Bishop Serratelli

May I just say that the people of Paterson are blessed in his Excellency ('zat the right term of address?)
This serious of articles quite good, quite good.
No, I don't live there, I can't say what is actually being accomplished in the diocese, some of the less joyful hopeful in St Blogs say he's really got his work cut out for him, that the celebration of the Liturgy there is quite the mess...
And others ask, what influence does he really have?
I know in some liturgy meeting or other in some discussion of some rite or other where a bit of mourning was going on that the diocesan O of W had mandated that something be done in a way more in line with ideal liturgical practice that was NOT "The Way We Do It Here," it was wryly noted that while we had gone to some trouble to try to change it, the parish where the chancery official over whose signature said mandate arrived was pastor -- was not in compliance!

My attitude about that sort of maneuvering is pretty sanguine. I can hear Mike or Carol Brady's voice asking, if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you do it?

What he does at his own parish doesn't matter to me as much as our trying to do what's right here. (I note with pleasure that our sacred vessels are always of a permanent, patently not for quotidian use, off-the-shelf-at-Marshall-Fields substance, although photos of the Jubilee Mass implied that the Precious Blood was offered in glass goblets...)

But I digress, back to the words of the good Bishop (soon to be replacing His Excellency Bishop Trautman as BCL chair, and hip-hip for that!)

http://www.patersondiocese.org/page.cfm?Web_ID=2224
First article, The Loss of the Sacred
With the enthusiasm that followed the Second Vatican Council, there was a well-intentioned effort to make the liturgy modern.
.. the awareness of entering into something sacred that has been given to us from above and draws us out of ourselves and into the mystery of God was gone.
Teaching about the Mass began to emphasize the community.
... Lost the awesome mystery of the Eucharist as Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

http://www.patersondiocese.org/article.cfm?Web_ID=2237
next The Recovery of the Sacred
The Second Vatican Council began the liturgical reform with the hope of reinvigorating this sense of the Presence of God who comes to meet us in love. Two generations after the Council, we are still searching for a deeper sense of the sacred in our Liturgy. We now realize some of the ways in which this can be accomplished. It is good to look at a few of these.
...In church, we need to cultivate a sense of God who is present to us. This is why we are called to observe moments of silence. Both before Mass begins and during Mass. Liturgy is much more than our joining together. It is our opening ourselves to God. By our singing and praying, we respond to the God who addresses us in Liturgy. A constant torrent of words and songs filling every empty space in the Liturgy does not leave the heart the space it needs to rest quietly in the Divine Presence.

http://www.patersondiocese.org/page.cfm?Web_ID=2246
now, The Eucharist: The Sacred Adventure of Life (what a GREAT title!)
First, the very giving of the Eucharist reminds us of the structure of a meal.
...Second....the Eucharist as not just a meal but as sacrifice
...The Eucharist is sacrifice, not repeated again and again, but the one sacrifice of the Cross made present to us in every age.

Third, at the same time that the Eucharist makes present what occurred in the past, it also impels us towards the future. The Liturgy itself reminds us of this in the acclamation following the consecration: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” The Eucharist is an eschatological event.
St. John Chrysostom reminds us of this. He says, “For when you see the Lord sacrificed, laid upon the altar, and the priest standing and praying over the victim, and all the worshippers empurpled with that precious blood, can you then think that you are still among men, and standing upon the earth? Are you not, on the contrary, straightway translated to heaven, and casting out every carnal thought from the soul, do you not, with disembodied spirit and pure reason, contemplate the things which are in heaven?” (De Sacerdotio, III, 4).
Christ who will come again at the end of time comes to us in every Eucharist. This eschatological aspect makes the Eucharist an event that draws us up into heaven. Thus, the Eucharist fills our life journey with hope. In every Eucharist, we enter the Holy of Holies, the Body of Christ, and we are sanctified (cf. Heb 90:11-14). The Eucharist is the privileged place where life becomes sacred. The Eucharist makes our life a sacred adventure of ever-deepening communion with God.

Very much looking forward to the fourth installment.