1 LIM 722-051 Church, Sacraments

LIM 722-051 Church, Sacraments and Liturgy

Instructor: Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, Ph.D. Contact Information: Email [email protected] (best) Telephone: 504-865-3251

Course Description:

What is Church? This course engages in conversation around this question, as it seeks to build an ecclesiological foundation for learners engaged in ministry work, presently or intended in the future. Ecclesiology explores the identity, mission and structure of Church, and it is a discipline within theology that necessarily intersects with other aspects of our greater Christian theology. Chief among these is liturgical and sacramental theology; if ecclesiology addresses what the Church is, liturgical and sacramental theology invite us to think about what the Church does, especially in its symbolic, aesthetic and ritual expressions of worship. In this course, we will explore the intersection of ecclesial identity as expressed in liturgical and sacramental worship.

Throughout this course, you are encouraged to bring your learning in conversation with your ministry praxis. The theological foundations you will gain in this course in ecclesiology and in sacramental and liturgical theology find practical application throughout this course as we will continue to ask the question: What might this mean for serving the people in your ministerial context? My hope for this course is to inform and form students engaged in ministry to carry out your work from a sound and life- giving theological foundation that empowers you to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to those you serve.

Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course, you will gain:

 a foundation in Roman Catholic ecclesiology, including the Church’s contemporary identity and mission as founded in the Second Vatican Council; broader theological models of the Church; and structures and roles within the Church as the People of God  understanding of the Church as sacrament, and of the Church’s sacramental celebrations as rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ  understanding of the meaning and role of liturgy in the life of the Church  facility to see ministry, and your specific ministry, as part and parcel of the Church’s identity, role and mission  greater digital media literacy toward your own ministerial praxis

Course Materials:

REQUIRED:

Johnson, Maxwell, Ed. Sacraments and Worship: The Sources of Christian Theology. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012. ISBN:978-0-664-23157 $40

Rausch, Thomas P. Towards a Truly Catholic Church: An Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005. ISBN: 978-8146-5187-9 $24.95

Vorgrimler, Herbert. Sacramental Theology. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1992. ISBN: 0-8146-1994-0 $29.95

*Please order these texts from a local bookstore or from an online source such as www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com

RECOMMENDED: Flannery, Austin. Ed. Vatican Council II: The Basic Sixteen Documents: Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations. New York: Costello, 1996. ISBN 0-918344-37-9.

(Note: The conciliar documents that we will be studying in this course are also available online through www.vatican.va and will be linked to each of our Sessions; the recommended resource above is an in-print option )

OPTIONAL:

Guardini, Romano. The Spirit of the Liturgy (Milestones in Catholic Theology Series. ) New York: Crossroad, 1998. ISBN: 978-0824517779

(The second short assignment in this course asks students to read this book. It is available free online at http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/spirituality/the-spirit-of-the-liturgy.pdf . The above citation is provided in case you prefer to order the book or download an electronic book version.)

Additional Course Materials are available to access through our Blackboard (BB) course website.

Format of this Online Course

As in all LIM courses, the strength of our program is the intentional learning community and its ongoing invitation to disciplined conversation. Through the online courses you will be part of an intentional learning community that will carry on extended and disciplined conversation by way of the internet.

The course outlines assignments for ten sessions. Each session will involve some online dialogue among participants that will take place by way of the course discussion board. A discussion board is an “asynchronous” or time-independent application. This means that generally you will have no set times or schedules of when you must be in class. It is up to you to determine when to log in and post during the course of a week, before the given weekly deadline. We do expect that you will log in to this class several times a week to post your required comments, to read the comments of your instructor and fellow students. You will get the most out of this course if you log

2 in and participate in the conversation several times a week. (If you save it all for Sunday night before the Monday due-dates, you might find an overwhelming amount of postings to read through, because they do accumulate! Check in earlier and more often – you’ll be glad you did.) Other assignments involve uploading a written essay or document that will go directly to the instructor. Directions for these and other assignments are provided in the Weekly Sessions folder. If you need additional help in getting started, there are a number of helpful tutorials available in our course to teach you the basics of using this software.

Each of the ten sessions is called a “Week” and has a set beginning and ending date, generally a period of one week. Each “Week” will begin on Monday at noon and conclude the following Monday at noon, Central Standard Time. All assigned activities must be completed within that week, unless otherwise specified. The Course Schedule (posted separately in the “Syllabus, Calendar, Books” section of our course) gives the dates for the weeks this semester.

Technology: To participate in this course, please make sure your computer has the following:

 Quicktime to view course videos, and the latest version of either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome as your web browser (Internet Explorer tends to have glitches with Blackboard). Links to these applications are posted in the course, under "Resources" > General Resources>Plug-ins, Please be sure that you have downloaded the most recent version of these free programs listed in the “Plug-Ins” section.  Webcamera and Microphone: Several times this semester, you will have the option to participate in a live meeting with your instructor and colleagues. Details will be in the Webinars folder of the course. We will use a web-conferencing software provided by Loyola, which you do not need to download or purchase. You will simply follow a link to join the meeting. At the same time, if you have a webcamera and microphone available, these will be helpful for you to take part in these optional live meetings.

Calendar of Topics:

Session 1 Foundations of Church: The Early Church Community

Session 2 Models of Church

Session 3 The Marks and Mission of the Church

Session 4 Reforms and Legacy of Vatican II

Session 5 Many Parts, One Body: The Structure of the Church

Session 6 The Church as a Worshiping Community

Session 7 Symbol, Sacrament, Ritual

Session 8 Sacraments of Initiation

Session 9 Marriage and Holy Order

Session 10 Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick

Session 11 Submit Final Paper

Major Written Assignments and Evaluation: (please see full descriptions below) 40% Substantive participation in discussion board conversations. (Weekly, Mondays, 12 Noon Central) 15% 50 Years After Vatican II Assignment (Session Five, February 29th, 12 Noon Central) 15% Spirit of the Liturgy Assignment (Session Eight, March 21st, 12 Noon Central) 10% Spiritual Formation (Weekly, and due Session Ten, April 4th, 12 Noon Central) 20% Final Essay (Due at the end of Course, April 18th, 12 Noon Central)

All students, those seeking graduate credit and those seeking continuing education unites (CEU’s), must participate in all weekly session activities. This includes the weekly discussion board and ongoing spiritual formation. Those seeking graduate credit must also complete two short and one longer final essay detailed below.

 40% Substantive participation in discussion board conversations. (CEU and GRAD)

Each week you will be able to earn four points for your Discussion Board participation, and this includes your original post in response to the assigned question(s), as well as the comments you are asked to make on your colleagues’ posts. Each week, the length of response per question asked of you will be between 300-500 words. The additional response postings to a colleague’s work should be substantive, but length is not defined. There are specific directions posted about these requirements for you each week.

Posting: Your weekly postings should be substantive: they should address the assigned questions for the session, respect the word limit posted for each week’s questions, and demonstrate some interaction with course materials for that session.

In addition to addressing the questions for each week, you are also asked each week to comment on the postings of your colleagues in this course. This comment should also be substantive: “I like what you posted” is not a substantive comment. Please articulate what about their posting is compelling to you, and why you consider their comment relevant, challenging, important, etc. There is no word limit requirement to comment posts.

Inviting Conversation: One of the most effective tools of a good online discussion is the question. Communication in the online medium can be easily misinterpreted; conversely, it can be challenging to effectively convey tone and nuance in an online discussion. This can lead to misunderstanding, conflict and frustration in the learning group. But this does not have to be the case!

When in doubt about the meaning of a posting, please ask questions before making assumptions or jumping to conclusions. Even if the meaning seems straight-forward, it is good practice to ask follow-up

4 questions and/or questions for clarification. My hope for our discussions is that we will rely on the question as a standard tool for effective communication.

Discussion Leaders: Each week I will rely on several Discussion Leaders to help initiate the flow of our conversation. The task of the Discussion Leader is simply to post first. The posting may be a written text of 300-500 words, or a video response under 5 minutes. He or she will essentially begin the conversation around the given question(s) for the week by posting their response to the session question by Wednesday at 8pm CST of each week. Others will then be able to respond to this initial posting and engage in a thread. All subsequent postings in the conversation, both for the Discussion Leader and the rest of the class will be due the following Monday at 12 Noon CST. We will rotate the role of the Discussion Leaders week by week.

The schedule of Discussion Leaders will be posted ahead of time in the Discussion Board section of our course. Be sure to check the Discussion Board to see when your name will come up. If you are unable to lead the week you are scheduled, please let your instructor know as soon as possible.

 15% “50 Years After Vatican II Assignment”(GRAD)

It has been 50 years since the Second Vatican Council and this anniversary is generating great dialogue about its legacy for the Church today.

Your task for this assignment is to find an article that engages in this conversation and reflect on how this article contributes to a practical understanding of Church for your ministerial praxis today. More specifically, you are asked to: 1) Research, find, cite and briefly summarize the argument or contribution of your article. (5 points) 2) Present why you find this article relevant for your understanding of Church (5 points) 3) Present how this understanding of Church shapes your ministerial praxis (5 points)

This assignment is worth 15 points toward your final grade.

Format: You can choose one of two options below to fulfill this assignment.

Option A: A written paper of 4-6 pages in length, with standard formatting. (12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, double spaced)

Option B: A ten minute oral presentation recorded as a digital video. Recommended formats are YouTube or Vimeo. You are asked to create and save your video on one of these, and then simply share the link to it with the instructor.

DUE: Monday at the end of Session 5, February 29th, 12 noon Central

 15% “The Spirit of the Liturgy” Assignment (GRAD)

In this short assignment, you are asked to browse Romano Guardini's classic text, The Spirit of the Liturgy. (The text is available online and is linked through our Blackboard Course). Select a passage from

5 this text that for you presents the concept of liturgy in a meaningful way. Then, put the wisdom of this passage in conversation with your present ministry context, and explore how it might motivate, challenge or illuminate your ministry. Conclude by a naming a new approach that you might take in your ministry in light of this exercise.

Please include the following sections in your assignment: 1) Identification of the selected passage (3 points) 2) Elaboration on why this passage is meaningful vis-a-vis your understanding of liturgy (5 points) 3) Dialogue with present ministry context: name how this passage motivates, challenges or illuminates your ministry work in a new way (5 points) 4) Conclude by naming a new approach to your ministry in light of this exercise (2 points)

This assignment is worth 15 points toward your final grade.

Format: You can choose one of two options below to fulfill this assignment.

Option A: A written paper of 4-6 pages in length, with standard formatting. (12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, double spaced)

DUE: Monday at the end of Session Eight, March 21st, 12 Noon Central

 10% Spiritual Formation (CEU and GRAD)

This course invites you to pray with the liturgical calendar of the Church. The Church's patter of liturgical prayer is an intentional way of marking time, and of bringing our particular reality into the timeless, transcendent reality of God's Reign. Time is a particular aspect of our own experience while the Kingdom of God is eternal, and invites us into it through the promise of the Gospel. The practice of prayerfully marking time recognizes how we are bound to time, but also await the in-breaking of God's Reign to transform our reality.

In this course, you are asked to engage in a regular prayer practice of liturgical spirituality. You might consider praying with the temporal cycle of the liturgical calendar (daily readings); the sanctoral cycle (feast days and memorials of the saints) or engage in praying all or some part of the liturgy of the hours. You will find a folder in the Chapel to get you started with some online resources. If you have an additional resource in mind, please consult with your instructor.

You task is to keep a personal journal or record of your prayer, and note how you are aware of God's presence in your intentional marking of time while praying with the Church. Some questions to consider:

 How are you finding this regular, temporal rhythm of prayer? How might it affirm or challenge our cultural approaches to the passing of time?

 How might the world around you reflect the movement and progression of this form of prayer ( time of day, time of year, seasons, etc.)?

 What in particular stands out to you about this form of prayer? How is God speaking to you through it?

Keep a record of your thoughts, and prepare to share a brief 200-400 word reflection about these during Session Ten of this course, which will be worth 10% of your grade in this course. Due: Monday at the end of Session Ten, April 4th, 12 noon Central

 20% Final Paper (GRAD)

The purpose of the final paper is first to explore through examples a broader understanding of sacraments and then to focus on the meaning of one particular sacrament and describe how to pastorally prepare people for reception of this sacrament. In a paper of 6-8 pages, you should address the following:

• What is a sacrament? Using course texts and additional sources, begin this essay by describing your understanding and definition of this theological term. Be sure to include in your definition not only what a sacrament is, but also what it implies for the life of the Christian person. (1-2 pages) (Worth 5 points)

• Next, choose one of specific sacraments and describe your understanding of it, in light of both theological sources and pastoral reflection. (2-3 pages) (Worth 6 points)

• Describe how you would prepare a specific person or a particular group to understand, celebrate and appreciate this sacrament. Describe in some detail the steps you would follow in preparing people to experience this sacrament. If you already engage in specific sacramental preparation as your ministry, how will it be different based on your learnings in this course and your research for this paper? (3 pages) (Worth 7 points)

Paper demonstrates clarity, focus, is free of grammatical errors, and observes appropriate length (Worth 2 points)

Cite the course readings, as well as other resources. You are required to do research in addition to the course materials provided for you in this class, and to draw from scholarly sources for your analysis. Remember to follow the general guidelines for reflective essays found in the Guide to Written Theological Reflection and the current edition of the MLA Handbook. Be sure that you cite scriptural and other text materials according to the style presented in these texts. Consult the Monroe Library’s Research Guide for this course; it contains links to electronic books, databases, and websites that may be helpful to you in completing your papers. Access it at .

Length: 6-8 pages of content, double spaced, Times New Roman Font, one inch margins Due: Submit in Session Eleven, April 18th, 12 Noon Central

Grading: Please note that the LIM grading scale uses B as the standard for graduate-quality work. A and B+ indicate graduate work done with distinction, with B- and below signifying levels below graduate standards.

Characteristics of Student Work A (100-93%) Work done with distinction. An outstanding use of all four evaluation criteria as a catalyst for critical reflection. A-(92-90%) Work done with distinction, with a few minor corrections needed. B+ (89-87%) Work of very good quality. The assignment is addressed in an exceptional manner with a good balance of personal insight and academic documentation. B (86-83%) The standard for the master’s degree. The assignment is adequately addressed in a clear and concise manner with appropriate documentation. If subsequent work meets this standard of quality, the degree will be awarded. B -(82-80%) The work is slightly below the standard for master’s level work. The assignment is addressed but a number of corrections are needed to address the assignment in a clear and concise manner. If subsequent work continues at this level, the student may not continue in the degree program. C +(79-77%) Substandard graduate work. Evaluation criteria are not adequately met in the assignment. Moderate improvement is needed. If subsequent work continues at this level, the student may not continue in the degree program. C (76-70%) Less than graduate-level work. Evaluation criteria are not met. If subsequent work continues at this level, the student may not continue in the degree program. F (69-0%) Assignment not addressed at all, incomplete assignment, or not submitted on time on time.

Course and University Policies

Missed Work: If you foresee that you will be unable to post in a given week, please contact the instructor ahead of time. Generally, extensions for a valid reason are not a problem, if you arrange for this ahead of time. If you miss posting in the weekly discussion without contacting your instructor, you will lose participation points for that week. If you miss a deadline for a longer assignment without contacting your instructor, you will lose points for that assignment. I do not accept late work in this course unless previous arrangements have been made for an extension before the deadline passes.

Absence from Weekly Discussion: In this online course, your presence is communicated by your active participation in the weekly discussions. If you do not post in a given week, you are considered absent. If your unexcused absences in this class add up to three missed weekly sessions without contacting your instructor, you will receive a failing grade in the course.

Statement of Incomplete Grades: If by the end of the course you do not submit your final assignment but with the instructor arrange to do so later, you will be given an “I” or Incomplete for the course. Grades of “I” (incomplete) change to “F” automatically if the course is not completed and the grade changed by the sixth week of the subsequent term, excluding summer terms.

Statement of Accommodation:

If you have a disability and wish to receive accommodations, please contact Sarah Mead Smith, Director of Disability Services at 504- 865-2990. If you wish to receive test accommodations (e.g., extended test time), you will need to give the course instructor an official Accommodation Form from Disability Services. The Office of Disability Services is located in Monroe Hall 405.

Statement on Intellectual Honesty: (Be Wise, Don’t Plagiarize!) Intellectual honesty is simply acknowledging, through documentation, all those sources that the writer has used in preparing any written work. Plagiarism, the obverse of intellectual honesty, is the use of any form of material, whether written or verbal, without formal indebtedness through documentation. The paraphrasing of any work, either written by other students or found in print or in an electronic form, without acknowledgement, is plagiarism. Not properly identifying the source of a quotation, even though the quotation is enclosed in quotation marks, is also plagiarism. Not only the exact language of a sentence or phrase, but any material falsely presented as one’s own – an ideal, a concept, data, graphs, or a line of argument – constitutes plagiarism. Any material that neither originates with the student nor is common knowledge among educated persons must be formally acknowledged.

It must be remembered that written work stands on its own, not on the intention of the writer. The burden of academic honesty rests on the student, not on the instructor. If students have any doubts about what constitutes plagiarism or what is required, they should inquire before the work is submitted. Otherwise, they open themselves to charges of plagiarism. The penalties for plagiarism are severe: a student who is found to have plagiarized or to have assisted another student in plagiarizing may be given a failing grade for the course on the first violation; a second offense may result in exclusion or dismissal from the university.