The Concluding Rites - Part 2
Part two of a series I'm writing for inclusion in the weekly Parish Bulletin of St Francis of Assisi Parish, Dungog Gresford
Having looked at what the General Instruction to the Roman Missal has to say about the Concluding Rites in Part 1 (see n.90), it may be worthwhile to briefly cover what is foreign to this last part of our celebration of Mass.
Although it sometimes happens, this is not the place for a long address to be inserted. Such things, often associated with fundraising appeals from various bodies, more properly belong to the Liturgy of the Word – if, indeed, they ought to be inserted into the Mass at all.
Along similar lines, this is not the place to play a video (if the equipment is available in the church building). Again, depending on the subject matter, this might be better placed during the Liturgy of the Word.
It has also been known for the ‘parish prayer’ or a prayer for rain or such like to be inserted into the Mass at the beginning of the Concluding Rites. Such prayers, often included with the best of intentions, should never be included in the Mass, either during the Concluding Rites or anywhere else in the Mass.
Such prayers, which are more devotional than liturgical, could be prayed before or after Mass, but not during the Mass. Something like a ‘parish prayer’ might be better distributed in such a way to encourage its use as part of the devotional life of parishioners rather than attempting to add it to the formal liturgical prayer of the parish.
Something like a prayer for rain might be better acknowledged as one of the petitions of the Universal Prayer, which is the place where the parish community prays for the needs of the local community and the world.
In essence, and as we saw during Part 1 of this series, paragraph 90 of the GIRM is very clear about what is part of the Concluding Rites. Anything else should generally be avoided, or placed in a more suitable place within the overall structure of the Mass.
As we have already discussed briefly, the very nature of Concluding Rites is meant to be simple and focussed on the impetus of the community to go out into the world to be about the work of the Gospel. Anything that gets in the way of that simply does not belong as part of the Concluding Rites.
Having looked at some of the miscellaneous things that are sometimes inserted into the Concluding Rites, we can now turn our attention to what properly belongs to this part of the Mass… but that can wait until next week when Part 3 of the series comes along.
To be continued…