What Will be Your New Liturgical Year's Resolution
- November 16, 2011
Here is a popular phrase of motivational speakers describing those who do
not want to adapt: “Change is good … as long as it doesn’t affect me.” We
can all have this feeling from time to time. Change can be challenging and
difficult, whether it is something we are happily anticipating (a different job,
a new house, a baby) or something unwelcome (death, aging, dental surgery).
Often, we can be both pleased about a future change, yet also sensing a bittersweet
sorrow at the things we will necessarily give up.
As with many things in life, much of the pleasure or pain of change comes from our
mindset. For change that we know is coming, do we avoid thoughts of the impending new
things and hide hoping that it will all go away, or do we prepare ourselves as well as possible
and think positively? Whether change is known in advance or a sudden difference, and
whether it is a looked for or a dreaded alteration to our routine, accommodating and opening
ourselves to what is happening can make all the difference as to whether it is an agreeable
or a painful transition.
For the last year, we in the English-speaking Catholic Church have been preparing for
the revised Roman Missal -- new translations of Latin texts that will affect what we say and
how we say it at Mass. This change, like all others, is a mixture of experiences: we have had
the opportunity to reflect on what we do at liturgy and why; some of the new prayers are
poetic and challenging; we also need to say goodbye to what we have become accustomed
to for over 40 years.
It is quite appropriate that we will begin using the revised missal on the First Sunday of
Advent. Advent is a time of anticipation and preparation, looking forward to the celebration
of the incarnation of our savior at Christmas and waiting for when Christ will come to
us again in glory. We have prepared for and awaited this change of texts. We know that it is
not the end but the beginning of something new, just as the arrival of the Messiah in flesh
was not the end but the beginning.
It is also appropriate that we all hear and participate in the new Mass prayers and responses
on the first day of the new liturgical year. As we start another cycle of liturgies with the birth
of Christ and go on through the year celebrating the saints and feasts of our faith in liturgy
and life, the responses and prayers in Mass will take on new life and new meaning for us.
Often in a new calendar year, people use Jan. 1 as a chance to make New Year’s resolutions,
promising how they will change and grow in the coming year. What will be your resolution
for the new liturgical year? Will it be to complain and resist the changes since they are not
perfect or are not what you have said by rote for many years? Or will your resolution be to
give yourself and everyone else – clergy and laity – time to adapt to the changes with trust,
patience and humor? In all such matters, the choice is ours. It is to be hoped that everyone in our
archdiocese can grow together as we change and adapt under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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