Planning Checklist

• Were your community celebrations the high point of the liturgical year? Did your community take a step forward in their shared faith journey? Were the faith needs of the neophytes met? Did you continue to support them throughout the time of mystagogia? Was this a mystagogical time for the rest of the assembly as well? 
• What was your experience of baptism during this season? Did it contrast strikingly against the absence of baptism during Lent? If your community is still baptizing during Lent, or baptizing outside of community worship, now is the acceptable time to enact a change for next year. 
• Does your community have a solid understanding of sign and symbol, enabling them to enter more deeply into the Easter mysteries? If not, have you considered enlightening and engaging ways to increase their awareness? Regular exposure to different prayer forms and interactive experiences with ritual and symbols are positive ways to help folks grow in their awareness, understanding and participation in liturgy.
• Did you maintain consistency throughout the season in ritual and in music? After weeks of Glorias and sprinkling rites, were you tempted to let these fade a bit? Faced with this challenge, were you able to maintain the Easter intensity in ritual and in sung prayer? If not, can you identify when and why things began to come apart? When this happens, it is often a sign of burnout among the leadership in ministry. 
• With that in mind, have you done enough to see that those who carry the bulk of the burden during Lent–Holy Week–Triduum–Easter are supported and cared for? Are they getting sufficient time off to recharge? Your music ministers work their hardest this time of year, and they don’t live by bread alone. See to it that they and others who willingly sacrifice their time and energy take the time off that they need. If you haven’t made provision for backup for these people, do so. 
• While we work to keep the flowers and plants of the environment for Easter vibrant and alive, are we working equally as hard to keep all aspects of the liturgy vibrant and well balanced? Now is a good time to make sure your notes of the season are complete and to include in those notes ways to build on the good that was accomplished this year. Speaking of accomplishment, did you remember to thank the many workers who make this season such a joyful time? 

• Are you continuing to celebrate well or has everyone run out of steam?
• Did you give the transitional celebrations of the Holy Trinity and the Body and Blood of Christ the care and attention they demand? Did you consider ways to make the substantial mysteries of these solemnities more accessible to the community at prayer? So often we hear that in the postconciliar church, a sense of mystery has been lost. Certainly these two solemnities focus on the great mysteries of our faith; have you done enough to break open these mysteries through devotional prayer, liturgical catechesis and solid worship experiences? Did the imagery, signs and symbols of the liturgy speak for themselves?
• This is a good time of year to put out a “question box,” into which people can put written questions about the liturgy and the church in a non-threatening way. However you choose to approach these issues, have you considered the best ways to answer these questions? We are always challenged to meet people wherever they are on these issues, so it’s best to think out beforehand how best to deal with worship issues that are near and dear to the hearts of the faithful.
• How can you help to build community during the spring and summer months? Are there gardens that need tending or planting on the parish grounds? Details of the church outdoors that need sprucing up? These are really art and environment issues as much as they are maintenance issues. Is there a place where you might celebrate morning or evening prayer outdoors once the days become longer and warmer? Is a Mass followed by a picnic a possibility?
• For many people, the summer months are a time when schedules relax a bit. Can we entice some of these people to an evening of exploration in the church? Ordinary Time, when the pressure of the previous season has lifted, is a good time for the community to learn new songs and acclamations. Teaching these during the proper seasons of the year is a distraction, so now is the time to do this. Is there a possibility of gathering people for the sole purpose of learning new liturgical music? We have carol sings; why not get together to sing other types of music, perhaps with some sort of social gathering at the end?
• Speaking of social gatherings, I mentioned in the last issue how important it is for the people who prepare liturgy to be able to dream and to share their vision with one another. In this stretch of Ordinary Time, can you set aside time to do exactly that, to dream and vision and brainstorm about the next liturgical year? It would definitely be time well spent.

• While summer Ordinary Time does not require the amount of detailed preparation as the seasons preceding and following, liturgy should always be prepared with care, and this season is no exception. Have you considered scheduling ministers around vacations? Calculated the difference in altar bread and wine that you will need during the summer months? Most communities experience a difference in attendance during these months.
• There are many opportunities during the summer months for continuing education, workshops, retreats, days of recollection, etc. Have you encouraged interested people in ministry and among the assembly as a whole to consider taking advantage of some of these experiences? You may be surprised at which people respond. Remember that to get a good response a personal touch is required, but this is effort well spent. Will you take time to reflect on the liturgical year as a whole during these months? The only way to prepare liturgy well is to consider the year in entirety.
• On the other hand, have you taken care not to overload schedules during these months? Leisure time is important for everyone.
• Finally, will you take time to seek the sacred in the ordinary? That, after all, is the reason we celebrate in Ordinary time.

ML

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—ML