Q: I find it difficult to endure an hour of Sunday Mass, unless the priest happens to be an involving speaker. Many years ago, I effectively left the Catholic Church for that reason. I came back few years ago because of Fr Keating’s teaching and do go to church every now and then. Today, I left the Sunday Mass half way through, unable to listen to dull humdrum. I know that the Eucharist is not about being entertained but I find it close to impossible (with my ADHD) to sit through. Western churches have become rather sterile (compared to orthodox Christianity, for example) and have little “mysterium” left. I know that not all priests have the oratory skills of Fr. Keating and I feel shame and defeat that I could not endure today’s Mass despite my years of Centering Prayer practice. I would much appreciate some guidance at this point.
A: Thank you for reaching out to us about your experience with Sunday Mass. Your letter has been on my mind and heart since I received it. Over these weeks, the Church has celebrated three Solemnities: The Ascension of the Lord, Pentecost, and The Most Holy Trinity. Solemnities and Feasts give us a time of celebration and remembrance that can help us give up our ordinary ways of going about our worship time.
Our contemplative practices including Centering Prayer help us to remember God with us and for us in every moment of our lives. If we can settle into our contemplative practices during Mass, it may help us put aside our human condition and rest into our earthly experience no matter the content of each moment.
One’s trouble with “listening to the dull humdrum of a homily” brought to mind a story from a church I attended at an earlier time of life. A special needs woman who was deaf would sometimes sign during a homily. The priest prepared lovely homilies with profound insights most of the time. She sometimes found herself bored so she would sign to him “boring.” He wondered what she was signing. I just happened to be at a meeting where he asked her parents what the sign was. They were reluctant to say until he asked a few times, finally they said it’s the sign for boring! He was quite taken aback but it was a lesson for him — that even he was boring at times.
I think all of us have times when we would like to sign “boring” in response to a homily. Instead, we can choose to implement a contemplative practice like sending the priest lovingkindness. We could also prepare for mass by reading or listening to a homily beforehand from sources like Bishop Robert Barron’s Gospel message which you can sign up to receive by email. Fr. Thomas Keating has a few books that reflect on the Gospel messages — Meditations on the Parables of Jesus, Awakenings, and Reawakenings — which could be read before mass. Finally, a good contemplative insight to the Sunday readings would be signing up to receive Contemplative Outreach’s Word of the Week reflections. Any of these resources can be pondered during the homily if one is not relating to the priest’s words.
Father Thomas has a wonderful book to spend some time with to help remember the beauty and Christ’s Presence within the Mass. It is called The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. In Thomas’ words “The Eucharist is the celebration of the unfolding of our chronological lifetimes into the fulness of the Christ-life within us and of our transcendent potential to become divine.” Imagine the beauty of that in one’s own life.
Thomas invites us in the Preface of the book, to experience the Five Presences of Christ in the Liturgy. I also invite us to use contemplative practices to remember Christ’s presence in the Mass. Below is from Thomas’ Preface with examples of contemplative practices for each.
1) “Christ’s first presence in the Eucharist is when we gather together in his name to worship him and the Father whom he manifests.” Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them.” Our contemplative practice here is to notice and celebrate Christ within all those gathered. In the rule of Benedict, we greet the Christ in everyone with the courtesy of love. As Thomas says in one of the Spiritual Journey teachings “Greet everyone with love, give it a try for a month.”
2) “The Second way that Christ is present in the Eucharist is during the proclamation of the Gospel. Lectors are not only communicators of the sacred texts, but of Christ himself. … Many persons have experienced a direct call from Christ to total commitment upon hearing a particular Gospel text proclaimed in the liturgy. The words of the Gospel have power to reach hearts.” During the Gospel reading we may want to consider the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina, particularly the first moment where we are invited to open our minds and hearts to the word that is being proclaimed. We listen with the ear of our heart being open to receive a word or a phrase or a notion that is brought to our attention. We may notice our heart jump as we realize a message that Christ has for us on that particular day that informs our relationship with God. After mass, we can bring that word or phrase into our day as something to ponder and reflect upon, then respond in prayer and sometimes rest in that word.
3) “The third presence of Christ takes place during the Eucharistic prayer in which the passion, death and resurrection of Christ becomes present. The elements of bread and wine also represent the gift of ourselves. The consecration of these gifts into the body and blood of Christ signifies our incorporation as individual cells into the body of Christ, the New Creation of redeemed humanity that is gradually maturing over time into the fullness of Christ … .” One contemplative practice during this time would be gazing upon what is happening at the altar like we would an icon. Us looking at Christ in love and Christ looking back at us in love. During the Eucharistic Prayer, I sometimes experience the rest of centering prayer – it is like all of a sudden, my whole being is overtaken by the Spirit as it is overwhelmed with the Christ’s love.
4) “The fourth presence of Christ takes place in the communion service. At this moment the consecrated elements of bread and wine are presented to each of us … in order that we, in turn, may be transformed into the larger organism of the body of Christ. The Spirit assimilates us into the body of Christ just as we assimilate the elements of bread and wine into our material bodies. The reception of the Eucharist is thus a commitment to open ourselves to the process of transformation into Christ. Christ in his human and divine nature comes to us in the Eucharist not just for a few passing instants — … — but forever.” As one sits waiting for their turn, it may be a nice contemplative practice to remember that everyone who is approaching the minister believes they will receive the body of Christ and that it will change them. One can pray for each person in a sense of the unity that is experienced by this shared spiritual experience in each one’s life in God. As one approaches the minister, one may again want to continue walking and sensing the unity with those around them. As one is standing and receiving the body and blood of Christ one may want to mentally and heartfully remember that Christ is right there in their hand. The idea that God allows us to hold him in our hands is such an awesome show of his gratuitous love. One we can sink into. When we are back in our pew, we may feel drawn to the rest of contemplative prayer and we sink into God with us, in us and for us.
5) “As marvelous as these gifts of Christ’s presence are, they serve only to awaken us to the supreme Presence, the Presence that is already present. Although this Presence is not mentioned specifically in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, it seems presupposed. All sacraments, all prayer, all ritual are designed to awaken us to our Christ nature, out of which we and all our faculties are emerging at every microcosmic moment.” Our contemplative practices of finding, experiencing and remembering God in the present moment no matter the psychological experience of the moment is really what our life becomes as we surrender more and more and live out of our relationship with God.
When I read your note the first time, I ignored the ADHD but after some reflection I reached out to a friend who mentors neurodivergent college students since I didn’t feel comfortable addressing this part of your experience. He said, perhaps a fidget toy would help with being able to focus on the mass.
To that end, I thought about the types of prayer we say that use an item in our hands. One is our rosary beads. I’m not suggesting saying the rosary during mass although for many centuries when the mass was in Latin, those who didn’t understand Latin would say the rosary during mass. The bells that were and are sometime rung now during the consecration signaled to those praying the rosary it was time to look up and notice. Holding the beads, even going bead to bead while remembering Jesus with us can be a comfort and help us focus on the mass.
I have some friends who have handheld crosses that they hold during prayer services. The cross can help comfort the person holding it, as they pray “When I am afraid, I trust in you.” from Psalm 56:3. Or you may have another short prayer sentence to say. These crosses fit so nicely in one’s hand and some even are shaped to allow one’s thumb to gently rub the cross. They are even marketed for stress relief.
I hope that you are able to incorporate some or all of these contemplative practices into your Sunday Mass. The liturgy is in ordinary time now, but the contemplative practices that we were taught can help us experience the Mass as it is designed to be – a total emersion in Christ’s presence.
Christ’s Peace be upon you.
Leslee Terpay
And the response from the questioner:
Hello,
Thank you Leslee for the extensive reply. I have been reading and pondering over it.
Your words prompted me to buy Fr Keating’s Meditations on the Parables of Jesus and subscribe to Bishop Barron’s messages. Yesterday, I read the Gospel on the mustard seed (in advance) then I read Fr. Keating take on it and went to church well prepared. To my surprise, this Sunday we had a different priest. He was old, generous and bright. His take on the Gospel was engaging and meaningful.
It was well worth reading Fr Keatings explanation of the parable and then listen to the priest. My understanding of it was a bit pedestrian: of an unimposing seed growing into a spectacular tree, rather than of God’s work happening day by day, against the odds.
I admit I am pretty deaf to the raw Gospel and need good translation in order to grasp it. I am therefore grateful for the suggestions you made. To expand my ‘toolkit’, I also began reading C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity. More of his books, as well as Fr Keating’s The Mystery of Christ, are on order.
Meanwhile, I did experience that “boring” priest again. Listening to that man awakens righteous irritation in me, irritation that is a work of the devil, I suppose. At that instance, I found your other advice very useful: to settle into our contemplative practices during Mass. Not listening to words but settling in, helped.
I will work on further incorporating the practices you suggested into my Sunday Mass. Thank you and God bless.
