Liturgy

The liturgy is the public worship of the Church. It is celebrated, not by individuals or groups within the Church, but by the entire Body of Christ.

All of the faithful are called to fully participate in the liturgy. Most of us do this by
coming to the liturgy spiritually prepared, ready to join our minds and hearts, indeed our bodies, to all that we as a Church hear, say, and do in the liturgy. In this way, we cooperate with grace.

However, there is need of some of the faithful to take up special, integral roles in the liturgy, such as Altar servers, Sacristans, Lectors, Musicians and Eucharistic ministers of Holy Communion.

Altar Servers

Altar Servers assist the priest and deacon at the altar during the celebration of Mass. The duties of the altar servers include processing into the church with cross and candles, holding the missal for the priest, setting the altar during the offertory and assisting the priest or deacon with whatever they need during the liturgy. Altar Servers are to maintain a reverent and attentive disposition during the Mass, even so as to allow the congregation to enter into deeper worship.

Sacristans

Assist before and after weekdays & weekend and special liturgies by preparing and properly placing the items needed for each mass, i.e. bread, water, wine, bowls, chalices, candles, etc.

Lectors

Lectors proclaim the Word of God during the liturgy. On weekday Masses, Memorials, and Feasts a reading from either the Old or New Testament and a Psalm are proclaimed. On Sunday Masses, Solemnities, and certain Feast days an additional reading is read after the Psalm but before the Gospel. The Lector is also responsible to proclaim the Prayers of the Faithful, the prayers of the entire community offered to God, when a deacon is not present.

Lectors must proclaim the Word of God clearly and with devotion. Proclaiming the Word of God is not a theatrical performance, but a sacred act in which the lector allows the Holy Spirit to speak through him or her to the assembled community. Lectors must have public speaking skills and have a profound love and reverence for Sacred Scripture.

Eucharistic Ministers

Assist the priest in the distribution of Holy Communion with reverence and dignity at weekend & weekday masses. Share the warmth of your smile and a personal connection. Must be an active and confirmed parishioner nominated by Priest.

Focus of the liturgy

The saving life and mission of Christ is the central teaching of our faith; Church’s liturgy proclaims and celebrates this same mystery.
The least of all the saints, was given the grace of proclaiming to Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to reveal for all the plan, the mystery that was hidden for ages in God, the creator of all things, so that the multi-faceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and powers in the heavens, in accordance with the eternal plan he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:8-11).

Trinity shown in Worship

In the liturgy Worship and praise are offered to “God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit” Blessings are given “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, the sign of the Cross is a Trinitarian gesture.

Word of God in the liturgy

The Word of God speaks of the “wonders” worked in the sacraments and it expresses our response of faith. Therefore, the Word of God has an intense role in each liturgical act.
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1Timothy 4:16)

Music and art in liturgy

Music and art have always been used to enhance liturgies by lending beauty to the celebration and by lifting hearts and minds to God. They are best used when they illustrate the Word of God.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.(Col 3:16)

The liturgy of the hours

The liturgy of the hours is the public and official common prayer of the Catholic Church. It is prayed daily by priests, religious and an ever-increasing number of the laity. This form of the liturgy, based on the Psalms, is meant as a complement to Eucharistic devotion.
“God be gracious and bless us, God make his face shine upon us, that his ways be known on earth”(Psalm 67: 1-2)

Liturgical year

The liturgical year is the name given to the days and seasons within a year’s time in which the Church celebrates Christ’s Paschal Mystery. The liturgical seasons are Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Ordinary Time, Sundays and holydays, Feasts of Mary, celebrations of Saints’ day and other Feast days light the Church year with warmth to stir the devotion of God’s people.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recover y of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed” (LK 4:18-1).

liturgical colours

• Liturgical colours, usually green, purple, red, rose and white are colours of the priest’s outer vestment, the chasuble. Each colour helps to set the tone of joy, penance, etc. for particular liturgical seasons or feasts.
  White or gold for Christmas and Easter (the birth and resurrection).
• Purple during Advent and Lent but pink on the 3rd Sunday of Advent and on Laetare Sunday(Fourth Sunday of Lent). The purple reflects sorrow/suffering: suffering awaiting the arrival (ad + venire) of the Savior, and suffering to mark Christ’s 40 days in the desert (Lent).
• Red on the feasts of martyrs (obviously, red = blood).
• Green during the rest of the liturgical year (green symbolizing hope).
• Black used to be worn for funerals, but since Vatican II, white is now worn (to symbolize life rather than mourning).

Advent

The season of Advent lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. At that time, the new Christian year begins with the twelve-day celebration of Christmastide, which lasts from Christmas Eve until Epiphany on January 6. (Advent begins on Sunday that falls between November 27th and December 3rd each year.)

Christmas & Christmas Season

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.
In the Christian tradition, the Christmas season is a period beginning on Christmas Day (December 25). In some churches (e.g. the Anglican Communion) the season continues until the day before the Epiphany, which is celebrated either on January 6 or on the Sunday between January 2 and 8.

What is Lent?

Lent is a solemn religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. Mathew 4:1-2

Easter & Easter Season

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb on the third day after his crucifixion. Easter is the fulfilled prophecy of the Messiah who would be persecuted, die for our sins, and rise on the third day. (Isaiah:53). Remembering the resurrection of Jesus is a way to renew daily hope that we have victory over sin.
The Easter Season is fifty days, not forty days, like Lent, or four weeks or slightly less, like Advent. The Easter Season extends from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. It is sometimes known as the “Festival of Weeks,” seven weeks of seven days (49 days), plus one, the fiftieth day, Pentecost.

What is the Easter Vigil?

The Easter Vigil is the high point of the Easter celebrating the passion and resurrection of Jesus. The vigil opens with a service of light. The lighting of the fire and the Easter candle go back to rites that long preceded Christianity. The candle, carried with loving reverence and lyrically praised in word and song, is a sign of Christ, “the light of the world,” and celebrates the victory of light over darkness that humanity has ever longed for.
Rejoice! This night says as it brings before us the deepest symbols of our hopes and fears. The darkness, sign of evil and death, has been overcome by light. A lamp, a candle has been lit; a fire is enkindled in our hearts; a nourishing water flows through our lives; a baptism destroys what is unclean and brings to life again.

Pentecost

Pentecost is the festival when Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated on the Sunday 50 days after Easter Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Christian church.

Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time refers to all of those parts of the Catholic Church’s liturgical year that aren’t included in the major seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. Ordinary Time thus encompasses two different periods in the Church’s calendar, since the Christmas season immediately follows Advent, and the Easter season immediately follows Lent.

The Church year begins with Advent, followed immediately by the Christmas season. Ordinary Time begins on the Monday after the first Sunday after January 6, the traditional date of the Feast of the Epiphany and the end of the liturgical season of Christmas. This first period of Ordinary Time runs until Ash Wednesday when the liturgical season of Lent begins. Both Lent and the Easter season fall outside of Ordinary Time, which resumes again on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday, the end of the Easter season. This second period of Ordinary Time runs until the First Sunday of Advent when the liturgical year begins again.

DAY	SERVICE TYPE	VENUE	TIME	REMARK
Sunday	Malayalam Mass	Our Lady Of Arabia Auditorium	07:00 PM	Obligation Mass
Every 2nd Monday	Malayalam Mass	SHC Main Church	07:30 PM	Regular Mass
Every Last Monday	Malayalam Mass	SHC Main Church	07:30 PM	Regular Mass
Tuesday	Malayalam Mass	SHC Main church	07:30 PM	Regular Mass & ST.Antony’s Novena
Every 2nd & 4th Friday	Malankara Mass	St.Padri Pio Social Hall	06:00 PM	Obligation Mass
Every Friday	Malayalam Mass	SHC Main church	07:00 PM	Obligation Mass
Every 2nd & 4th Saturday	Malankara Mass	St.Padri Pio Social Hall	06:30 PM	Regular Mass

Joining the Ministry

Be a servant of God. Serve him with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul. God bless you all.

Opportunities in Liturgy Ministry:

• Sacristan
• Altar Server
• Altar Server Animator
• Lector
• Choir
• Slides Operating

For more information, please visit our Spiritual Director’s Office (Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph OFM Cap.)

Jinesh Mathew – Coordinator