LITURGICAL MINISTRY *E-BOOK* A Practical Guide to Spirituality Donna M. Cole PDF, $9.95 84 pages, 5½" X 8½" ISBN 0-89390-677-8 View Table of Contents View Excerpt Quantity: (see download instructions below)

Support and affirm your volunteer liturgical ministers with this concise and practical book on spirituality. From the premise that all liturgical ministry is important and should be prepared for prayerfully, Donna Cole uses the commissioning rite as the basis for the liturgical minister's formation. Front chapters provide practical tips specific to lectors, ministers of communion, musicians, ministers of hospitality, and servers.

Reviews

 “Liturgical Ministry is a very helpful resource for both the novice and the seasoned liturgical minister. Donna Cole invites her reader to prepare for ministry — whether that of reader, musician, acolyte, minister of communion or of hospitality — by study, reflection, and prayer, and she provides the resources to do just that.”
— Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ, professor of liturgy, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago

 “Liturgical Ministry is an outstanding guide for the formation of liturgical ministers. Priests, deacons, and all those charged with the formation of ministers and the liturgy will find it an invaluable help in both the practical training and spiritual formation of new and not-so-new liturgical ministers. A copy of this manual should be given to every person involved in liturgical ministry.”
— The Rev. William J. Fadrowski, executive director, Office of the Clergy Personnel, Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.

 “Donna Cole admirably shows us that liturgical ministry is not merely carrying out certain functions as we worship together; rather, this ministry — like all forms of ministry — primarily concerns the ways we relate to God, to those we serve, and to our deepest selves. Highly recommended for both ordained and lay ministers.”
— Lawrence J. Johnson, director, The Pastoral Press, and author of The Word and Eucharist Handbook and The Mystery of Faith

 “Liturgical Ministry shares inspirational prayer and practical guidance that sensitize us to the importance of both our own spiritual preparation and the ‘public’ posture necessary to effectively represent ourselves to the world as ministers of the church and Christ. Parish ministers, after reading this wonderful book, will further realize how their role as prepared leaders affects the assembly. A ‘must read’ for all who are called to serve at any and all levels of ministry.”
— Susan Sturm, St. Catherine of Siena Parish Communications, Cedar Grove, N.J.

 “A parish could make good use of this book as the text for a series of workshops with all of its ministers (including the ordained ones). Together they could work through the book's first two sections, and then, using the third section in small groups, they might pursue a common understanding to be gained by all those who share a specific ministry.”
— Gordon Truitt, reviewer, from Celebration, January 1998

About the Author

 Donna Cole is associate coordinator for liturgy and a liturgical musician at St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Cedar Grove, N.J. Active in liturgy planning and ministry training, she gives workshops on ministry formation, parish life and music planning.

Table of Contents

 Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments

 Call and Response
 
 

• Call to Spirituality
• Call to Prayer
• Call to Service
• Discernment

   

The Prayer of Ritual

• Exploring Faith through Liturgy
• Transforming Faith into Action

Active Ministry

• Readers
• Ministers of Communion
• Ministers of Music
• Ministers of Hospitality
• Servers

Conclusion
Final Reflection
References and Suggested Reading

Following is the forward to Liturgical Ministry. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1996, Resource Publications, Inc.

 Foreword

 A few years ago the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commission conducted a poll as to what was the most pressing challenge for the liturgical renewal. The response came as a surprise. The greatest challenge was perceived to be not what the liturgists expected: for example, the restructuring of rites or even the need for greater participation. It was rather the fact that people were out of touch with their religious experiences of God. Many worshipers appeared to be unable to relate what goes on at the Sunday eucharistic assembly with their lives during the rest of the week.

 Liturgical Ministry: A Practical Guide to Spirituality addresses this need as it relates to the ministers of the Word, holy communion, music, hospitality, and serving. Donna Cole is eminently qualified for this task. She generously volunteers her time and talent as associate coordinator for liturgy at St. Catherine of Siena parish in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, where I serve as pastor. I know firsthand that she walks the talk. She finds her spirituality in the ministry she gives to the parish.

 How does she do it? Donna tells us it begins with a call from God to serve the church. This call is what makes the difference between a liturgical functionary (“giving out communion”) and a liturgical minister (“sharing the Eucharist”). This call leads to a spiritual identity as a minister, which includes a willingness to share more deeply with one's whole being in the paschal mystery of Christ we celebrate in the liturgy.

 The liturgy is the public worship of the church. It was never intended to fulfill all our needs for prayerful communion with God. For this reason Donna offers suggestions from liturgical texts and from postures such as standing, sitting, kneeling, bowing, signing, and so forth in order to knit together personal prayer alone with personal prayer together (the sacred liturgy). In this way one is more in touch with an interior life so that a transition to common prayer is facilitated.

 In the chapter titled “Call to Service” she addresses the particular challenge of being a lay minister in a world where you find yourself often unsupported by Christian values and must take the risk of appearing different by witnessing to Jesus Christ. This growth process toward discipleship calls for an ongoing discernment that flows from a vibrant spirituality. Her unpacking of the existential meaning of the renunciation and profession of faith at baptism is one of the highlights of the book.

 What all this comes down to is the spirituality of the specific liturgical ministry: The various ministers find Christ in the very exercise of the ministry they perform in the service of their brothers and sisters in Christ. And what is more, they exercise their ministry properly to the extent that they animate the ministry of the assembly. Once the liturgical assembly is conscious of their sublime dignity that flows from baptism, they too are more eager to enter into the mystery of Christ dying and rising through their full, conscious, and active participation within the liturgy and by their commitment to go forth as a church with a mission to transform the world.

 I am pleased to have been asked to write these few words that commend DonnaÆs insights to a wider audience.

 The Very Rev. Charles W. Gusmer, STD,
Episcopal vicar, Archdiocese of Newark