In the 1960s and 1970s, two simple things happened: 1) the liturgy was promoted in the vernacular, and 2) the rites, containing words, symbols and actions, were revised on the page or in book form. The next decade is a time to take hold of these words, symbols and actions, to lift them off the page and into the liturgy. It is a time to learn how to make liturgy happen. The rule is basic: everything which helps liturgy happen is good and anything which hinders liturgy is bad.

The Documents on Liturgy suggest that "it is extremely necessary that [seminarians] learn communication skills... It is essential in liturgical celebrations that the faithful understand not only what the priest says..., but also what he is meant to express by gesture and action. Formation in communication skills is of such high importance in the reformed liturgy that it deserves very special consideration." (DOL 2837)

We also discover that seminaries must teach liturgical study and theology faculties ought to offer the study of liturgy as principal courses. (DOL 16)

Unfortunately, in the 25 years or so since the Second Vatican Council, Canadian seminaries and theology faculties have not offered liturgy in those ways. In fact, only within the last two years has a liturgy institute been set up to give summer seminar courses in Ottawa.

The outcome is a country of churches populated with presiders untrained in today's liturgy. The time and energy devoted to training a seminarian in the Latin tridentine rite, which made him competent to perform the rite, disappeared with the introduction of the vernacular. No time, relatively speaking, has been devoted to liturgical formation outside homiletics. "After all, it's in English!"

Time for Training

To think that language capability equals competency in performing the new rite is plainly wrong. The energy and time for training discarded after the Council must be recovered for our renewed rite. The baby has been thrown out with the bath water.

The documents point out clearly where training can come from: "Television is constantly showing us gestures that are beautiful, decorous and expressive. These..reflect hours of the most precise training and exacting rehearsal. Should the celebrants who handle...the realities of the new and everlasting covenant be exempt from the same basic preparation?" (DOL 488)

We need to train our seminarians in the theology and use of relaxation (breathing and voice), movement (for gathering attention), mime (for handling sacred objects), proclamation (for letting the gospel speak through one's body). The performing arts offer a gold mine for re-thinking our approach to liturgy. The problems which the performing arts encounter are the problems we find in liturgy: from the simple handicap of mumbling to more profound questions of finding and presenting meaning in a text.

Self Help in the Parish

In our parishes, we simply can't wait for training to be established and carried out. Each parish must take pains to train and retrain its ordained and lay ministers. That is how the renewal will continue: in each parish with much sweat, rethinking, courage, humour, relaxation and time. Our liturgy is a different ball game from the pre-conciliar liturgy. We simply cannot pretend otherwise without doing great disservice to the assembly and to our liturgy.

The renewal to date has effectively changed the texts and regulations governing our liturgies. But that is all. Outside authority can do no more - no-one can hold our hands for us. It is now up to each parish to affect change in themselves. To take hold of these new texts and make them work. It is a far more subtle, difficult job than the art of translation which gave us our new rite.

"If it is simple to restore to the rites a noble simplicity and marked brevity, it is not at all simple to change old habits and mannerisms. The disciples at Emmaus knew the Lord in the breaking of the bread; but can today's Christians see through to this same presence in the way in which their priests carry out the breaking of the bread in the liturgy? The celebrant's gestures function as signs; they are meant to reveal Christ's presence. But they will be effective as such only to the degree that they are motivated directly by an inner vision, the contemplation of mystery. Careful observance of rubrics, necessary though it is, is not enough here." (DOL 487)

Community Resources

We are hindered in our efforts by the lack of a well developed liturgical theology to help us out - there simply has not been enough written yet. Such a theology is taking shape. Nevertheless, virtually every parish in the country has the expertise within its boundaries to further this renewal.

While the art of public speaking is not enough for liturgy, it can help ministers be aware of the needs of proclamation. It can help ministers reflect on what they do now and what they must do. Urban parishes surely have practitioners of public relations who can help out with this task.

Every high school and university which has a theatre arts department can provide a wealth of resources for liturgy. Books on voice, movement, breathing abound in their libraries. More to the point, expert teachers are nearby to help a parish begin proclamation workshops and workshops for gesture, movement and the handling of sacred objects.

We must be clear in our own minds that it is not enough to simply say words and handle gifts in our renewed liturgy. Doing so, for instance, under the cover of an offertory song distracts us from offering and giving of gifts. It disintegrates Jesus' eucharistic shape: our ability to give thanks for Jesus' offering is literally covered up. It hearkens back to a pre-conciliar era and style of liturgy. Then, it was acceptable to merely say words and handle gifts because it was done in secret. Now, such practice in the post-conciliar liturgy is at odds with its spirit. Remember, the sacramentary only suggests "in a low voice" for prayer over the gifts. We must become capable to judge how such a suggestion affects our liturgical experience.

Discern the Spirit

Elsewhere, the Documents on Liturgy makes the very helpful suggestion that ministers must do more than mere formalism and enter into the spirit of the new liturgy (DOL 11). In order to survive the liturgical renewal, complete and prosper by it, we must become aware of how we help and how we hinder the liturgical shape of Jesus among us!