His Theology of Celebration Fr. Walsh loved good parties and he avoided boring ones. He frequently said that he learned how to give good parties AND how to prepare good liturgy from his mother, whose Baltimore home and table were the place for regular Sunday evening gatherings of his friends. He believed strongly that we must take the trouble to make even the most ordinary Mass a humanly-attractive experience. We do this with good preparation, active participation and engaging signs and symbols.
Poor celebrations weaken and destroy faith.
The Ministry of the Celebrating Community may have been his most influential single writing. Its central theme, which he continued to refine and re-present until the time of his death, is that everyone at Mass must be an active celebrant or minister of the Eucharist and that the first ministry of everyone is hospitality C the simple, human actions of helping each other feel welcome in church and glad to be there. He repeatedly observed that Catholic parishes seem the least hospitable of all Christian churches and that no liturgical renewal endeavor is more important than that of developing genuine hospitality on Sunday mornings. Sunday Mass. But, he was never adamant about such phraseology. The words may have other connotations for some groups.