Inside ML

A good carpenter knows that using the right tool for the job avoids frustration and wasted effort and insures that the final product is both useful and well crafted. Inside this issue are features designed to be the right tools for some of the various tasks of ministry and liturgy.

Angela Hibbard offers a fresh look at questions raised about the display of flags in church. The tool she offers is one of the most valuable: information. Lynne Lane explores the mystery of mystagogy and she shares with us a survey about this ancient process. Her tool is also information, but she has included all our readers in the discovery process. Kevin McGloin borrows tools from the advertising and marketing trade to catechize about the Mass without explaining away the richness of ritual. Paul Turner has tools for smoothing the often sharp edges of preparing for a wedding celebration with ways for couples to share interactively with those who preach at their wedding.

The Stained Glass category of the Visual Arts Awards offers a means by which ordinary light is transformed into an extraordinary visual experience of faith. The tool offered by these artists may be something of a prism, a way of seeing with new eyes.

In future issues of ML, tools for the apprentice as well as tools for those more experienced in the art of liturgy will be featured. Think of ML as the “Snap-on Tools” truck of the liturgical world. Not only will tools be featured, but the raw materials needed to customize the various “projects” of liturgy and ministry will be provided as well. We need each of these tools and many more to craft liturgies that are worthy of celebration.

Bob Hovda once said that “Good liturgical celebration … lifts us momentarily out of the cesspool of injustice we call home, puts us in the promised and challenging reign of God, where we are treated like we have never been treated anywhere else.” Injustice is no stranger to ministry but fortunately neither is the grace that flows into and from liturgy. In these times of changing liturgical norms and uncertainty about the future of inclusive worship, good liturgical celebration seems now more than ever a most worthy goal.

ML bids a fond farewell to Kathi Scarpace after many years of commitment, vision and dedication. We wish her well in all the new directions her life will take. Her touch will be missed, but the impact she has made will endure. ML

What do YOU Think?
Send an e-mail to ML Editor or post an entry on the ML Current Issue Discussion Board. (All submissions become the property of RPI and may be edited for length.)