More on Courtesy

As we gather for worship each Sunday, we engage in various traditional rituals. Some carry many of our religious and faith values. Others, while less attached to some core values, help to foster the well being of the community as we gather. Rituals in this sense are expressions of courtesy for one another and are shown in simple manners in our relationships.

Rituals help to express what values and beliefs we gather to celebrate. They are carried out in both the approved gestures of the Church and the simple manners which allow many people to gather graciously together. In official rituals and in gracious manners we know what to expect in the community at large, what is expected of us as participants, and to know the parameters and limits set within the community.

Ritual, manners, and courtesy allow us to function as a human and religious community. There are rituals which are set in the liturgical books, which have developed through the centuries. There are local manners, which help our parish community to welcome each other within our worship space. These shared rituals and shared manners allow us to courteously respect ourselves, our neighbors, and how we together becoming a social and faith community.

Religious Rituals
Rituals within our community allow us to discover who we are and share that identity with each other. As we come to Church on Sundays, we are the Body of Christ, who is at the center of our lives. Some rituals come from this reality:

+ We gently make our way through the parking lot. This is not the mall or the grocery store. Gentle words, patience, allowing others to pass are ways we begin to welcome each other.

+ On entering the Church, we are greeted and in turn greet various believers who gather.

+ We enter through the center doors and bless ourselves with holy water, remembering our baptism and our shared life in Christ.

+ We reverence the Presence of Christ among us in the Eucharist. This is done either by genuflecting reverently to the Reserved Eucharist before entering our place or we profoundly bow to the Altar as the place where the Lord gathers us.

+ Since the Lord has gathered us, we spend time in quiet prayer, listening to his invitation and opening ourselves to the action of his Spirit.

+ As the celebration begins, we stand together and allow the entrance hymn to move us further into the presence of God.

+ During the Liturgy of the Word, we listen and we allow others to listen to the scriptures. This is time for reverence where God speaks to our hearts and moves us to faith.

+ To better listen, we sit still and encourage our children to be still and quiet. God’s Word requires careful stillness.

+ Listening to God’s Word presumes we are present in the place of the Word. Normally this is in the Church. While child care in the Commons at times is required, it is not optimal to the hearing and receiving of God’s Word within us.

+ We move to participation in the Eucharistic Prayer. Again, attention and reverence allow God to act within the community.

+ At CTR, the communion procession begins from the back forward. Reverence and singing are the hallmarks of the liturgical action. Reverence is shown to the Lord present in both bread and wine with a slight bow of the head before approaching. One is free to receive either in the hand or on the tongue. Amen is our response before receiving communion.

+ Communion is received before returning to one’s seat. The Eucharist is never shared with children who have yet to receive First Communion.

Rituals Leave Taking
+ After communion, we stand to share in the final prayer and to receive the blessing.

Leaving before this moment fails to respect both Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and within each of our brothers and sisters.

+ During the final hymn, the Cross is shown to the community. It is the sign of the source of our life and hope as we leave. Tradition asks that the community does not leave before the priest.

Clothed for Ritual
+ The priest-celebrant wears special vestments to mark the blessed moments of God’s presence. The community as a whole, not just the ministers, should consider the sacredness of worship and dress accordingly.

+ Special days, special events, special meanings in our lives are shown in how we dress for the occasions.

How we act, interact, and dress for the occasion help us to minister to one another.

CDH