Westport-born priest publishes new book

Westport native Fr Fintan (Paddy) Lyons has published a new book, ‘The People’s Celebration of the Eucharist’. Fr Fintan, a Benedictine monk based in Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick, is a native of the Quay Road, Westport. He is brother of the well-known photographer, the late Liam Lyons and the late Jackie, who lived in the US.
The book centres around the following questions: Who, exactly, are ‘the people’? Who is it that celebrates the Eucharist – a presiding priest in the presence of a congregation or the gathered People of God incorporating both ordained and non-ordained? And finally, what is the Eucharist – a meal, a sacrifice or both?
Deceptively simple questions, to which our initial responses can reveal our perception of the structure of the Catholic Church and the performance of its sacraments as hierarchical, with an active presider and a passive congregation looking on and responding.
This book addresses the celebration of the Eucharist from the perspective of the people’s participation, using the Constitution on the Liturgy of Vatican II in an attempt to give a more profound and comprehensive account than is usual.
It discusses such pastoral issues as how the Mass may be seen as both a sacrifice and a shared meal and what practical arrangements are needed in today’s world for an authentic celebration. Concentration on this broader perception of participation gives rise to ecumenical implications, as does the book’s discussion of the Orthodox Church’s theology of the Eucharist.
Fintan Lyons OSB has a doctorate in Reformed Theology and has taught in the Pontifical Liturgical Institute and in the Angelicum University, Rome; in Beeson, Southern Baptist Divinity School, Alabama, and in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. His previous publications include ‘Martin Luther: His Challenge Then and Now’; ‘Food, Feast and Fast: From Ancient World to Environmental Crisis’ and ‘The Persistence of Evil: A Cultural, Literary and Theological Analysis’.
Fr Fintan’s new book, published by Messenger Publications, retails at €12.95 and is available in local bookshops.