What is the assembly?

[aggie03]

I have some questions and I wanted to see what you all thought about it. I'm going to make a couple new threads with some of these questions, and I'm really looking foward to hearing your answers. I may ask questions to get a better understanding of what you mean, if I need to, but I promise that I will endeavor to keep from "debating".

What do you consider to be the assembly (assembling of the saints)?

 

[Polycarp1]

I have a hunch this is a bit of esoteric theology -- but the real simple answer lies in koiné Greek -- ekklesia is the word translated "assembly," with reference to the gathering of the people of a polis (city-state) as a democratic legislature. It was borrowed by the early Church to describe the people coming together for worship, and may be in this context translated "church" -- in both the unitary and the local-congregation meanings.

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

There are man diffrent ways we can approach your question, I am going to give you two small qoutes from the CCC and also suggest reading the entire Article 9 from PART 1, SECTION 2 , CHAPTER 3:
http://www.kofc.org/publications/cis/catechism/getsection.cfm?partnum=1&SecNum=2&ChapNum=3&articlenum=9&ParSecNum=0&subSecNum=0&headernum=0&ParNum=748&ParType=4

PART 1, SECTION 2 , CHAPTER 3, ARTICLE 9, PARAGRAPH 1, SUBSECTION 1



I. NAMES AND IMAGES OF THE CHURCH

751 The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. 139 Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. 140 By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is "calling together" his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent Greek term Kyriake, from which the English word Church and the German Kirche are derived, means "what belongs to the Lord."
752 In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, 141 but also the local community 142 or the whole universal community of believers. 143 These three meanings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body.

PART 1, SECTION 2 2, CHAPTER 3 3, ARTICLE 9, PARAGRAPH 5



Paragraph 5. The Communion of Saints

946 After confessing "the holy catholic Church," the Apostles' Creed adds "the communion of saints." In a certain sense this article is a further explanation of the preceding: "What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?" 479 The communion of saints is the Church.


947 "Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others.... We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head.... Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments." 480 "As this Church is governed by one and the same Spirit, all the goods she has received necessarily become a common fund." 481

948 The term "communion of saints" therefore has two closely linked meanings: communion in holy things (sancta)" and "among holy persons (sancti)."

Sancta sancti's! ("God's holy gifts for God's holy people") is proclaimed by the celebrant in most Eastern liturgies during the elevation of the holy Gifts before the distribution of communion. The faithful (sancti) are fed by Christ's holy body and blood (sancta) to grow in the communion of the Holy Spirit (koinonia) and to communicate it to the world.​

​

 

[aggie03]

Thanks for those quotes Aaron-aggie.

This is the real reason that I've wanted to get a definition for assembly. If the local congregation were to come together, everyone was there, for a Bible study on the first day of the week, would you say that was the assembly? Or is it not the assembly until worship or the mass actually begins?

 

[Benedicta00]

Thanks for those quotes Aaron-aggie.

This is the real reason that I've wanted to get a definition for assembly. If the local congregation were to come together, everyone was there, for a Bible study on the first day of the week, would you say that was the assembly? Or is it not the assembly until worship or the mass actually begins?

We assemble to break bread on the lord’s day and we assemble to do his work in many, many different ministries, not just bible study. We have prayer groups; we have dozens and dozens of different groups who assemble to build up Christ’s Church.

 

[Michelina]

If the local congregation were to come together, everyone was there, for a Bible study on the first day of the week, would you say that was the assembly? Or is it not the assembly until worship or the mass actually begins?

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass includes a 'bible study' and an act of worship.

The first part of the Mass is called the Liturgy of the Word. It begins with a penitential service and then there are two or three readings from SScripture which are thematically related. In ancient times, this was called the "Mass of the Catechumens". (Those yet to be baptized would leave after this part of the Mass.)

The second part is called the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when the bloody Sacrifice on Calvary would be made present and the faithful would partake of the Body and Blood of Christ in Communion.

 

[aggie03]

In ancient times, were women allowed to read the Scriptures (apart from the gospels) in the Mass of the Catechumens? Or have women always been able to read during the Liturgy of the Word?
The Mass of the Catechumens is new info for me. Thanks

 

[Michelina]

In ancient times, were women allowed to read the Scriptures (apart from the gospels) in the Mass of the Catechumens?

No.

Or have women always been able to read during the Liturgy of the Word?

This is a recent development. After Vat II, the Church abolished the old Minor Orders.

Porter: the guys who controlled entry to the assembly and ushered the Catechumens out.

Lector: the reader of the SS.

Exorcist: self-explanatory

Acolyte: the server at the altar.

A new 'Lector' Ministry was created at this time and was open to women, as is the Ministry of Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, referring to those who assist the priest in distribution of Holy Communion at Mass and outside Mass (hospitals, senior centers, private homes, prisons, etc.)

 

[Polycarp1]

Warning -- Non-Catholic comment: And, of course, if the woman is an ordained bishop, priest, or deacon, she will fulfill the roles of her order in the ministry. My parish has a married couple as priests -- they take turns, one celebrating and the other preaching each week, and then reversing who does what the following week. Our deacon and her husband were called to a different ministry, so she had to resign and move away.