The meaning of ministry

What Does the Prayer Really Say ^ | January 14, 2007 | Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

[Frank Sheed]

The meaning of ministry CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 12:35 pm

One of the WDTPRS articles I posted today has a paragraph on the issue of ministry. This paragraph aroused a comment from an attentive reader. It is worth our time to tease out that exchange and give it some focus:

During my seminary days the more radical of the faculty forbade us from using the “‘p’-word” (“priest”). They insisted we were being formed to be “ordained ministers”. This had the purpose of deemphasizing the distinction between the priest… er um… “ordained minister” and all people… er um… “non-ordained ministers”, all of whom exercise “ministry” in some vague way. In essence, “ministry” was pretty much anything people might do. I have no problem with all people being virtuous and holy, integrating prayer and contemplation together with their daily tasks, raising all their words and deeds to the Father in self-oblation, but not everything is “ministry” and not everyone is a “minister”, in the sense the Church understands the term. Priest and minister are radically different ideas. Ministers do good things within a community but priests offer sacrifice and are themselves set apart. Ministers are characterized mostly by their tasks and the priests is distinguished by what the sacrament of Holy Orders has made him ontologically, at the level of his being. In those days of seminary, they were trying to strip the Mass and the priest of their sacral character. The same applies to architecture. Churches had sanctuaries but very often we hear now about “worship spaces”. The architecture reflects the differences of views. The general effect of this squishy 60’s-80’s language about Mass and the priest is something like this: “People are gathered together to celebration of Christ’s memory during which one of their number, who happens to be designated by that community, retells the story of the night before He died, when He established the custom about to be reenacted.”

Here is the comment:

Your remarks about the use of the term “ministry” rang true to my experience. I believe the problem stems from a reductionist and ultimately protestant ecclesiology which sees the Church in terms of being a club of the like-minded. In this model, reinforced by so much that we now do liturgically, everybody has to have a job. I think it is crucial that we recover the proper sense of our activity (that is the activity of the lay faithful) in Church life as being primarily a preparation for our eternal life with God and that we see our “ministry” in the terms of Lumen Gentium 31, in terms of our secularity. The new Compendium (at para 188) sums this up elegantly in the following terms, “The lay faithful have as their own vocation to seek the Kingdom of God by illuminating and ordering temporal affairs according to the plan of God. They carry out in this way their call to holiness and to the apostolate, a call given to all the baptised.” Comment by Stephen Morgan — 14 January 2007 @ 12:08 pm

Here is my response:

Stephen: This question of ministry may be the most pressing problem to resolve as we start cleaning up the devastation of the last forty years and strive to understand new directions through a "hermeneutic of continuity" rather than of rupture. Who is the minister? What is ministry? We must make distinctions. I have an anecdote about this. A couple years ago I went to visit my old friend Card. Mayer (who is still living here in Rome). As I came to the door for our appointment, I was met by the sister who told me that he was still with his previous guest and could a wait a moment in the chapel. After a few minutes, I was called and there was met with Card. Mayer and his previous guest Card. Ratzinger. As we knew each other, it was a rather cordial meeting. They told me they had been talking about which pressing issues in the Church’s life required attention and they asked me my opinion. I responded that we had to clarify who a minister is and what ministry means, because today they are so confused as to strip priests and laypeople of their proper identity. It happens, they told me, that that was preciously the topic they had been talking about during their meeting.

It is terribly dangerous to the life of the Church, and a horrible act of condescension, to fall into an attitude that lay people do not have dignity in the Church unless they are doing what is proper to the clergy. In abdicating their proper roles in order to give lay people more to do, clerics actually fall into a subtle but corrosive clericalism: "You aren’t good enough on your own, so I will permit you be like me."

[Frank Sheed]

This is a disturbing post from the WDTPRS blog....

[Frank Sheed]

Priesthood PING!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Carolina]

Well, it is Sunday...we had to sober up from our Friday frivolity with gin-and-tonics.

[livius]

I'm sooooo sick of everything being called a "ministry" these days, and yes, he is right, it is a leveling attempt and designed to reduce or blur the significance of the priest's ministry.


Hand out coffee after Mass is now referred to as a "ministry," along with things like folding the bulletin, cluttering up the aisle holding out the chalice (which I think is inappropriate anyway), or knitting those ought-to-be-banned "prayer blankets" that Catholic churches have picked up from the Protestants. It's pretentious, silly and downright embarrassing.

In my parish, they seem to go to great lengths to have the priest do absolutely nothing that is priestly or even religious. In fact, they just hired a ditzy lady as the "liturgist" to take over the few things still left to him, other than consecrating the species. Which they haven't quite figured out how to take over or eliminate - yet.

[livius]

Actually, I should provide a few more details. The person in this case who is doing his best to destroy the priest's role is the pastor himself, who unfortunately was formed at a low point in seminary life and then further led astray by spending 15 years as an assistant to another priest who is simply a flat-out heretic. The latter seems to believe in nothing, is very pro female "priests" and tried to host "We are Church" here, and is also overtly pro-gay. I don't know why he is allowed to continue, particularly since our bishop is very good and orthodox.

But be that as it may, I think it's interesting that a lot of the deemphasizing of the priesthood and the silly, artificial inflation of the laity is done by certain priests (and bishops) themselves.

[Carolina]

or knitting those ought-to-be-banned "prayer blankets" that Catholic churches have picked up from the Protestants. It's pretentious, silly and downright embarrassing.

What the heck are prayer blankets? I take it they're not coverings for prayer books.

[NYer]

Thanks for the post and ping! Ironically, I was just reading the following at Catholic Int'l. It seems to tie in perfectly.

THE SACRED AND SECULAR VOCABULARY OF ORDINATION

[netmilsmom]

Prayer blankets?

[Salvation]

Everytime we reach out to someone with one of the gifts mentioned into today's second reading, aren't we in ministry to that person? It would seem so to me. I have talked to many over coffee and doughnuts and encouraged them to take another step in their faith journey:

RCIA
healing weekend -- Beginning Experience
Bible study
Serve at our Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner
Be a facilitator for our Small Faith Sharing Groups during Lent
Lead a Book Study group
Be a member of a library clean-up committee
Cook the soup for our Lenten Faith Formation 101 talks by the priest
Asking someone if they could take part in Welcoming New Parishioners to our parish

All of these are tiny things that one might look at as a ministry.

So am I a meddling person, taking over the priest's duties? I don't think so.

[Tax-chick]

Prayer blankets?

[netmilsmom]

Here is a Prayer Blanket ministry at a Catholic High School.

http://www.garces.org/Students/StudentActivityClubs/PrayerBlanketMinistry/tabid/202/Default.aspx

The blankets are then blessed and passed out. A nice thought for those that are sick, but our parish makes Rosaries for this purpose.

I saw some Protestant churches doing this. "Praying over" an object and passing it out seems a little too Catholic to me. I saw a Methodius church that does this. Doesn't it border on the "idolotry" that they accuse us of?

[netmilsmom]

I think that the overuse of the word "ministry" is the problem.

When I clean the bathrooms at my parish, I like to call it the "Pooper Ministry" to all of my Progressive Catholic friends who are part of a gazillion "ministries" at their Catholic Communities.

I don't look at my laundering Altar Linens or cleaning bathrooms as a ministry. Just something God's gotta get done. I just stepped up to the plate. (or toilet to be exact)

Now, the Welcoming Committee or the New Baby Committee are just that in my parish, committees. Not ministries. I'm not a minister when I scoot over to see a new baby and bring a meal. I'm a mom who wants to see a new baby.

[Tax-chick]

Seems kind of goofy to me; surely the people already have blankets, especially if they live in the north.

Why not give blankets to the needy, or send them to Sudan?

[Tax-chick]

I think it's just a matter of vocabulary. You could (and in the Charismatic Renewal, we often do) say that any time we are doing something with love for God and neighbor, that is "ministry."

However, I agree that making a distinction between the "ministry" of priests and the "service" of laity is significant.

[netmilsmom]

Because the prayers go with the blanket. Yikes! How very Catholic of them!!!!

I think a "Blanket ministry" to take to the homeless is great, afterall isn't that what blankets are for?

If I'm in a hospital, please don't send me a blanket.
I could use a Sacred Heart Badge to keep with me.
Preferably blessed by my Wonderful Pastor(God bless him and give him long life)or a nice prayer card for healing. The Hospital provides blankets. Thanks for the thought.

[netmilsmom]

Giving us a "service" opportunity is great.

But ministry is overused in some places.


(I just clean the potties so who am I?)

[livius]

I'd never heard of them before either, but "prayer blankets" are all over Catholic churches in the South. They seem to be some kind of a small blanket, sort of like an afghan, knitted by ladies in the parish, who then give it to people who are going into the hospital or "need" it for some reason. I think it's supposed to remind the prayer blanket owner of how much his parish luvs him.

To me it sounds like something you'd get by sending $10 to P.O. Box GOD at Wheeling, West Virginia.

[Miss Marple]

We have huge numbers of committees at our church, which for some reason are called ministries, although the people on them refer to themselves as "the Committee of Guadalupe" or "the committee of St. Vincent de Paul" etc. In fact, very rarely outside of calling our once-a-year sign-up as a "Ministry Fair" no one calls them that at all.

I rather think at our parish the term is a leftover and the term "committee" is coming back into use.

Also, I don't think of these things which I belong to as my "ministry" but rather "service" which I perform for God and the Church and my fellow man.

[Tax-chick]

You're the Sanitation Minister, of course!

I agree that "ministry" can be overused; it is in my parish. However, I think the Bishop is going to appoint a much more traditional pastor in the next 12 months, so we'll get a damper on the froot-loopiness while still keeping the Spirit moving :-).