Dear Friends in Christ,

As I generally write these on the Wednesday before they come out, I’m writing this on a day when I’m teaching at Mosaic in the evening.

The class is part of a series on liturgy and this session looks at the movements of the priest around the Altar. This includes gestures, how we actually stand, why we make certain signs and when, and about general posture of prayer.

One of the interesting things about seminaries and seminary formation is that it’s not unusual to be able to tell which seminary someone attended and to guess which professor of liturgy happened to teach them. Of course, the way all of us learned to do it is the “right way” and all others are doing it wrong!

The right way though, I would maintain, is less about the precision of the movements—or the volume and frequency of them—but it is instead about the intentionality of the actions. The professor of liturgy who taught me, for example, said that when a priest elevates the Bread they should do so as if lifting the weight of the world. The way they do it should communicate the weight of the moment. This is not about a “right way” to lift it so much as it is about doing it with one’s heart set rightly on the Presence of Christ.

This is not just a principle for the study of liturgy though. It applies to the whole of the Christian life. There may be days when we only have thirty seconds to pray—make them a heavy thirty seconds.

There may be days when we’ve only got time for a few words for our kids or our spouse—make them intentional ones.

There will be times in life when we’re pressed on all sides by stuff that distracts us from the basics. There’s nothing particularly difficult about picking up a piece of bread and putting it down. There’s something quite powerful in picking up our Lord’s Body and putting it down. The failure to see the difference is the space into which sin creeps. When we treat these things lightly, for too long, we forget why they meant so much in the first place.

It’s the same with Christian life and relationships. When we treat them lightly for too long we forget why it’s so important to hold onto them in the first place. If each person we encounter is some part of the Body too then it is incumbent on us to hold the relationships with gentle firmness. It’s important that we consider how we move in them, what gestures we make, and what our general approach to these will be. It’s not about doing them right but it is about having the right intentions in doing them.

Sometimes we need the reminder to slow down and remember what we’re doing. In some ways, all those actions at the Altar are there to protect the congregation from the boredom of the priest. We need reminders, many of them, that sometimes we’re holding the weight of the world in our hands. In all of our Christian journeys we’ll hold that weight at times—when we do, it can be a reminder of all the precious ways God trusts us to care for and hold onto what’s precious to him.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert