50/50 - IT'S ALL ABOUT PRESENCE

The "Gathering Rite" and the "Liturgy of the Word" in GIRM 2000

Recently a friend said: "The older I get the more I realize that 50% of life is 'showing up.'" I responded: "So true, and the other 50% is being as fully 'present' as possible." What a gift when we are totally attentive - sharing and listening with body, mind, and heart - it has the potential of changing lives.

It is this spirit of undivided attention - loving presence - that The General Instruction of the Roman Missal - 2000 reminds us that we are to 'show up' - Gather - and 'get involved' - be present with body, mind and heart an the "Liturgy of the Word" and all other parts of the Mass. We are not called to be passive participants at any part of our liturgical celebrations but rather active participants who join in the dance of movements (gestures and changing postures), spoken and sung words, silence and listening that will bring us to new understandings of our faith and thus live our faith more efficaciously.

Perhaps the best way to understand the readings at the Mass and our response to them is offered by Pope John Paul II in his Instruction Dies Domini. He encourages those who take part in the Eucharist, priest, ministers and faithful ... to prepare the Sunday liturgy, reflecting beforehand upon the Word of God which will be proclaimed and adds that if we do not, it is difficult for the liturgical proclamation of the Word of God alone to produce the fruit we might expect. (n. 40) In this way we till the soil, preparing our souls to receive the seeds to be planted by the Word of God so that seed may bear fruit.*

* From the Roman Missal Formation and Materials provided by the Secretarial for the Liturgy of the United States conference of Catholic Bishops, 2002.