A Journal for The Contemporary Church

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Redeemably Awful: No more ‘stumping up to the altar’

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While a priest is indispensable for the celebration of the Eucharist, the celebration is not a solitary act. Every Christian ought to attend and ought to play their part. Sacrosanctum Concilium tells us that “to promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes” (30) .In my May article I pointed out that active participation doesn’t mean giving everybody a few lines to say or a song to sing, but this does not take away from the fact that when we celebrate the liturgy there are things that must be done, and these ministries should be done to the best of our ability with proper preparation, practice and formation.

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