Rorate Caeli Mass celebrates the Virgin for Advent
These are dark days, and we are battle weary. There are a multitude of wars raging, geo-political, cultural, ecclesiastical, domestic and physical, and the northern winter has us scuttling like burrowing animals, seeking out light and warmth.
Encountering beauty in liturgy
In his 2022 apostolic letter Desiderio desideravi, Pope Francis said congregants are called “to be astonished at the beauty of the liturgy.”
Charity demands shaking hands at Mass
One of the most oft-quoted passages of the New Testament is 1 Corinthians 13:1: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” The ensuing verses are probably the most popular option for the epistle in the Roman Catholic Nuptial Mass and why wouldn’t it be at an occasion when we are celebrating the love between the bride and groom?
As controversy and deep division continued in an Indian archdiocese over the direction the priest faces during the celebration of the liturgy, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis named Slovak Archbishop Cyril Vasil of Košice as his pontifical delegate to help resolve the dispute.
Now it’s time to ‘do the good’
I have just returned from a week singing under the California sun. Not favourite lyrics from the Beach Boys though, but Gregorian chant and Renaissance motets. Along with 74 other choristers, choir directors and organists who attended a Sacred Music Symposium hosted by St. John the Baptist Parish in Orange County, I return to my home parish eager to put into practice what I have learned.
New hymnal expected for 2024
By the time the Catholic Book of Worship III hits its 30th birthday in 2024, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops hopes to have its replacement sitting in the pews.
Installation Mass filled with ‘theological richness’
Installing a new bishop is a very big deal. And every big deal in a Catholic diocese calls for a big liturgy.
Laypeople in an archdiocese of India's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church have begun a round-the-clock vigil to stop the Vatican-appointed administrator from gaining entry into the archbishop's house.
Since language provides the foundation for thoughts and culturally roots people in communities, the death of a language means the death of the unique cultural wisdom that it holds.
Still a way to go for Indigenous liturgy
More than 70 aboriginal languages are spoken in Canada, according to the 2016 census. But you can’t fully celebrate the Eucharist in any of them. Anointing the sick, baptisms, funerals, weddings and other important sacramental markers of Catholic life are also delivered on Indigenous land in English or French.
Pope Francis appoints new master of papal liturgical ceremonies
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis named Msgr. Diego Giovanni Ravelli, who has served as an official of the papal almoner's office since 2013, as the new master of papal liturgical ceremonies, the Vatican said.
Gerry Turcotte: How to live the liturgy through everyday work
There is an old joke that asks what the difference is between a liturgist and a terrorist. The punchline: You can negotiate with a terrorist.
Missal updated in Canada
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has agreed to adjust the English-language wording to the conclusion of the Collect (the opening prayer) in the Roman Missal approved for use in Canada.
Christianity without liturgy is absent of Christ, Pope Francis says
VATICAN CITY -- The liturgy is not a spectacle to be observed but a prayerful event where Christians encounter Christ's presence in their lives, Pope Francis said.
Our calendar of liturgical seasons is rather bare compared to some of our sister Catholic Churches. That is never more evident than in our long season of “Ordinary Time,” an uninspired translation of a banal original (in Latin, “Sundays of the Year”).