Among contemporary Catholic evangelization programs, you often hear about the importance of the Scriptures. You hear that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is mediated through our reading of the Bible both privately and in groups.
But, it is often forgotten that the fullness of the Scriptures is made manifest within the context of the liturgy itself. As Pope Benedict writes in Verbum Domini:
To understand the word of God, then, we need to appreciate and experience the essential meaning and value of the liturgical action. A faith-filled understanding of sacred Scripture must always refer back to the liturgy, in which the word of God is celebrated as a timely and living word (§52).
We meet the person of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures as they are sung and proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Hours, in the Mass, and in the sacraments of the Church. We see these Scriptures interpreted in stained glass windows, in medieval manuscripts, in iconography, and in the lives of the saints.
All Scriptural evangelization must at least implicitly take the liturgy as the starting point.
But how do we do this?
This summer, the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy will be hosting a series of summer Symposia on a liturgical reading of the Scriptures.
- From June 19th through June 23rd, we will be hosting our first annual Liturgy and Life Symposium on encountering Jesus Christ in the liturgy. We will study how the person of Jesus Christ is encountered in the Church's remembering in the liturgical year, in the lives of the saints, in the Liturgy of the Hours, and in prayer within the domestic Church. We will also have workshops on how to develop sacramental preparation that is founded in an encounter with Jesus Christ; how to celebrate the liturgy as a priest or deacon as a way of pointing toward Jesus Christ; and how to plan liturgical music and form choirs to meet Jesus Christ as mediated through singing. At the end of the week, those attending will have a liturgical evangelization plan to renew their school or parish approach to liturgy.
- From June 26th through 30th, we will also be hosting our first annual Symposium intended to adapt Sofia Cavalletti's approach to forming young children to other settings including high school and middle school pedagogy, as well as adult formation in parishes. We will do so through through studying the senses of the Scriptures, as well as developing concrete pedagogical strategies based in the principles of Montessori education. Everyone will leave this Symposium with a series of lesson plans that you can use in the classroom or in the parish context.
- From July 17th until July 21st, we will be hosting our third annual Liturgical Music Ministry formation event in conjunction with Notre Dame Vision. Liturgical music ministers through schools and parishes throughout the United States will learn to see the music of the Church as an encounter with the Scriptures. At the end of the week, participants will not only be renewed in their own approach to ministry but develop a sense of how to use liturgical music to facilitate Scriptural catechesis.
Space in each of these programs is limited. And the early registration deadline is approaching.
So, if you're interested in facilitating a Scriptural encounter with Jesus Christ through the Church's liturgy, make sure to sign up quickly.
Registration is available on the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy's website. You may also contact us at ndcl@nd.edu for more information.
