Greg Daly
Limerick’s diocesan day of lay-led liturgies has been a big success, according to early reports.
The morning of Tuesday, April 25, saw lay-led liturgies of the word in every Limerick parish, while diocesan clergy were away on in-service formation.
“There were about 150 to 200 people in the cathedral,” Noirín Lynch of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre told The Irish Catholic, saying that reactions had been “really positive”.
“At the end of the service there was a spontaneous round of applause,” she said, continuing, “Mostly people were saying that it was pleasant and made sense, and there was a real sense of being with the people who were leading it.”
In a letter read out in Limerick churches last week, Bishop Brendan Leahy explained that the lay-led day’s roots lay in last year’s diocesan synod and in long-term plans to be ready for times when priests might not be available. He had “specifically asked”, he said, that Communion not be part of the liturgies, in line with normal Church practice throughout the world, in an attempt at avoiding confusion, and to help remind people that the Church has many forms of public prayer.
“People regretted that priests weren’t there and they couldn’t receive Communion, which was a natural loneliness,” said Ms Lynch, after discussions with parishioners from six parishes on Tuesday morning, “but there was real positivity about it.”
Noting how some parishes had described the liturgies as “gorgeous” and “very prayerful”, she said the parishioners who had been trained to lead the services “had put a lot of time and thought into it, so the liturgy was good, and the prayers of the faithful were not just generic prayers but were prepared from the Gospel so there was a sense of relevance and prayerfulness”.
Although attendance at the services was lower than would have been expected at daily Masses, Ms Lynch said this had been expected at this early stage. The liturgy leaders, who have already had three training days, as reported by The Irish Catholic last month, will have a further training day in early May.
Evening Masses took place in St John’s Cathedral, Newcastlewest, and Kilmallock, as well as in some religious-run churches.