From: mjsmith@cac.washington.edu (Martha Smith )
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.catholic
Subject: Re: Church rules
Date: 6 Jan 1993 23:14:59 GMT
Organization: UW Computing
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: redx.cac.washington.edu

In article <930106160631.4be65@JEFLIN.TJU.EDU>,         WARNER <WARNER@JEFLIN.TJU.EDU> writes:

|> Well, I was lectoring the same day at the next (11:30) Mass.  
|>   So, I suppose I could have --
|> How do you all interpret this set of circumstances?
|> 
|> Another question:  How does a Catholic keep well-informed?
|> Adult faith development sessions don't usually get this detailed.
|> What do each of you do as laypeople to know more/enough?
|> 
|> --Betty Warner.

Several (unrelated) comments:  technically you were not lectoring because (a) 
lector is a noun not a verb and (b) lectors are installed and male.  You were
a reader reading (female and (I trust) commissioned not installed); in theory
readers should have a lector training them ... why do I know such useless
miscellanea? Because I am the coordinator of lay liturgical ministers working
with a chaplain/priest who is a stickler for such legal distinctions that even
most the documents out of the conference of bishops ignore as "not common
usage".

As to how many times one can receive communion in a single day ... the most
fascinating thing about reading Canon Law (study edition) is the implications.
Laws were written to protect rights that were being abused or to stop abuses.
There was a time when the laity's belief in the power of the hosts verged on
magical and they would dash into mass solely to receive communion as many
times a day as they could.  Receiving communion was separated from worship 
and community ... so a law was made.  As long as the spirit of the law is
kept, who cares if you received communion both in the mass presided over by
the bishop and in the mass at which you ministered as reader?  To know enough
is simply to follow our Lord Jesus Christ to the best of your ability; 
the sacrament of reconciliation is one place where you should receive some
guidance should you go too far afield; homilies at mass are another.

How does one become knowledgeable?  There are two kinds of knowledge each of
which needs the other to be useful.  Intellectual knowledge - I've picked up
from books recommended by friends and priests including some that are
"tough going" such as Ott's Fundamentals of Dogma, the study edition of Canon
Law, McBrien's Catholicism, Jungman's History of the Roman Rite, Aumann's
Spiritual Theology ... some are light and enjoyable Through Moses to Jesus,
Meditations on Celebrating the Eucharist, Richard Foster's Prayer .... but
from them I could learn to "talk a good line" which would be meaningless
except to the legalistic types.  The more important kind of knowledge, the
kind that gives meaning and prespective to the first, is experiential knowledge.
It is gained through a balanced spiritual life ... prayer,service, worship
and study. I have been lucky in terms of opportunity learn to build a
balanced spiritual life - from friends, priests (who may be friends as well), 
from teachers (who may be both friends and priests) -  by example, in
conversation, in prayer groups, in worship services, and in formal classes.

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