Palm Sunday

The Easter Season from Ash Wednesday until Pentecost Sunday is more than three months long. The fortnight of Holy Week and Easter Week, from Palm Sunday through Divine Mercy Sunday (or Low Sunday) is the high point of this long stretch. During these two weeks the drama unfolds in Jerusalem, beginning with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and concluding with his appearance to Thomas and the twelve in the Cenacle.

Hopefully, during this season, the Roman Catholic clergy and laity come together, bringing liturgical majesty and personal devotion. It might be helpful on this occasion to explore those two dimensions of prayer.

LITURGY – which includes all of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, plus the Liturgy of the Hours – is “the official prayer of the Church.” 

Anyone who participates in the liturgy, clerical or lay, should understand the entire Church – past, present, and future – is united in this prayer. 

Our presider is Jesus Christ, who offers himself with us as an acceptable sacrifice, “a sweet smelling incense” to God his Father in the Holy Spirit. 

Liturgy doesn’t belong to anyone person or group and not even the Pope should feel free to reshape it to his own preferences. It is very hard for an individualistic society, infatuated with personal preferences and expression, to embrace the magnitude of liturgy. I have to remind myself when I celebrate Mass, hear a confession, or go to confession, “This is not about me!”

Explaining liturgy I like to remember the centuries it has taken to settle the Easter Controversy; that is, “When do we celebrate Easter?” Although we’ve never entirely agreed on how to compute the right day, everyone agrees we should agree on the same day! As you know, the eastern and western churches have not yet come to terms on that.

In the meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church hears the same readings throughout the world every Sunday and on many weekdays. We also celebrate many of the saints days universally. Whether you enter a church in Rome, Louisville or Tokyo, you have joined the one Church, which as Saint Paul commanded, never ceases to pray.

DEVOTIONS, on the other hand, are shaped by local culture and one's personal preferences. Your devotions as an adult are probably not the same prayers of your childhood. We can celebrate the rosary with fifteen or twenty mysteries, or scripture passages, or no mysteries; we can walk the Stations of the Cross through ten, twelve, fourteen or twenty stations; we can practice lectio divina, go on pilgrimage, recite prayers, write prayers, or “just talk to God” as the Spirit moves us. We can light candles, burn incense, wear prayer shawls, sit in the lotus position or walk through a labyrinth. Devotions should express one's personal piety, imagination, and preferences. They can change with the liturgical seasons of the Church -- or not. Devotions might be solitary prayers or gatherings of thousands. Its place might be a church, cemetery, hospital room or city bus. 

I think THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LITURGY AND DEVOTIONS is like that of a musician to the symphony. She should love music and should practice daily. She will certainly have her personal tastes in music, and she might devote great study to particular composers or musical genres, but she leaves those particular interests at home when she joins the symphony. From that private devotion, she brings passion, skill and devotion to the symphony. And from that profound, near mystical experience of the symphony, she returns home to her private study of music with all the more pleasure. Of course the audience who loves music appreciates her contribution though they have no idea how many hours she devotes to by her passion. 

Likewise the Christian loves both public liturgy and private devotion. The devout Christian brings "real presence" to the assembly, forgetting herself and her own preferences, to celebrate the God who is beyond all imagining. From the Church she brings a song in her heart and lightness in her step, assured that she belongs to God's people. "He is our God, we are his people." 

We also take from the liturgy suggestions for our devotions. We have learned the Our Father at the Mass; we have studied the Bible after hearing it proclaimed in the Church; we smelled the incense and bought some for our own homes.
And we bring from our personal devotion all the more zeal for the liturgy. Having studied the scriptures at home, we feel all the more pleasure in hearing them proclaimed in church. Having fasted at home we are hungry for the Eucharist.

I might add that the Christian duties of private devotion and public liturgy are as demanding as the career of a professional musician. Our "audience" is the world, with its crying need for deliverance. They may not notice or appreciate our sacrifice, but they will when the Lord of Glory comes to save the nations. 

During this Pascal fortnight we want to bring our intense personal devotion to the Liturgies of the Church. Catholics and Christians throughout the world will observe this fifteen day celebration. It will be covered by newspaper, radio, television and blog.media. They will see once again in our gestures and our manner, how Good God Is.