I was glad to see the word "magic" more aptly expressed by Father McCabe,as "mysteriously to make the future really present." I was horrified once, when a priest explained to children who were making their First Communion, that they were about to hear the "Abra-ca-dabra" magic words the priest would say to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. What blatant self-aggrandisement, not to say heretical understanding of the mystery of the Eucharist! Had he so quickly forgotten the actual words he says with the laying of the hands over the gifts, before the proclamation of Jesus' institutional words at the Last Supper? Did he not know that the Church has placed those words there to remind us of how and when the "Presence" becomes "Mystery?" It is "the Spirit who comes down before these gifts to make them holy..." and the priest is not a magician who changes human reality into Divine Presence. It is here that Spirit is Mystery at its best, because He/She has chosen to make the future of the Kingdom really present to us by pitching down His/Her loving Tent among us, at our own humble bidding. Didn't the Lord pointedly tell us to "ask, and we should receive?" And aren't our hearts on fire like the disciples of Emmaus, who knew without knowing that SOMEONE SPECIAL was in their midst? Let us not do injustice to our children by depriving them of contemplating the mystery of the Spirit, because they are truly "the pure of heart who can see God," and especially "theirs is the the Kingdom of Heaven." My theology might be sorely lacking here, or the priest at that First Holy Communion either bypassed his seminary training, or still worse, accomodated himself to a triumphal vision of his vocation.
Nilsa Sandin McAdams
A possibly important correction: the worker priests were indeed suppressed for a number of years but were authorized anew in the 1960's. (See French Wikipedia, article Pretres ouvriers). I can provide more precise info from the Mission de France site.
I was glad to see the word "magic" more aptly expressed by Father McCabe,as "mysteriously to make the future really present." I was horrified once, when a priest explained to children who were making their First Communion, that they were about to hear the "Abra-ca-dabra" magic words the priest would say to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. What blatant self-aggrandisement, not to say heretical understanding of the mystery of the Eucharist! Had he so quickly forgotten the actual words he says with the laying of the hands over the gifts, before the proclamation of Jesus' institutional words at the Last Supper? Did he not know that the Church has placed those words there to remind us of how and when the "Presence" becomes "Mystery?" It is "the Spirit who comes down before these gifts to make them holy..." and the priest is not a magician who changes human reality into Divine Presence. It is here that Spirit is Mystery at its best, because He/She has chosen to make the future of the Kingdom really present to us by pitching down His/Her loving Tent among us, at our own humble bidding. Didn't the Lord pointedly tell us to "ask, and we should receive?" And aren't our hearts on fire like the disciples of Emmaus, who knew without knowing that SOMEONE SPECIAL was in their midst? Let us not do injustice to our children by depriving them of contemplating the mystery of the Spirit, because they are truly "the pure of heart who can see God," and especially "theirs is the the Kingdom of Heaven." My theology might be sorely lacking here, or the priest at that First Holy Communion either bypassed his seminary training, or still worse, accomodated himself to a triumphal vision of his vocation.
Nilsa Sandin McAdams