Indeed, programs like ChatGPT, that can produce a sermon in seconds, might seem attractive to busy clergy.

But several religious leaders, including rabbis serving Jewish congregations as well as Christian Protestant pastors, have conflicting feelings about utilising chatbots in preparing sermons.

There may be several reasons for being cautious.

From my perspective, as a specialist in Catholic liturgy and ritual, the most important critique has to do with true intent of preaching - to offer insight and inspiration on the human experience of faith.

Historical practice

In the early centuries of Christianity, preaching was largely reserved for bishops, considered to be the successors to Jesus' apostles.

During the Middle Ages, priests were also allowed to preach, although their chief responsibility was to say the Mass - ritually consecrating the offerings of bread and wine - especially on Sundays.

In some religious orders, priests became famous traveling preachers, although much of the time they were preaching in other settings, not during Mass.

The Franciscan and Dominican orders, for example, would send priests to preach on the streets and in city centers, traveling from town to town in fulfillment of this ministry.

During the next few centuries, preaching brief sermons or homilies became increasingly important during the celebration of Sunday Mass.

The Second Vatican Council, convened in 1962, took a fresh look at all the Church's rituals and stressed the role of preaching at worship, especially at Mass.

These principles have been reaffirmed in more recent documents that guide Catholic preachers when writing a sermon. In essence, preaching was always believed to be a human activity grounded in faith.

Insight and inspiration

Preaching as a human activity has a special meaning for Catholics - and most Christians.

This is because they believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, who came into human life to save all of humanity from their sins and gave his apostles the commandment to preach the Gospel about this "good news" to people of all nations.

In the decades since Vatican II ended in 1965, preaching in the Catholic tradition has been emphasised as a "primary duty" of all priests.

The sermon is meant to inspire people in their ordinary lives of faith.

The preacher must spend time in preparing the sermon, but this does not just mean compiling theological quotes or doing research on the history of the Bible.

A good sermon is not just a classroom lecture. In fact, several contemporary popes have stressed that the language of sermons should avoid technical or obscure terminology.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote that the language of preaching should be "simple, clear, direct, well-adapted" for the congregation in the pews.

And in 2013, Pope Francis echoed these same words in his observation that "simplicity has to do with the language we use."

But preaching is not just about offering pious mottoes or generic religious formulas. The preacher's experience, insights and emotions all come into play when composing the homiletic text.

The preacher is not simply offering good advice, but speaking out of personal reflection in a way that will inspire the members of the congregation, not just please them.

It must also be shaped by an awareness of the needs and lived experience of the worshipping community in the pews.

Use with caution

In practice, chatbots might help clergy save time by finding sources and compiling relevant facts, but the results would need to be checked for errors.

Chatbots have been known to make some factual blunders or invent sources completely.

Above all, I believe chatbots, as of now, are not capable of preparing a text suitable for being offered as a sermon. From what we know about chatbots, they cannot know what it means to be human, to experience love or be inspired by a sacred text.

Perhaps Baptist pastor Hershael York, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has put it best.

He has noted that the ultimate failure of a chatbot's sermon lies in the fact that it "lacks a soul."

Without that empathetic consciousness, a chatbot-composed sermon cannot include genuine insights based on personal spiritual experience. And without that essential element of embodied human awareness, true preaching is simply not possible.

• Joanne M. Pierce is a Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

In the midst of what can be a confusing scene, the leaders of some church groups have made their views abundantly clear, as they have railed against any mandates that would prevent people from attending their churches.

In their eyes vaccine mandates would represent placing the authority of the Government over the authority of God.

Claims like these, coming from a minority of largely conservative Christians, are never as straightforward as they seem since they stem from vaccine hesitancy and on occasion explicit anti-vaccine sentiments.

Nevertheless, they touch on important issues for churches in general as all will have to decide whether or not to allow the unvaccinated into services.

To turn people away from services goes against all that most churches stand for.

But it is unfortunate that much of the well-publicised opposition to vaccine mandates is based on the rights of individuals and the freedom to express themselves as they wish.

An emphasis far more congenial to Christian thinking is the opposite, and that is to protect the health and wellbeing of all within the community — both within the church and in wider society.

There is no hint in Christian thinking that the authority of the church is superior to the authority of government.

Ideally, they work alongside one another respecting each other and endeavouring to achieve what is best for all within society.

Biblical values emphasise the love of neighbour; service of others; support for widows and orphans — in our society this translates into support for the vulnerable, those unable to fend for themselves, those with compromised immune systems, the elderly and the very young, and especially those with chronic health conditions.

There is a communitarian thrust to Christian teaching, pointing towards the welfare of others, inside and outside the church.

In the midst of a serious pandemic, individual churches have to determine their own policies regarding vaccine mandates.

Since Covid-19 is a serious public health problem, the vaccinated/non-vaccinated dichotomy cannot be ignored by allowing everyone to act as they wish.

In public health terms, everyone in a church community is affected by the actions of everyone else.

No one is an island and so the decisions of each person have an influence on everyone else.

Individual interests are never to dominate, as clearly brought out by core biblical teaching to love God and one's neighbour and each of us is responsible for looking after those around us, in health terms as well as in spiritual terms.

If a government were to impose vaccine mandates on churches, churches should find alternative ways of meeting together, including in people's homes and on occasion in the open air.

Meeting as the people of God extends far beyond physical meeting together in a formal church setting, normal and healthy as that may be under most circumstances.

Vaccination is not a private matter since it impacts everyone else within a community.

In this sense, it is of considerable interest to the church as a whole. However, all are to respect each individual's position, no matter how much they disagree with it.

All are members of the body of Christ, and judgement belongs to God alone.

Not only this, we are all flawed, and from time to time we all make unwise decisions.

Since this is a public health emergency, people cannot act entirely as they wish; they are to act responsibly by public health standards.

Hence, if the church is prepared to allow the non-vaccinated into church services, the non-vaccinated have an obligation to be able to demonstrate that they are not infected, that is, to have negative Covid tests.

This should be possible once rapid antigen tests become available.

In fact, a large church may wish to insist on this for everyone, including the vaccinated if the infection rate in their area is very high.

All are to think of how their views and attitudes affect others, particularly those with a different position from their own.

Pay regard to the ‘‘weaker'' members of the church community, no matter how the weaker member is defined within the context of vaccination.

Who are those most in need of support?

A good deal of trust is required all around, showing ample grace and love towards each other.

In the final analysis, the church leaders have responsibility for the health and safety, and the welfare of all within a church building.

This is a general principle, extending far beyond Covid-19 considerations.

• Gareth Jones is Emeritus Professor in the anatomy department at the University of Otago.
• First published in the ODT. Republished with permission of the author.

When you walked into a church sanctuary, there was a reverent tone.

But then there was a swing in the other direction.

Of course, it's a good thing to talk more about the love of God, the mercy of God and the forgiveness of God. But I wonder whether we have, in some ways, gone too far that way.

Should we not talk about both?

Should we not talk about a loving, gracious, forgiving Father who longs for a relationship with us, but not leave out the fact that he is holy and righteous and just?

This is important, because the Lord himself says, "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16 NKJV).

I had the privilege of being around during the Jesus Movement when what we called contemporary worship was born.

But one thing we must never lose sight of is this: When we worship, it's more than just singing. It's more than just closing your eyes; it's opening your eyes to a lost world that desperately needs the Gospel.

"Worship is giving your life to God every day. It's giving your mind, your heart and your thoughts to God.

Worship is practical. It happens before church, and it happens after church. Worship is not only singing; it's serving.

In Romans chapter 12, the apostle Paul wrote, "I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him" (NLT).

Then he went on to say, "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (verse 2 NLT).

Paul was basically saying that worship isn't only singing. It isn't only praying.

Worship is giving your life to God every day. It's giving your mind, your heart and your thoughts to God.

Worship is also giving financially to God. It's being a loving husband or wife. Worship is being a single person who lives a pure life. Worship is working hard with honesty and integrity. These are all acts of worship.

In fact, if we are not worshiping from the right heart, God says that he doesn't want to hear our music anymore.

Speaking in the Old Testament book of Amos, God said, "Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living" (5:23-24 NLT).

That's why Jesus said, "For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24 NLT).

We worship him because he is worthy. The word worship comes from an old English word that could be translated "worthship."

In other words, we worship a God who is worth it.

He deserves our praise.

The word worship also means "to ascribe worth or value to someone or something." Continue reading

• Greg Laurie (pictured) founded Harvest Christian Fellowship of which he is the senior pastor. Harvest Christian Fellowship was born when Greg was 19.
• Image: Outreach Magazine

As citizens of late modern life, we seek to avoid boredom. We alleviate the stillness of a quiet moment by turning to our smartphones.

We delight in the arrival of new emails, fresh stories and notifications from social media. Abiding in a world in which the "novel" is considered normative, we divinise disruption.

This approach to boredom has a negative effect upon religious practice among Catholics. In Catholicism, our liturgical life is unavoidably a bit boring (at least by the standards of the age).

We pray the same (or similar) Eucharist Prayers from Sunday to Sunday. We hear the same Scriptures from year to year. We sing along to the same hymns and chants. The gift of the liturgy is this same-ness.

Now some liturgical boredom is not praiseworthy. This "bad boredom" is a matter of kitschy art, poor music, bland architecture, flavourless preaching and general apathy that infuses both priest and assembly alike.

Our parishes should shun this bad boredom.

Likewise, bad boredom could simply be the case of an impoverished private prayer life. We may find the Scriptures dry and the Eucharistic Prayer banal, but not because they are.

Rather, we're the problem because we have ceased to savour the narrative of divine love revealed in Christ.

But even if we got rid of all this "bad boredom", we would experience tediousness in our life with Christ. For there is a good boredom that is intended to draw us more deeply into union with the triune God.

This positive sense of boredom is evidence of a desire to enter more deeply into encounter with the Word made flesh. This is the boredom of a restless heart that longs to rest in God alone. Continue reading

• Timothy P O'Malley, PhD, is director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. He is also professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

But that's not the case at Joyful Ministries - a monthly church service and social group with activities for people with intellectual disabilities in Hamilton.

Church goers are encouraged to express themselves by singing and being as loud as they please.

Organiser Jeni Hawker says the service is about connecting like-minded people through fun, sensory activities and spirituality.

"It's a real failure free environment where they can come and go, and they use their own talents and gifts, and they go home with something they've created."

Joyful Ministries has been running for five years with the support of the Hamilton City Baptist Church and volunteers who chip in.

Co organiser Gaylene Pluck says it operates on a small budget and has grown through word of mouth from ten attendees to more than 40.

Between Hawker and Pluck the pair are "quite good at making something out of nothing".

Watch video

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz screenshot

But it turns out cool isn't what young people want. Forget the rock-band vibe and the flashing lights. Warm is the new cool.

For our book "Growing Young," we researched more than 250 congregations. When we spoke to more than 1,300 young churchgoers, ages 15 to 29, they told us what they want: authenticity and connection.

In a word: warmth.

When we analyzed the terms that young adults used to describe the churches or parishes that they chose, we noticed repeated words: welcoming, accepting, belonging, authentic, hospitable and caring. We began to call this the "warmth cluster."

Across the board in statistical analyses, this warmth cluster emerged as a stronger variable than any ministry program. Ironically, it is possible that your church might be working against warmth by offering myriad programs. Busyness doesn't equal warmth.

By suggesting that churches need to grow warmer, we don't mean adults should be nice to young people. Nice does not cut it. And warmth is more than superficial community. It's "like family" — as young people told us again and again during our interviews and field visits.

Here are some ideas to help your church become a warmer community:

• Redirect your budget to facilitate warmth whenever you can. At one multiethnic church, we were struck when volunteer leaders told us that they all have meal budgets. Every small group leader in the youth ministry is encouraged to take students out for meals or treats regularly as part of their formation process. The students trumpeted the value of this investment, as you'd expect from teenagers who are getting fed. But it wasn't just about food; when describing their meal conversations, students used many of the phrases common to warm communities that emerged in our research. Continue reading

Sources

• The Washington Post, article by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder and Brad Griffin
• Image: The Long Island Catholic

The bill as it currently stands is worded so broadly that the use of incense in worship would be an unwitting casualty of the new legislation.

The Churches' Legislation Advisory Service, whose members include the Catholic Church, the Church of England and other churches, stated they did not believe this was the UK government's intention.

The Association of English Cathedrals said: "Incense is used to enhance the worship experience, and no longer being able to use it would have an adverse impact on the conduct of worship."

Continue reading

In an article in L'Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Robert Sarah stated that the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy should not be read with a "hermeneutic of rupture".

"It would be wrong to consider the extraordinary form of the Roman rite as coming from another theology," he said.

It would be "desirable" that there be an appendix in an upcoming edition of the Roman Missal that would permit celebrants in the ordinary form to use the penitential rite and the offertory of the extraordinary form.

This would show that the ordinary form and the extraordinary form are "in continuity and without opposition", Cardinal Sarah stated.

"If we live in this spirit, then the liturgy will cease to be the place of rivalry and criticism," he wrote.

Instead it would be the place in which we participate actively in the heavenly liturgy, the cardinal added.

Cardinal Sarah also it consistent with the conciliar constitution that, "during the rite of penance, the singing of the Gloria, the orations, and the Eucharistic prayer, everyone, priest and faithful, should turn together towards the East".

This is "to express their will to participate in the work of worship and of redemption accomplished by Christ," he continued, adding that this would be especially appropriate in cathedrals.

He recalled Vatican II's teaching that the faithful should "be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them".

He also critiqued the "contemporary Western mentality" in which the faithful are to be "constantly busy" and in which the Mass is to be rendered "convivial".

The cardinal said the council suggested sacred silence as one of the means of active participation.

"The liturgy is essentially the action of Christ," he noted.

"If this vital principle is not received in faith, it is likely to make the liturgy a human work, a self-celebration of the community."

Sources

• Catholic World News
• Image: Salt and Light TV

In a recent reader survey we conducted with 1,649 responses, slightly over half of the congregations had only one worship service on Sunday morning, and the times of that single service varied.

The "sacred hour" of 11:00 am is no longer the worship time for a majority of churches.

Though we don't have definitive information on the origin of the 11:00 am worship time, it appears to be related to an agrarian society.

We started our services late in the morning so the farmers could milk the cows and do necessary farm chores.

So what are the trends in worship service times? Our information is based upon the survey we noted above as well as anecdotal data derived from our interaction with thousands of churches.

1. Churches with multiple Sunday morning services will soon be in the majority. This trend, once more common with larger churches, is now taking hold in congregations of all sizes.
2. The 11:00 am worship service is no longer the designated time for a majority of churches. The so-called sacred hour of worship is not sacred in most churches. This change started slowly, but it is pervasive now.
3. Earlier Sunday morning services are gaining in popularity.Worship services with start times from 7:00 am to 8:30 am are growing in many churches. This trend seems to be related to the growth of empty-nest boomers.
4. The growth in the number of non-Sunday primary services is steady but slow. There has not been a huge upsurge in the number of primary services on a day other than Sunday. The steady growth, however, is an indication that this approach will soon be common in many churches. Continue reading

Sources

• Rainer on Leadership
• Image: Christ Church Creekmoor

Jesus showed us that way throughout his whole life on earth, but this way becomes particularly clear and calls to us most profoundly in the events of Holy Week, not only by Jesus's words, however striking they are, but by his actions and what he suffered, beyond words.

Those events invite us to enter upon this way interiorly, through the words, actions and silences of the liturgy.

Through that liturgy we make a commitment of faith to know Jesus more clearly, as individuals, but also as pilgrims together.

We are drawn into ancient traditions of contemplating these events.

It is a way of humility in obedience and commitment to the Father

We begin with the Palm Sunday procession, to re-enact the journey of Jesus with his disciples and those who followed him from Bethany to Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11).

We follow him as our king, but one riding on a donkey in humility and in obedience to the Father's word through the prophet Zechariah (Zec 9:9).

As we proceed into the Mass the readings prepare us to focus on this obedience.

From the Third Servant Song of Second Isaiah (Is 50:4-7), we hear that the Servant has been given,

‘a disciple's tongue...Each morning [the Lord] wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple.' Continue reading.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: cfcbchurch.com

The style of worship is not their primary focus, wrote Dr Thom Rainer in the Christian Post.

Their focus is on theologically rich music, authenticity and quality in worship, which reflects adequate preparation in time and prayer.

What they want is from music in worship is that it has "rich content", Dr Rainer writes.

"They desire to sing those songs that reflect deep biblical and theological truths," he continued.

They also desire authenticity in a worship services.

"They can sense when congregants and worship leaders are going through the motions."

And they will reject such perfunctory attitudes altogether," he noted.

They also want a quality service, which reflects this authenticity.

This will reflect the preparation of the worship leaders spiritually and in time of preparation.

Dr Rainer's conclusions were based on research with 1200 young people in the millennial bracket.

He is president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States.

He wrote that "millennial Christians, and a good number of seekers among their generation, are gravitating to churches where the teaching and preaching is given a high priority".

"They are attracted to churches whose focus is not only on the members, but on the community and the world.

"Inwardly focused congregations will not see many millennials in their churches."

Millennials will "walk away from congregations that are still fighting about style of music, hymnals or screen projections, or choirs or praise teams", Dr Rainer wrote.

"Those are not essential issues to millennials, and they don't desire to waste their time hearing Christians fight about such matters."

Dr Rainer has co-authored a book about the millennial generation with his son, Jess.

There are about 79 million "millennials" in the United States, making this America's "largest generation".

Sources

• Christian Post
• Image: Times Free Press

The head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said the bishops cannot do that because mercy is not a valid principle to use in pastoral care where the sacrament is concerned.

Doctrine? Maybe. Faith? Not so much.

In any case, the bishops are going ahead with their plan. They are affirming what Pope Francis has said, that Roman officials do not "outrank" diocesan bishops, but must serve as aids to the bishops' ministry.

The Germans have recently made another move in defiance of Roman commands that deserves attention and belated emulation.

The First Sunday of Advent, was to be the day on which German-speaking Catholics would begin using a new translation of the liturgy. Like the one that has been used for two years in English-speaking churches, it would be more Latin than local.

The English version uses English words in Latin sentence order, Latinate repetition and vocabulary that comes from Latin rather than English roots; presumably the German is similar.

However, the German bishops recently announced that they would not introduce the new version because of wide opposition to the translation's sins against the German language.

Something that English-speaking bishops were afraid to do in the previous papacy is now being done by Germans apparently emboldened by the pastoral approach of Pope Francis.

The new translation two years on

Sunday was the second anniversary of the imposition of the English version.

How have we fared after two years with it?

Congregations have gotten used to their responses, though children probably sometimes think that the Holy, Holy, Holy prayer is to the Lord God of communion wafers.

But what of those for whom the greatest changes were introduced, the priests?

Surveys have shown that a huge majority of priests are still, after two years, united in their dissatisfaction with the maltranslation.

Many say that trying to use it actually hinders their prayerful leading of the liturgy.

If anything, their discomfort has grown as they have struggled to proclaim prayers whose tortured word order and repetitions are close to gibberish if spoken aloud before a congregation that cannot go back over the words to figure out the grammar.

How does one proclaim a sentence that begins with the object of the verb rather than the subject, something entirely possible in Latin, but which English-speaking priests now know is at least strange in their language?

Rewriting to make sense of it

The answer is that increasingly priests are not trying.

A pastor in the United States said that the only good thing he could say about the new translation is that it forces him to read the prayers on Saturday so that he will know how to revise them for proclamation on Sunday.

The majority of priests in his diocese admit among themselves that they engage in the same editing process, turning the prayers into real English. In other words, many congregations do not hear the new version.

Two years ago I wrote: "Priests who want to help their communities pray will gradually, but increasingly, begin to rework and reword the translation we have been given.

Instead of an authorized new translation from Latin such as was approved by the world's English-speaking bishops in 1998, we will now get an unauthorized plethora of ad hoc translations from Gibberish. I am not saying that should happen, but it shall happen."

Well, it has happened. What's next?

Time to implement the 1998 version, officially or unnofficially

The 1998 translation that was meant to correct the hastily done 1973 translation has already been approved unanimously by all the English-speaking bishops' conferences of the world, but was suppressed by curial officials who were not even English speakers.

So, why should not some conferences declare that translation valid for use in their countries? Failing that, individual bishops might take that initiative on their authority as leaders of worship in their dioceses.

Otherwise, my next prediction will come true.

Priests will increasingly on their own initiative begin using the 1998 translation once they get a copy, available for downloading after only a few minutes' search on the Internet.

Or, they will dig out their 1973 Sacramentaries, even in dioceses like that in which my friend the pastor serves and where the bishop thought he had confiscated them all in order to prevent just that sort of thing.

It is time for English-speaking bishops to learn from their German confreres and take back responsibility for the life and worship of their people.

Fr William Grimm is publisher of ucanews.com based in Tokyo.

Image: ucanews.com

"The lack of integration between the architect and the faith community has at times been negative," said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture. "Sometimes it goes wrong."

And Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums, has complained that some new church buildings resemble museums rather than churches, offering "spaces that do not suggest prayer or meditation".

Cardinal Ravasi said a church built in 2009 in Foligno, Italy, by the celebrated Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, which resembles a monolithic concrete cube, has been "highly criticised", The Telegraph reported.

In his native town of Merate in Lombardy, Cardinal Ravasi said the local priest needed to bring his own image of the Madonna to Mass, because Mario Botta, the architect who designed the church, had not installed one.

"The problem is that in Catholicism, unlike Protestantism, things like the altar, the images, are essential, while architects tend instead to focus on space, lines, light and sound," said Cardinal Ravasi.

Cardinal Ravasi conceded that one of Rome's most controversial new churches — Richard Meier's Jubilee Church, which resembles a yacht with spinnakers hoisted — had won over locals, but complained that "the building materials were the focus of pre-construction meetings, not the liturgical life".

Cardinal Ravasi, speaking after inaugurating the Vatican's first art exhibit at the Venice Biennale, said the Church now had its sights on commissioning modern liturgical art, for installing in churches.

"The Venice Biennale exhibit has been the first step on a journey," he said. "Further down the line could come liturgical art, meaning we could commission modern artists to create altars, fonts, tabernacles, lecterns, pews and kneelers."

But after letting modern architects push the envelope too far, the Church will keep a wary eye on liturgical art commissions, he said. "We will need to build up dialogue with artists before we commission any liturgical art."

Source:

The Telegraph

Image: Veneremurcernui

The Worship Centre has been operating for 15 years. It has about 1500 members.

Justice Pierre Slicer is heading a Tribunal hearing of an appeal by the Manager of Hotel Millennia, Tuala Oli Ah Him against the Worship Centre Church.

The appeal is on "technical matters" in relation to a decision made against the Church in 2009.

Tuala took legal action against the Worship centre in 2009 "noise pollution". He claimed that they had lost many guests as a result of the noise made by members of the church during their services.

The ruling in 2009 ordered the church to hold off on Sunday services until parishioners are able to limit the noise to below 55 decibels.

Before the 2009 decision by the court authorities measured the noise to be at 83 decibels, the equivalent of an alarm clock sounding a metre from the human ear.

According to Tuala, this was not done.

At the time, the church was held in open-air tents.

In July last year, the Worship Centre hosted a ground-breaking ceremony on the current site of the church at Sogi, next to the Millennia Hotel.

But the construction of the church building is on hold until the Tribunal makes a decision.

Source

• The Samoa Observer
• Image: FaithfullyDangerous

With 25 participants from several Australian dioceses, we set out for Germany, Belgium, France and Italy, ready to face the beginning of a European winter. The aim of the tour was to expose participants to several of the key Catholic and ecumenical centres in Europe that gave birth to the Liturgical Movement and which inspired Vatican II's charter of liturgical renewal, and also places where the liturgical vision was still being realised and given different expressions.

Why, at this time, did we embark on such a quest, almost 50 years after the Council and over 100 years since the pivotal event of 1909 when the young Benedictine monk, Dom Lambert Beauduin from Mont César Abbey in Belgium, delivered an address on "The True Prayer of the Church" at a national congress? Although it is recognised that there was an earlier stage of the liturgical movement in the nineteenth century through the reform efforts of Dom Prosper Guéranger at the Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes in France, this 1909 event, according to many historians, inaugurated a new era for the liturgical movement and set its agenda.

Exciting and heady years followed the promulgation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy in 1963. We saw the presider facing the people, a vernacular liturgy, a richer fare of Sacred Scripture in the Sunday liturgy, preaching based on the scriptures, the baptised laity exercising liturgical ministries, and so much more.

But, nearly 50 years later, we are a Church from which many are walking away, and only 12 per cent of which regularly celebrate Sunday Mass. With a new translation of the Mass that seems to prize literalism over inculturation and the language of the people, a hugely attended Third Rite of Reconciliation withdrawn from practice, and various agendas calling for "reforming the reform" or "restoring the pre-conciliar", could there be no better time to visit places which were the inspiration of the liturgical movement, and places giving new hope through the implementation of that vision? Continue reading

Sources

• Sr Margaret Smith SGS in The Good Oil
• Image: Pertinacious Papist

According to Llovera, kneeling and receiving on the tongue are the recommended ways of taking Holy Communion.

The cardinal's remarks came in response to a question about whether Catholics should receive Communion in the hand or on the tongue.

"Receive Communion on the tongue and while kneeling" Llovera replied.

"Receiving Communion in this way is a sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.

"In fact, if one receives while standing, a genuflection or profound bow should be made, and this is not happening," he said.

"If we trivialise Communion, we trivialise everything and we cannot lose a moment as important as that of receiving Communion."

Australia's National Liturgical Council executive secretary, Peter Williams, said the responsibility for the likes of kneeling for Communion and Communion on the tongue lay with the national's bishops' conferences.

Sources

• CNA
• The Australian
• Image: Communio