Hello,
Here is a good article on the meaning of “full, conscious, and active participation” and what it means:
Participation - Msgr. Richard Schuler
Here is an article written by my Bishop on the same topic:
Moderators (please forgive the length, but this article doesn’t currently have a stable URL)
Bishop George V. Murry, S.J.
How to go to Mass
As I visit the parishes of our diocese and celebrate the Mass, I am often asked by parishioners this intriguing question: “What is our role at Mass?” They know the role of the priest. He prays over the bread and wine and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, transforms those simple gifts into the body and blood of the Lord for our salvation. Is it the role of the laity to watch and assist the priest or is there action that they are intended to take?
This year we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium.” Within its pages, we can find an answer to the question about the role of the laity.
After describing the priestly office of Christ and the paschal mystery made manifest in the liturgy, the Constitution mentions over 17 times the phrase “full, conscious, active participation.” The most often-quoted passage is this:
Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the Liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people” (1 Pt 2:9; cf. 2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their Baptism.
The Constitution says that this is the aim to be sought before all else. In other words, the aim of each and every liturgy is not great music, not a brilliant homily, not a sacred space to take your breath away, not creativity, not professionalism, as worthy and necessary as these are. The aim of every liturgy is full and active participation by all the people in God’s work of saving and setting us free in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the role of the laity and it is the attitude with which all of us should approach the Mass.
So let us look carefully at the phase “full, conscious and active participation.” What do we mean by the word “participate”? For most of us who live in the United States and who participate in voting, or in our children’s education or in our parishes, the word “ participate” means “having our say” or “lending a hand.” To “participate” in the liturgy is something else, however. Liturgy demands that we enter into a mystery that is greater than ourselves. Liturgy demands submission of will and heart to God. In short, to participate in the liturgy is to place ourselves within the mystery of love and allow ourselves to be transformed.
Full and active participation only makes sense when it is first,
conscious, which means we must know what it is that we are doing. Every part of the liturgy – Mass in particular – is rooted in the Scriptures and has a deep and profound meaning. Do we know what every gesture, word, ritual action means? Conscious participation demands that.
Full participation means that every thing that we do, we should do with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength. It means to be alert to everything that happens during the liturgy. Full participation demands that we be deliberate and attentive.
Finally,
active participation is to remember that we are embodied spirits; or as the Constitution states:
To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.
So there we have it. Full, conscious, and active participation is the great challenge and the great opportunity for the laity at the liturgy. It is also a way of being that will transform us and if we are transformed we might fully, consciously, actively participate in transforming the world.
Please allow me one concrete example. Full, conscious, and active participation in the Communion Procession is an incredible moment of connecting our lives with the paschal mystery. Our Holy Father, when he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a wonderful meditation on the Eucharist in a book entitled: “God is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life.” In meditating on the Feast of Corpus Christi, he advocated an understanding of the procession accompanying it as a model for every Communion Procession. As we walk away from our pew, we in essence move out of ourselves, out of our prejudices, likes and dislikes, move away from our limits and barriers. We walk away from hurt and harm, from meaninglessness, from blindness, grief, loss, and soul-deadening pain. Walking away, we process to the Lord and when we reach Him – in that moment, in that encounter – He soothes our hurt and harm; gives our lives meaning; provides spiritual sight instead of deadening blindness; finds us when we are lost; gives us medicine for our sin-sick souls; and carries us in his arms to safe shelter, harbor, and home. And then, as if that were not enough, he leads us back to his Body, the Church, to stand with one another having been transformed through love.
What then is the role of the laity at Mass? As lay members of the Church, you should fully, consciously and actively participate in the liturgy with all your being, so that you may experience and proclaim to each other that it is none other than Jesus Christ who walks with us
On the Road to Jerusalem.
), I don’t have the exact source. However, he remains pretty much the same on things. This is actually a good thing because he is not wishy-washy. That’s a very good characteristic to have, especially if you are the Pope.
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