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Learn the liturgy.
Love the liturgy.
Live the liturgy.
~ Bishop Donald Trautman |
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PASTORAL AND LITURGICAL RESOURCES
On this page your will find useful
liturgical material you
can view and download.
There are also links to other websites.
For additional
information and links to other sites please check
Links to daily
scripture readings, reflections and meditations are found here:
this
page was updated on
February 27, 2010
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Quick links to these
sections below . . .
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The Season of
LENT
CCCB
resources
(Canadian Catholic Bishops)
Lenten Night
Prayer for Home Use
Below is a link to a page of the
site of the San Jose Liturgy Office and a sample Lenten Night Prayer service by
Diana Macalintal. Families or individuals can use this service in their home
during the season of Lent.
http://dsjliturgy.blogspot.com/2007/01/lenten-night-prayer-for-home.html
 Here
is a link to the wonderful website of
Creighton University Online Ministries.
Here you will find a large online resource of useful information devoted to
Praying Lent in 2010. It's excellent!
ARTICLES about Lent
on the web
Glad you Asked:
If Lent is 40 days, why are there 46 days
between Ash Wednesday and Easter?
Celebrating the Season of Lent - from the
Canadian Bishops -
download .pdf
Living Lent -
download .pdf
Other Links
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On-Line Retreat!
You don’t have time to go away for a retreat? How about doing an
on-line retreat? The Jesuits at Creighton University have an
excellent on-line 34 week retreat "for everyday life." Try it out.
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 Redemptorist on-line Retreat - Into
the Deep - Redemptorist Youth and Vocation Ministry - A Ministry of
the Redemptorists of the Edmonton-Toronto Province
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Stations of the Cross
Christine has created a 5 page PDF
document which lists the best Stations of the Cross on the Web. You
can download it - HERE
For adults: from Creighton
University's Collaborative Ministry Office.
For Children: two of my
favourite sites are
(ages 6-10) -
(ages 8-12)
See below for a short
explanation of the stations of the cross
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Stations
of the Cross
 There is something in us that moves us to visit the scene where an important
event occurred. Visitors flock to the Ford Theatre to stand where President
Lincoln was assassinated; mourners visit the site of the Oklahoma City bombing;
Elvis admirers tour Graceland. So it was for the early Christians who greatly
desired to journey to Jerusalem and to see with their own eyes the places where
Jesus lived, suffered and died. The traditional sites of the Lord’s passion soon
became popular stopping places; even today the Via Dolorosa is included in most
pilgrims’ itineraries.
Because
not everyone was able to visit Jerusalem, pilgrims brought back stories and
images of what they had seen for those who remained at home. Eventually shrines
that focused on the passion and death of the Lord appeared all over Europe. In
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, increased emphasis on the suffering of
the Messiah, coupled with the fervour of the Franciscan
friars, led to widespread acceptance of a devotion that traced the footsteps of
Jesus from his trial to his tomb.
But it
was more than curiosity that caused this devotion to flourish. Prayers that
emphasized Jesus’ obedience unto death, sorrow for sin, and God’s abiding love
and mercy were at the heart of it. Although the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council placed greater emphasis on the Sunday Mass, the stations of the cross
are still a valuable resource for prayer, especially during Lent, with its
twofold emphasis on baptismal renewal and penitential acts.
Essential
to this devotion, whether prayed by an individual or a group, is meditation on
the passion of the Lord in spoken and sung prayer, and movement from one station
to the next. Ideally, everyone walks in procession to each station, uniting
ourselves in our bodies to the Lord’s passion and death.
The number of stations has varied widely over the centuries. Recent revisions
have omitted stations not included in the scriptures, and added stations that
are, such as Jesus praying in the Garden of Olives, the denial of Jesus by Peter
and Jesus’ promise to the good thief. Frequently, a fifteenth station depicting
the resurrection of Jesus is added to illustrate the fullness of the paschal
mystery.
Copyright © 1997 Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training
Publications, 1800 North Hermitage Avenue, Chicago IL 60622-1101;
1-800-933-1800. Text by Kathy Luty. Art by Chuck Ludeke.
Picture:
St. John Chrysostom Station
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Lenten Fast and Abstinence: An
Invitation to Awareness
 “What
are you hungry for?” Sometimes the answer is obvious: pizza, Chinese food, a
juicy steak. Our spiritual hungers are rarely that easy to identify. The season
of Lent, our 40-day preparation for Easter, is our annual invitation to grow in
awareness of those deeper hungers. We need Lent to help us recognize that our
meaning and mission are rooted in Jesus’ dying and rising. Together with those
preparing for baptism, we join in outward signs of our inner conversion. Our
year-round prayer, fasting and almsgiving take on new meaning during this
season.
Catholics were once well known for their practice of not eating meat on Friday—a
specific form of fasting called abstinence. Stories abound of the lengths
Catholics would go to keep this law. Of course, as with any law, it was not that
difficult to meet the letter of the law and violate its spirit. One might enjoy
a fine lobster dinner or fish fry at a local restaurant and still meet the law’s
requirements. Catholics were also called to limit their food intake on a variety
of other fast days. The reforms which followed the Second Vatican Council sought
to simplify the often complicated questions that arose regarding fast and
abstinence while re-emphasizing the continuing need for such practices. The
current laws took effect in 1966. They read simply: “Catholics who have
celebrated their 14th birthday are bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday
and each Friday of Lent. Catholics who have celebrated their 18th birthday, in
addition to abstaining from meat, should fast, i.e., eat only one full meal on
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Smaller quantities of food may be taken at two
other meals but no food should be consumed at any other time during those two
days. The obligation of fasting ceases with the celebration of one’s 59th
birthday.”
The spirit of the law may invite us to fast from other activities as well: from
television or computer games, from eating out or from gossiping. These minimum
requirements make the most sense when they are combined with prayer and
almsgiving. These age-old disciplines reflect our most fundamental concerns: our
relationship with God (prayer), with our bodies (fasting) and with each other
(almsgiving).
Copyright © 1997 Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training
Publications, 1800 North Hermitage Avenue, Chicago IL 60622-1101;
1-800-933-1800. Text by Kathy Luty. Art by Rita Corbin.
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Ordinary Time: Winter
 A Sense of the Season
What do the words Ordinary Time mean?
Dorothy Day said, “The words ‘Ordinary Time’ in our prayer books put me in a
state of confusion and irritation. To me, no time is ordinary.” She was right.
The Ordinary in Ordinary Time refers to ordinal—counted—time, not to a lack of
something to celebrate. The Roman document, General Norms for the Liturgical
Year and Calendar, says: “Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive
character [Advent, Christmastime, Lent, Triduum and Eastertime], 33 or 34 weeks
remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the
mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the
mystery of Christ in all its aspects.” (#43)
How do we celebrate “the mystery of Christ in
all its aspects”? We gather every Sunday. Sunday is our original feast day.
Christians have gathered every Sunday—the day of Christ’s resurrection, the
first day of the week—ever since there were Christians.
Each year there are two blocks of Ordinary
Time, one in the winter between Christmastime and Lent, and the other in summer
and fall, from Pentecost through Christ the King. When we gather on Sundays in
Ordinary Time, as always, we hear the scriptures proclaimed. We systematically
read through the gospels. The first readings from the first testament of the
Bible were chosen for their relationship to the gospel passages. The second
readings come from the various letters of the second testament of the Bible. The
mystery of Christ “in all its aspects” unfolds.
What is the heart of our Sunday celebration?
We do our eucharist; that is, we do our thanksgiving. We praise and thank God
for all creation; we pray for the whole world, as we remember Christ’s life,
death and resurrection. We share the bread and wine, the body and blood. We are
sent forth to be the body and blood of Christ in our homes, our workplaces, our
neighbourhoods, our towns, our cities, our country, our world.
“What happens in our churches every
Sunday is the fruit of our week. What happens as the fruit of the week past is
the beginning of the week to come. Sunday is simultaneously a point of arrival
and departure for Christians on their way to the fullness of the kingdom. This
is not ordinary at all. This is the fabric of Christian living.” (Saint
Andrew Bible Missal [Brooklyn: William J. Hirten Co., 1982.])
Copyright © 1997, Archdiocese of Chicago. Liturgy
Training Publications, 1800 North Hermitage Avenue, Chicago IL 60622-1101;
1-800-933-1800. Text by G. Thomas Ryan.
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Liturgical
Calendar
The following
Liturgical Calendar is in pdf format.
YEAR
C - December 2009 - November 2010:
Liturgical Calendar
- courtesy of:
Father Fr. Bill Burke, Associate Director, National Liturgy
Office
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB)
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The Gospel of
Luke - 2010 |
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If asked to name their
favourite story from the Bible, most Christians would probably choose something
from the Gospel of Luke. These stories are indeed unforgettable, and the
Christian tradition is graced by this gospel from Luke’s hand. It is the only
one of the four gospels to describe the angel’s annunciation of the coming birth
of Jesus to Mary, and the visit of the shepherds at his birth; it is the only
one to tell the parables of the Good Samaritan, of the prodigal son, and of the
rich man and Lazarus; it is the only gospel to relate the story of Jesus and the
disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. In addition to that,
Luke’s Christmas story is proclaimed by Linus on the Charlie Brown Christmas
special!
Archaeologists and textual experts usually date
the writing of the Gospel of Luke to around 80 ce. One piece of evidence that
helps with the dating is that the gospel contains nearly all of Mark, and from
this we know that it was composed after 70 ce (about when Mark was written). In
addition to having Mark as a source, the Gospel of Luke shares a large chunk of
material with Matthew, material that appears neither in Mark nor in John. From
this we assume that there was another source for Luke, one that he and the
writer of Matthew used together. Luke also had a source of information that only
he used.
The evangelist Luke is also the author of the
Acts of the Apostles, which is, in a sense, the second part to the gospel. This
is evident from the very polished Greek of these two books, but more
specifically, from the fact that both books are addressed to Theophilus, a
fellow believer. (See Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1.) Luke’s contribution, therefore,
makes up more than one-quarter of the second testament.
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The portrait of Jesus in the Gospel of
Luke is of an itinerant prophet who is attracted to the poor and the
outcast. He explains that his ministry is to them, and he envisions the
heavenly banquet as filled with the poor and disenfranchised. The
evangelist draws powerful portraits of despised members of the society,
and much of the wonder of this compelling gospel is in its address to
sinners.
The Gospel of Luke is proclaimed in Year C,
the years 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 and so on.
In art, the evangelist Luke is portrayed with
a bull by his side. The feast of Saint Luke is October 18.
Copyright © 1997 Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training
Publications, 1800 North Hermitage Avenue, Chicago IL 60622-1101;
1-800-933-1800. Text by Martin Connell. Art by Rita Corbin.
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Updated Instructions
for Ministers of the Word
First Reading
As Mass begins...
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gather with the procession at the back of the
church about 10 minutes before mass.
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hold the lectionary high as you process.
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when you get the front, proceed immediately to
the ambo and place the lectionary there.
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open it to the correct page
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go to your seat.
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come up to the ambo after Father says the
opening prayer (it begins... let us pray...)
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speak loudly, slowly and clearly.
At the End of Mass...
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after the first verse of the closing hymn,
Father and the altar servers will prepare to leave the sanctuary.
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you should go up and get the lectionary.
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join the procession between the altar servers
and the priest.
Second Reading
As Mass begins...
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gather with the procession at the back of the
church about 10 minutes before mass.
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you will walk up beside the first reader
holding the Book of the Gospels (this is the larger book).
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when you get the front, proceed immediately to
the altar and place the Book of the Gospels in the centre.
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return to the front of the first pew and wait
till the rest of the procession goes up.
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then return to your seat.
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come up to the ambo immediately following the
psalm.
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speak loudly, slowly and clearly.
At the End of Mass...
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after the first verse of the closing hymn,
Father and the altar servers will prepare to leave the sanctuary.
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go up and get the Book of the Gospels (it is
now in the ambo).
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you should join the procession between the
altar servers and the priest beside the first reader.
To
print the above instructions click and download the pdf file
HERE |
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Learning About Mary -
a Seasonal Feature of American Catholic website
- opens in a new window
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A Glossary of Common Church Terms
link to the Archdiocese of Toronto Website
Celebrating Sunday Mass
- an article from the Canadian Bishops Website or
download as a pdf. document
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