I have been planning liturgies for more years than I want to count. But early on, I learned that liturgies don’t need to be “planned.” The planning is done by the Church through the Liturgical Year and the Liturgical books. We have the readings, most of the prayers, and the focal points determined by the liturgical season. What we are really doing is “preparing” the liturgy. This is not an idea that I invented. It came from a book titled Preparing for Liturgy by Austin Fleming. (From Liturgy Training Publications). I also learned over the years that we have to prepare the liturgy for the people. Just as important but often neglected, we have to prepare the people for the liturgy. Preparing the people means to give them background information that invites to participate more deeply in the rituals.
For example, it is helpful to know that what the Church calls Ordinary Time is not named because it is ordinary: routine, common, dull. “Ordinary” comes from ordinal numbers. We count the Sundays of the year – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time; 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time; 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time. During these Sundays of the year, we are not focusing on a particular aspect of the life and teachings of Jesus such as we do at Christmas and Easter. Rather, any and all aspects of the life and teachings of Christ are presented. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states: “Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ.”
My goal in writing these posts is to help prepare people for the liturgy by explaining and enhancing the background of what we do and why we do it. Sometimes I may write about the readings, but there will be other topics that I hope will enrich or affirm your liturgical understanding.