Assembly Manners

The Lord’s Day is the center of our parish life. Each week our very large and diverse community gathers for worship. In this liturgical Assembly we read and celebrate God’s Word. We gather to be fed with the food of the Lord’s Table. As the community encounters God present among us, each person has a renewed experience as God becomes an intimate part of their life.

It is always amazing to see the diversity of our parish as people with their families stream across the parking lot and into the church. As the priests greet the faithful and engage in conversation as they come for Mass, the experience is filled with people from all around our local area, from varying ethnic and racial groups, and with all kinds of viewpoints and opinions. The Body of Christ sure looks, sounds, and is diverse in its make-up.

The challenge of this diversity within our community is to integrate and blend our minds and hearts into a community of faith. The ritual expression of worship helps in this endeavor. The very purpose of the music and singing is to gather the believers, to literally raise their minds, hearts, and voices in praise of God who calls us together. The Entrance Hymn or Gathering Song, for example, engages us in the common task of coming into the Lord’s Presence.

The Word of God is shared. It is the common revelation of the God and Father of all of us. We gather as God’s People around the Eucharistic Table to eat the one bread and drink the one cup. There we are gathered in the one Spirit as gift before the Father in Christ.

Ritual and Manners
A richness of our liturgical tradition in the Catholic Church is the ritual itself. Ritual is a pattern of repeated, religious behaviors, which allow God to show himself to us and for us to discover his presence among us. The patterned and regular sitting, standing, and kneeling engage the whole person and the whole community. The singing, acclaiming, listening, and responding opens a pathway to the holiness of God himself. Our human words and actions become grace-filled. Ritual, in one sense, is the set of our religious manners as we pray and as we encounter not only God, but our neighbor.

Less clear, but important, within our Assembly, are the customary manners by which we interact with other believers around us. Manners are the courtesies and modes of interaction by which we express respect for the other as we engage in our faith journey. Reverence for holy things is our way of interacting with the holy gifts of God in his Word and actions. The Assembly is itself God’s gift to us on the Lord’s Day. Wherever the community gathers, God is within and among us.

Ritual and manners allow us to show respect and reverence for God and his holy actions within the People of God.

Some reminders of manners within our community to allow the common expression of reverence and even awe for the things of God among us:

+ Show respect for other believers by arriving on time and ready to greet one another as gift from God.

+ Arrive early to bring yourself into the Presence of God by prayer and reflection on God’s Word.

+ Show gentleness in the parking lot as God’s People arrive. Be alert to the needs of families, children, and elderly among us. Go slower, hold the door open, and greet each other.

+ Support others at worship by singing, praying, listening, and professing your faith.

+ Help others to listen to God’s Word by attending to their needs. Be supportive of families with children, but be attentive to those with hearing difficulties.

+ Help others to pray in the Commons during the celebration. Attend to your children. Form them in the faith, by not allowing them to run, make unnecessary movement or noise. Adults have no need to have conversations with others during the readings and prayers.

+ Be gracious in allowing others to pass in the pews and during the communion procession.

+ Spend prayer time after communion. Early exits for whatever reason fail to show reverence for the Eucharist and to support others in prayer.

+ Do not allow your children to eat or drink in the church. Only Eucharistic food is food for God’s People. Teach your children that from an early age. Adults, despite local fashion, can do without water and unsightly bottles left behind.

+ And one last thing … Take a look in the mirror before you come to Mass and ask the question: am I and my children dressed to encounter God in his Word and in the food of his Table? Does what I wear show that I value the encounter with other believers in the community? Do I dress better to go to work, to dinner, or to the theatre?

Some might say that manners and ritual inhibit their individuality. Worship is not about being “me,” but being part of the Body of Christ. We are made into the one People of God within the community. If we dress and act the part of being in Christ, we might come to believe it. Together we might just become the Body of Christ for one another.

CDH