Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 23, 2025 Bulletin
Parish Picnic TODAY. This afternoon (Sunday, August 24) all are invited to our annual Parish Picnicfrom 2-5pm here on the Parish grounds, behind the church. There’s lots of food, fun and music for kids and adults alike—a great way to meet and get to know your fellow parishioners. For new parishioners this is a great opportunity to meet people and learn more about the parish; for the rest of us, this is one of the best chances we will have all year to welcome others into a deeper participation in the life and fellowship of our parish. I’ll see you there!
Back to School. I hope all our children who returned to school this last week found the adjustment easy, and that your school year will be successful and joyful in every way. Parents, remember, whether they’re in government schools, Catholic schools, private schools or homeschooling, you’re in charge of their education, not teachers and administrators. Schools are merely there to help you. God bless you as you do the good work divinely entrusted to you.
CCD/Religious Education. For those of you in government/public schools (and some homeschoolers) remember to register today (online or in person) for Religious Education classes here at St. Raymond’s, beginning the week of September 7-8.
LITURGY AT ST. RAYMOND’S. Two weeks ago I welcomed new parishioners and gave a short introduction to our approach to the liturgy. Today let me take some time to go through some of the noticeable differences at St. Raymond’s.
Use of Latin. We use a lot of Latin, and here are some reasons why.
A Dramatic Sign of Communion. At the Last Supper, the first Mass, Jesus repeatedly prayed for unity between Him, His Father, His apostles and all His disciples. The Eucharist He gave us that night expresses and brings about this unity/communion: that’s why we call in “Holy Communion.”
The Mass continuously and unceasingly reflects and expresses this communion. On any given Sunday, at Masses throughout the world all Catholics see the same types of vestments, say the same prayers, read the same readings, and kneel, sit and stand at the same times. All this expresses our communion, and not just with Catholics today, but also with all those Catholics who lived over the last 15 centuries, including almost all the great saints we love and cherish, and so many of our beloved ancestors. Because they also used the same vestments, prayers and gestures we do.
Latin is perhaps the greatest sign of that same unity and communion that permeates the rest of the Mass because it is the most important way we communicate with each other, and the language of our ancestors in the Faith, a dramatic expression of Eucharistic Communion with Catholics, past and present.
A Dramatic Sign of the Sacred Mysteries. Even so, while Latin is the “common language” of most of Catholicism, it is not the language in everyday use. But because of that, Latin helps remind us that the Mass is not an everyday event, but rather an eternal mystery defying time and space. Latin, especially as the language of centuries of Masses offered by so many saints, has the ability to lift us out of the “everyday” and the “today,” into eternity, past, present and future without end. To take us out of the mundanity of the world, and move us to the sacredness, the “otherness,” of heaven.
It is true that our unfamiliarity with Latin can be perceived by some as a sort of barrier that hides the liturgy. To the extent that is true, the “hiddenness” need not be understood in a negative light. Think about it: because of the radical Holiness of God, only Moses was allowed to go into the Tent of the Lord, and only the priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies in the Temple. While most of the Mass is not hidden from the people, some aspects of “hiddenness” are still very important to our experience of the Sacred at Mass. Most importantly, Our Lord Himself is, in a certain sense, hidden from us under the veil of the appearance of bread. This hiddenness also is found in the silent prayers of the priest, and even the silent prayers you say in your pews. The “veil” acts not so much to hide what is holy, but to “set it apart.” It draws our attention to what is apparently hidden, and enables us to see, hear and say something beyond what we normally can. So that through faith, we can pierce the veils of appearances and truly see, speak to and hear from the Lord.
The Mandate of Vatican II. And as the Second Vatican Council mandated: “The use of the Latin language…is to be preserved in the Latin rites…A suitable place may be allotted to the vernacular in Masses…. Nevertheless care must be taken to ensure that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 36 and 34, December 4, 1963).
Ad Orientem. We celebrate most Masses “Ad Orientem”—that is, the priest facing in the same direction as the people (“to the East,” or toward the apse/tabernacle). This practice goes back to the early Christians’ custom of facing East when they prayed, symbolically waiting for the second coming of the Son of God, like the rising of the Sun in the East. This was soon incorporated into the Mass of the early Church and became the norm for most of Christian history, until the 1960s.
But the most important reason for facing “ad orientem” is that the priest turns with the people to face toward and pray to God together with them. As the second half of the Mass begins, the “Liturgy of the Eucharist,” the priest is no longer talking to the people, as when he proclaims the Gospel and homily, but rather now he turns with them and leads them in prayer toward God. All this emphasizes the prayerful nature—the adoration and reverence—of the Mass, especially during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Altar Rail. At every Mass we use the Altar Rail at Communion. The primary reason for this is very simple: to accommodate the popular demand/desire that many people have to exercise their right to kneel to receive Holy Communion. Kneeling without a kneeler is difficult and time-consuming, and therefore discourages most people who would like to kneel to receive. This is unjust. Moreover, with up to 8 people at-a-time standing/kneeling at the long rail, there is no need to rush to get out of the next person’s way. So by adding the Communion Rail, everyone can receive comfortably the way they want, kneeling or standing.
But I also believe there are also great spiritual reasons for kneeling to receive Our Lord. As one holy Cardinal wrote: “For if, as St Paul teaches, ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth’ (Phil. 2:10), how much more should we bend our knees when we come to receive the Lord himself in the most sublime and intimate act of Holy Communion!”
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles