant:
*The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.

But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action, as laid down in Art. 30. (Sacrosanctum Concillium 116)*
  1. Parishioners themselves need to be reminded about the sacredness of Mass. In my opinion this has to happen the most with the Hispanic Community. This is from my own experience as a Mexican. Parents allow their kids to bring toys during Mass, and do nothing when the kids cry. I went to an EF mass that was celebrated for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12) and the majority of the people were Hispanic (as it was intended to be so), and I saw a lack of reverence even in the EF Mass. This is true for any culture in general. Priests should remind people in their homilies about the sacredness of Mass and of respect during this time.
  2. lastly I would simply say that Catechizing people about what the Mass is, would be the last significance of restoring sacredness to the Mass. This ties in with the last point above that we need to tell parishioners about the sacredness of Mass. More so though it means telling people the significance of what the Mass is, namely that it is not some community gathering together, or simply about a meal, or that it is a reenactment of the Last Supper, but that it is the un-bloody Sacrifice of the Mass at Calvary. We need to tell people that the priest is offering the Mass up to God. This is why I favor a return to the “Facing the East” by the priest, where the priest faces the altar. It shows people; that the Mass is not about the priest or about the people, it is about God. We are offering sacrifice to God.
 
McCall1981 said:
Ok, I have to ask, why aren’t people here and in the Catholic blogosphere more excited about this homily? When I first read it, I thought Trad blogs and Catholic news sites would be all over this, jumping for joy, but no one seems to have batted an eye. What gives? What am I missing here?
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Thank you for this. As a matter of fact I have a website where I am planning on writing something relating to what pope Francis said.

My website can be found
walkinginthedesert.com/
 
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