#285: Our Liturgical Experiences

EXCERPT: A battle looms over pending changes in the English text for our Mass prayers. Part of me agrees with a recent reader comment on my blog saying that this is a misplaced debate.

Indeed, arguing whether we say "and also with you" or "and with your spirit” reminds me of Gulliver’s Travels, where Gulliver encounters Lilliput’s battles between “Big-endians” and “Small-endians” over how to crack an egg (a satiric episode spoofing contemporary English liturgical battles!).

Still, the reality is that people have strong feelings about even the minute details of their worship experience. People feel strongly about liturgy because it provides the framework for their worship. Since the Eucharist is the summit of Christian faith and practice, it's no surprise that people cling fiercely to their way of worshiping. Perhaps we need to reflect on our own experiences and what they mean to us—and, just as important, why they mean so much.

Reflecting on my own experience, I amazed to realize how many different ways I have encountered the Eucharist in my life.

I've been part of congregations from as few as five for house Masses, to more than 400,000 for John Paul II's first US Mass on Boston Common. I've attended charismatic groups celebrating Mass in homes, in parishes, and in sports arenas. I've been in catacombs and cathedrals, monasteries and seminaries, modest homes and huge outdoor settings.

I've celebrated Mass in many languages: Latin, Greek, English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, German, and even Armenian.

I've been part of Mass presided by the Pope, by cardinals, by bishops, by monks and abbots and religious and ordinary parish priests. I've been in Masses with no music, folk-music, organ alone, organ with soloists, organs with choir, choir and orchestra, boy choirs, women's choirs, mixed choirs, rock bands, or even simple solo trumpet.

I've seen Masses lasting fifteen minutes and others lasting three hours, Masses with no one receiving Communion to Masses where Communion alone took nearly an hour. I was married at Mass, and my kids were all baptized at a Mass, and I was commentator at my high school best friend’s ordination Mass.

By global standards, all this represents only a fraction of the bewildering range of Catholic Liturgy over the past 50 years. Almost all my experience is based on only two versions of the Roman Rite: the "Tridentine Rite" dating largely from the 16th century, and the "Novus Ordo," the "new" version of the Roman Rite instituted in 1970. But even though the Roman Rite is used by the overwhelming majority of Catholics, the Catholic Church has authorized 23 different rites for celebrating Mass. My own experience has left out 21 of them! (See a complete list of Catholic rites here: http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/rites.htm .)

For me, all my varied experiences of the Eucharist have enriched my Catholic identity. I’ve had my own personal preferences, and I still do. I also have strong feelings about what strikes me as “good” and “bad” liturgy—and I have witnessed more than my share of both.

But for me the bottom line has been: all these variations on Catholic worship have been just variations on one common theme: The Eucharist itself. In a word, for me every Mass has been THE Mass.