At any rate, I arrived last Thursday with my liturgy Sourcebook, a pen, and a notepad, a full five minutes early, like a true nerd. There was a decent crowd there, just over a dozen people in all, and I recognized most of them from either the music ministry or from Mass generally. Turns out a large contingent of them were from the parish Ladies Sodality. I can never attend the Ladies Sodality, because their meetings are on a night that Mike teaches. Mike has also wondered whether or not I'd be the youngest person there by...quite a lot. :)
I don't think he's wrong, but that wouldn't discourage me. :) At any rate, since I can't attend that group, it's especially nice that I'm able to be involved in this way. So, we get started, and this was really just a meet-and-greet type of session. For the rest of the liturgical year, Fr. Joe is planning to not make any sweeping changes and just see how things go, since he's so new. Beginning in October, our group will start to meet regularly to plan for the new liturgical year. And he gave us a schedule.
*angels sing!*
I love schedules. :0 In October, we'll meet to discuss the feast of All Saints/All Souls, and plan for a Memorial Mass to pray for those who died over the course of the year. We'll also discuss the feast of Christ the King. In November we'll meet to discuss Advent and order Christmas flowers. In December we'll meet to discuss Christmas. And so on.
So for each of these items, we'll discuss the options within the liturgical norms. We'll discuss decorations, if applicable, and scheduling. So, Mass times, in the future, will be on the table. This is where a bit of resistance came in. :) Some members of the Ladies Sodality DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE THE MASS TIMES. They feel very strongly about this. :0 Fr. Joe acknowledged that changing Mass times is no easy feat, and he does not take the task lightly. And so perhaps they will stay the same. But it only makes sense to evaluate the number and timing of weekend Masses to assess whether or not a different schedule would be more practical and appropriate. There were some frowns over this, but we were able to move on. ;-) The scheduling of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion was also a bit of a controversy, who knew? There were a number of people present who feel like more stations for reception of the Eucharist need to be set up. I'm not certain that I agree with that, so here's to exploring this more in the future. :)
And so next year, we will all be able to discuss Lent and the Holy Week liturgies. I received a few comments about what I noted for our upcoming Holy Thursday liturgy, and I appreciate them, truly. In all honesty, this is what I suspected anyway. To put it in a nutshell, my feeling on this issue is that I am no liturgical expert right now. I'm going to let that be worked out on its own, by the proper authorities. I'm just along for the ride and to learn this year. Next year, as a member of this committee, I will have a say in things, and yes, I am very much a fan of more traditional interpretations. :) Ironic, coming from "the young one."
"Father, isn't it so nice to see *such young people* like Tiffany involved in the parish?"
Who is this lady, I love her?!?!! She's my new best friend at Mass.
*beams*
How is your Holy Week proceeding, dear reader?