Re:What is a Director of Liturgy?

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PatienceAndLove

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What is a liturgist, director of Liturgy, and what does it mean to “do liturgy”?
I have asked that question 800 times, and no one has answered.
 
I never heard of a director of liturgy. The only liturgist for the parish is the priest, and we do not “do” liturgy we pray liturgy, it is the public prayer of the Church, so I suggest you ask the folks who sling those terms around your parish what the heck they are talking about. They are, as I suspect you already know from your question, ill-informed about the actual nature of liturgy.
 
In between software jobs I worked (part time) as an admin assistant for our parish’s director(s) of Liturgy and Music. At various times the ‘positions’ have been separate or combined, paid or volunteer.

At least when I worked there the director(s) chose the songs for the Sunday, Holy Day, and special occasion Masses, scheduled/hired choirs, cantors, and instrumentalists, and coordinated the various ‘ministries’ (readers, sacristans/EMHCs, ushers, greeters, altar servers, wedding coordinators, and decorators). The director(s) also worked with the RE/Faith Formation groups to coordinate baptisms, first communions, special group liturgies, and RCIA activities. (Many such groups have very fanciful ideas for liturgies and must be gently but firmly brought back to reality.)

The liturgy/music director has to be informed on what is in the GIRM and how it is to be interpreted if there is any confusion, and advise the pastor. He/she needs to keep in contact with the diocesan liturgy head in case there are any special diocesan regulations.

In our parish the liturgy director would usually recommend the Mass options to be used at the various Masses. (Yes, the priest was free to make his own choices; but most priests were very happy to have been freed from making even such minor decisions.)

The liturgy director would come up with a detailed Mass order of service (think of a a kind of script) that covered all the Mass options which would be used, including prayers, any special activities for that Mass, the prayers of the Faithful for that Mass, and special blessings, and the like. This was used in lieu of the Ordo. (Actually, much of it came from the Ordo.) A copy of this went to the presiding priest, the reader in charge of the prayers of the faithful, and the musicians. A spare went in the sacristy for anyone else who might need to know. We had binders for the priest’s copies (available from liturgical supply companies for those who use electronic reactionaries/ordos.)

Visiting priests loved us because they always knew just what to expect.

When I worked for the parish my jobs were to see that new music went into the choir members folders, ordering new music and inventorying it when it arrived, creating sign in sheets for the Sunday Masses for the clergy, altar servers, readers, EMHCs, and CLoW team members, getting the Mass orders of service to the proper places, assisting the deacons with music choices for funerals, sending meeting notification messages, mailing/emailing schedules to the ushers, EMHCs and altar servers, helping various groups who needed to practice in the church find available time, and the usual sheltering the director(s) from those ministry leaders who were demanding more time from the director than their ministry warranted.
 
<<The only liturgist for the parish is the priest, and we do not “do” liturgy we pray liturgy,>.

In Eastern diction, the Greek verb is “liturgeizo” which has been Anglicized as “liturgize”–i.e., to “do liturgy.”
 
PatienceAndLove said:
What is a liturgist, director of Liturgy, and what does it mean to “do liturgy”?
I have asked that question 800 times, and no one has answered.
Click to expand...
Around here it is a layperson (sometimes church employee) who arranges the songs, organizes the list of people helping out at mass (e.g. EMs, Lectors, Ushers, etc…).

While it is true the priest always has the final say, he can decide how much to delegate to make his overall workload manageable.
 
New Ulm and SMHW did a good job of detailing the position. In large parishes (1,000 plus families) with no Associate or Deacon, this is probably the most important lay position in a parish with regard to day-to-day logistics and freeing up the time of the Pastor to do direct Priestly functions. I say this with no slight to the Directors of Religious Education or Youth Directors. Its just that IMHO the Director of Liturgy has to do so much on the spur of the moment and with no advance notice.

I say it because their role in assisting and coordinating the planning of mostly funerals while the Pastor focuses on being pastoral is so critical and important. When you have parishes this large w/ aging populations, sometimes there are 2 or 3 funerals a week.

Then you have Sunday Mass preparation described by New Ulm and SMHW which is yoeman’s work.

And at our parish, this person still has time to weekly visit 10-20 people confined to home to make sure their needs are met. If she identifies need for the Pastor to go, she finds time in his schedule to get that done.

By the way, think of Holy Week or the Lenten season itself with all the extra Stations, Rosaries, etc. She makes sure all details are taken care of so the Pastor can be Pastor.

As you can see, I just love our Director of Liturgy as I know all she does, that she does it so selflessly, compassionately and with the joy of an angel.
 
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