A COMMENTARY by Sister Jean Marie Kirby, OCD

 

Concerning: “GATHER FAITHFULLY TOGETHER” and the YEARLY RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CONGRESS SPONSORED BY THE ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES especially to promulgate this Pastoral.

 

“Gather Faithfully Together” contains very serious doctrinal flaws which leads us to outright question the true validity of THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS if performed as stated in the Pastoral.

 

The RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is a yearly conference set aside for the proper education of those who are and will teach the youth and adult of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Everyone interested in the latest and best teaching of the Catholic Faith the world over, is invited and encouraged to attend.  I am commenting on these conferences year by year beginning with 2001 when “Gather Faithfully Together” first began to be promulgated.

 

1. 2001 – The true Consecration of the Sacramental Priesthood is being challenged in essence:  "THE WORDS OF CONSECRATION ARE A NARRATIVE; WE ALL CONSECRATE... It is we..we..we..first person plural…The Whole Christ (Assembly) Consecrates...calling upon the Holy Spirit to transform these gifts.

 

2. 2002 – The high point and main speaker of the Conference presents “TEN ISSUES OF THE EUCHARIST” by Rev. Gallen S.J., an analysis which is deep in heresy.  Yet, Father Gallen’s heresies are the basic “teaching” the Los Angeles Archdiocese has been using to promulgate “Gather Faithfully Together”, because these heresies are the ‘doctrine’ of this Pastoral.

 

3. 2003 – “Where I am, there is the universe.  So, where I am, there is the real presence”.  The Assembly becomes the focus of the Liturgy which is become our celebration; the PRIEST is merely presider of the Assembly.   Holy Orders is called the “Sacrament of the Church...the Assembly”.

 

4. 2004 – God’s Presence in the Holy Eucharist is become “We are the Eucharist”.

 

5. 2005 - "THE 'NARRATIVE' OF THE LAST SUPPER IS A STORY.  Each time we hear THE STORY it must be fresh and new.  We are invited to share in that story and we ourselves become the promise of The New Covenant.   There is nothing magic in the words...Remembering is making the story present, we do not go back to the Last Supper...”

 

6. 2006 - There was no controversy about the Priesthood because the Ordained Priest was left-out.  Everything was the Priesthood of the Assembly.  A theme that rang out was, “WE ARE HOLY COMMUNION:  COMMUNION MEANS COMMUNITY”.

 

7. After the “narrative” of the words of Consecration, the Priests extended their hands over the consecrated bread and loudly and clearly called upon the Holy Spirit to transform these gifts.  Immediately there followed, the choir’s repetition of the exact words loudly and distinctly in acclamation.  For the full promulgation of “Gather Faithfully Together” there is need only to remove from its place the “narrative” of the Words of Consecration.  Gradually CHRIST’S SACRIFICE has become “our thing”

 

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ANALYSIS of

"Gather Faithfully Together

Guide For Sunday Mass"

PROMULGATED BY ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES

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A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT IS WORKING TO "TAKE AWAY THE CONTINUAL SACRIFICE" (Dan.8: 11)

 

THERE IS ONE PRIEST, CHRIST.  WHEN CHRIST SAYS, “THIS IS MY BODY…MY BLOOD”,  the Bread and Wine truly becomes HIS BODY…HIS BLOOD.  The weak, human being that is consecrated a priest to offer the “New Covenant of My Blood” (Mal.1:11)  is Christ by Divine Sacrament.   When the Priest says “THIS IS MY BODY…MY BLOOD”, TRULY IT IS CHRIST’S BODY…CHRIST’S BLOOD.   To offer sacrifice is the primary office of Priesthood.   Others can preside, can preach the word, heal the sick: ONLY THE PRIEST CAN OFFER ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE.  The Epistle to the Hebrews is an affirmation that Christ is the Eternal High Priest.  We are a Priestly People because as the Bride, we share in the offering of Christ, we are washed in His Blood.

 

MODERN HERESY claims that Christ did not institute the Ministerial Priesthood, rather it was instituted later by the Apostles.  Raymond Brown wrongly states, "There is nothing in Scripture to affirm Christ instituted the Priesthood".  If this is so, there is no difference between a Priest and a Minister.

 

·          HERESY AND MORE:  “AS I HAVE DONE FOR YOU” (L.A. Pastoral): "The notion of the priesthood of the community is older than the concept of an Ordained Ministerial Priesthood”

 

·          HERESY AND MORE:  “GATHER FAITHFULLY TOGETHER” (Implementation of Pastoral) - The Sacrament of Holy Orders is changed to “Sacrament of The Church (Assembly)…The Whole Christ Consecrates...We All Consecrate...No one is more baptized than another." (Speakers at the L.A. Archdiocsan Workshops)

 

 

 

CHANGING THE WORDS OF CONSECRATION

"TAKE AWAY THE CONTINUAL SACRIFICE" of Daniel 8:11

"GATHER FAITHFULLY TOGETHER…A Guide For Sunday Mass"
(Promulgation of L.A. Pastoral, “As I Have Done To You”)

 

The Eucharistic Prayer : “THE ASSEMBLY'S participation in the Eucharistic Prayer has been the greatest change.  For years we were told, THE PRIEST DOES THE CONSECRATION…now we all call upon God's Spirit…to transform these gifts” (Gather, #66, 161-162)

 

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LITURGY CONFERENCE OF L.A. ARCHDIOCESE
 annually to implement "Gather Faithfully Together"

 

2001 LITURGY CONFERENCES: "The Words of Consecration are a narrative; We all consecrate; We all call upon the Holy Spirit to transform these gifts"

 

Rev. Gerald Austin O.P:  "The Priest does not consecrate by himself...the whole assembly of believers consecrates and offers...We all offer together.  It is we..we..we..first person plural…The Whole Christ (Assembly) consecrates...calling upon the Holy Spirit to transform these gifts.

 

Rev. J. Patrick Mullen, PhD (Professor at St. John's Seminary): "Didache does not contain the Words Of Consecration.  There is doubt that the early Church used these words to consecrate...It is by calling upon the Holy Spirit that the bread & wine is consecrated".

2002 LITURGY CONFERENCES:

Rev. John Gallen, S.J. gave the landmark conference,

 

”Ten Issues In Eucharist”

by Rev. John Gallen, S.J.     

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

I.   "Liberation Of Eucharistic Prayer

 

1.     "Movement from focus on the Eucharistic Prayer from only the Consecration of bread and wine effected by the Ordained Priest to a more full and more rich sense of the Assembly's Prayer ...in which the people and the bread & wine are consecrated".

 

2.     "All Liturgical Prayer is Community Prayer.   The role of the Ordained Priest...as a member of the Assembly is to lead the Assembly's prayer, not to substitute for the Assembly"

 

3.     "Contribution of Scholarship offers a major insight.  Christians came together and told stories of their experiences.  Then they celebrated at the meal what they had just told to us in stories.  They told the stories of suffering, the Last Supper, the death and the rising.  That Story of the Last Supper - "Jesus took bread and blessed and broke...":  This Story was in the Liturgy of the Word, not in the Eucharistic Prayer".

 

4.     "What is the Eucharistic Prayer about?  It is simply the consecration of the bread and the wine that happens by recounting the story of what Jesus did at the Last Supper".  (PURE HERESY!)

 

5.        "Eucharistic Prayer is the Hermeneutic (interpreter) of the Meal.  Let us see what the Prayer says:    'Please now pour out on us your Holy Spirit and transform us and make us new men and women…Some of the Prayers, not all of them went on to say: 'and pour your Holy Spirit ALSO on this bread and this wine so they may be for us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ".

 

6.   "This is what Eucharistic Prayer is all about

·        Giving praise & thanksgiving to God for everything God does for us

·        and transforms us and makes us into the Body of Christ."

 

(THIS IS NOT THE TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!) 

 

 

II.  "Space And Design: Architect contributing to the Assembly's full, active, conscious participation

 

1.     "Eucharistic Meal, this outpouring of what New Testament Scholars call  'Jesus Ministry of Table Fellowship,' how he met with people and shared the Meal with them and thus shared Himself with them.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

III. "Shift from Priest's Mass to Assembly's:  

 

"The Pipeline Theory came into play.  Once it could be demonstrated that Apostolic Succession UNDERSTOOD IN A VERY NARROW SENSE was verified that down through the ages valid ordinations of bishops who ordained more bishops and priests in a line reaching back to the Apostles, that was enough"...  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

1.     "Has the Anglican Community taken a contraceptive pill that prevents the successful transmission of life to its communities and priests?

 

2.     "Are Lutheran Bishops, aborted ministerial fetuses never quite emerging into full healthy ecclesial life?

 

3.     "Or might it be possible to discard this outrageous imagery and actually bring ourselves to affirm that a particular Methodist Eucharist is real even if invalid within the Roman Catholic system of organization?"

 

"The Fundamental reality is the Sacrament Of The Assembly, the sacrament that is church.  It is the Assembly, the Body of Christ, head and members that celebrates Eucharist".

  

IV. The Eucharist:

 

1.     "When we say "Eucharist" we mean the celebration of the Pascal Mystery. We do not mean the  Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament.

 

"If we weaken the link between the celebration and reservation, then look out!...We are going to be erecting shrines for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament without the connection of the Celebration.  We open ourselves to trouble…The Real Presence is mystery.  The merely literal meaning simply will not do it"

 

3.  "Stop talking about substance and accidents. Transubstantiation should be given a well deserved rest…Ask people about their experience, what sense they have of Christ's Presence.

 

 

V.  "Eucharist As Initiation

 

"The Neophytes and those received into full Communion:  Washed and anointed they were brought to the Table - the meal is the ultimate high point"

 

"The American Church and the American Eucharist have a special contribution to the global Church"

 

 

VI  "Reconciliation In The Church Is A Mess:

 

"At Fault is the Vatican's insisting on private Oricular Confession  The Eucharist holds the primacy as the pre-eminent Liturgy of Reconciliation"

 

 

VII. "Word In Eucharist:

 

"EUCHARISTIC PRAYER:  "We affirm that this holy and living sacrifice..."

·        "Holy  - because of Holy One

·        "Living - because it is the great action of the ASSEMBLY

OF LIVING PEOPLE"   (Heresy: Living Sacrifice!)

 

 

VIII   "Priestly Presiding

          

"What kind of service does the priest offer at the Eucharistic Liturgy?  Here is what the ordained priest is about.  He is priest, prophet and king:

 

1.   "To announce: the presence of the Holy One.

2.   "To guide the journey of the Community into the  presence of the Holy One.

3.   "To lead their prayer on the journey.

 

The Guy or Lead is the one involved with the people all-the-rest-of-the-time. Then, he comes to the Liturgy to serve their prayer" 

 

 

IX "Eucharistic Art: 

 

"All Liturgy gives expression to Mystery, The mystery in question is the Real Presence of the God of mystery therefore the merely literal simply will not do it".

 

 

 

X.  "Inculteration Of The Eucharist

 

"If you have a Mass - not a Museum...the principle resource persons are HISTORIANS, THEOLOGIANS & ADMINISTRATORS.

 

NOTE:  THE TEACHING AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH IS THE MUSEUM? 

 

 

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2003 Religious Education Congress

 

Reverend Michael Crosby spoke of the Eucharistic “Real Presence” of Christ as, “Where I am, so is the Universe.  So also:  Where I am, so is the Body of Christ.  THIS IS WHAT IS MEANT BY THE REAL PRESENCE”.

 

Reverend Kenan Osborne repeats that the ASSEMBLY IS THE CENTER OF THE LITURGY.  The priest is “presider” serving “the priesthood of the Assembly”.

 

 

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2004 Religious Education Congress

Theme:  “We are holy communion”.  “Becoming holy communion” was the next emphasis of "We are the Body of Christ"

...TO ALMOST TOTAL EXCLUSION OF THE LORD'S BODY AND BLOOD.    

 

 

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2005 Religious Education Congress:

Theme this year was "Report Card on Changes Since Vatican II".

 

 

"Structure And Meaning Of The Liturgy Of The Eucharist" by Sister Joyce Ann Zimmerman, C.PP.S,.  The "Epiclesis" was emphasized:

 

"THE 'NARRATIVE' OF THE LAST SUPPER IS A STORY.  Each time we hear the story it must be fresh and new.  We are invited to share in that story and we ourselves become the promise of The New Covenant.    Communion makes no sense whatsoever if we have not heard our Story.   There is nothing magic in the words rather we enter into that narrative.    Remembering is making the story present, we do not go back to the Last Supper...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

"The Amen Is The High Point Of The Liturgy, we ought to be screaming:  All of Salvation History is made present.  every Eucharistic Prayer in a nutshell is "our identity and our mission"--who we are and what we are suppose to do.  ONLY IN THAT SENSE DOES COMMUNION MAKE SENSE.  Communion is not the high point of the Liturgy, communion is the appropriation of what is happening in the Liturgy of the Eucharist."

 

(PURE HERESY, 100%)

 

 

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2006 – “Step-Out In Freedom”:There was no controversy about the Priesthood because the Ordained Priest was left-out almost completely (few priests were speakers at this Conference).   Everything was the Priesthood of the Assembly.  A theme that rang out was, “WE ARE HOLY COMMUNION:  COMMUNION MEANS COMMUNITY”.

 

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2007 – Implementation: “IT IS CALLING UPON THE HOLY SPIRIT that changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ…we all call upon the Holy Spirit (the words of Consecration were not removed, though less was made of this).

 

At the Liturgy on Sunday at which the Cardinal presided, all Priests on the Altar solemnly, loudly and clearly extended their hands and called upon the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  As soon as the Priests had finished, loudly and clearly and solemnly the choir repeated the exact same words in a loud, strong Acclamation.  The Consecration Words,“This is My Body…My Blood” were not so outstanding.

 

·        Will the next step remove the “narrative words of Consecration”?

 

 

 

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FOOTNOTES to "Gather Faithfully Together":

THE  “NOTES” AT THE END OF THE PASTORAL AFFIRM ADHERANCE TO CHURCH’S DOCTRINE AS CONTAINED IN THE “CATECHISM”.  BUT THE PASTORAL CLEARLY DOES NOT WITNESS TO WHAT IT AFFIRMS 

 

 

THE USE OF THE ROMAN MISSAL OF 1962 WAS AUTHORIZED BY POPE JOHN PAUL II IN OCTOBER 1984, "ONLY AS LONG AS THOSE USING IT AGREED THAT THE NEW ORDER OF THE MASS IS VALID".  IF EVER IT BEGINS TO OVERSTEP VALIDITY, ANYONE KNOWING THIS COULD NOT USE IT.            

           

 

 

 

 

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