Sharings

Dear Editor,

In response to the note in Worship Times in your September issue (ML 25:7), please let me explain my position with regard to the so-called Tridentine Liturgy.

Our Holy Father has given permission for the rites of 1962 to be used once again as a pastoral outreach to those hundreds of thousands of people who find spiritual comfort in the old rites. He even asked the bishops of the world to be welcoming and generous in granting permission for the use of these rites. Some may think this is not the route to go, but the Pope has deemed otherwise. In the practical order, that settles the matter for me.

What I would like to see is a more welcoming, charitable attitude on the part of all of us toward those who worship in a rite which may be different or somewhat foreign to us. The church has decided that we should co-exist side by side, so why not live and let live? Maybe someday there will be one rite for the whole church, but I won’t hold my breath. In the meantime, let charity prevail.

With kindest personal regards and every best wish, I am sincerely yours in Christ.

Most Rev. James C. Timlin
Bishop of Scranton, NJ

Hospitality vs. tradition

Dear Editor,

In the November issue (ML 25:9), Father John Thomas Lane offered three proposals for the proper time to distribute the host and cup to the Eucharistic Ministers at Mass. I understand that hospitality is the reason for the desire to change the practice. However, there is a long tradition in both the Eastern and Latin Rites that some liturgical gestures flow from the altar to the ministers and then to the assembly.For example, the Maronite Rite offers us the beautiful symbol of the Sign of Peace which flows from the altar to the priest and then to the altar servers who in turn exchange that peace sign to members of the assembly. In the same way,the church upholds the tradition that the Eucharistic species flows from the altar to the priest, the deacon,the eucharistic ministers and then the assembly. The argument in favor of hospitality, noble as it may be, weakens the beautiful tradition of the altar as the central point and source from which our eucharistic celebration flows.

Rev. John P. Dolan
Oceanside, Calif.

ML

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