"Sowers of God's Peace" was the theme of an adult enrichment day held Jan. 29 at St. Francis if Assisi Parish in Triangle. Attended by 200 people, many catechists, the day was sponsored by Deanery V's Catechetical Leaders of Arlington.

Keynote speaker Father Donald Father Heet, O.S.F.S., spoke of spirituality, liturgy and doing justice as being the image of the trinity in the world. Spirituality underlies and gives focus to the celebration of liturgy and the commitment to do justice. Speaking of St. Paul's writing in Galatians 5, Father Heet said a spiritual person's whole life and being is led or influenced by the spirit of God.

Spirituality and liturgy need to be intimately connected and send us out to do justice, Father Heet said. "All people can be devout and holy," said Father Heet quoting St. Francis of de Sales.

Speaking of the dismissal Rite of the Liturgy, Father Heet said, "it sends us out as a Christian community to live justly."

Focusing on the question of "What do we bring to liturgy?" Father Heet said we bring ourselves, our week, and our intimate space. Through the Paschal Mystery human life and death are made sacred. We are a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord," he said, responding by trying to be open to God and praising God.

We offer our week to the Lord through the presentation of Gifts and the collection where our money represents out time, energy, work and creativity, Father Heet said.

Speaking of the full and active participation of the laity in the liturgy, Father Heet said engaging fully in the liturgy means more than singing. It involves listening with heart and head, using silence and dropping our masks, such as being a critic.

Father Heet said over time we are formed by the liturgy by recognizing God in the ordinary. A teacher of homiletics at Catholic University, Father Heet said one point of a homily was to help the assembly recognize God acting in their lives.

Anne Koester, an associate of the Center for Liturgy at Georgetown Universit, spoke on how liturgy forms us as people of faith and justice. The word liturgy comes from two Greek words work and people, meaning work of the people.

Through Baptism, Koester said, we are baptized into relationship with Christ and the whole living world. Giving a history of the integration of liturgy and social justice from the early 20th century until now, Koester spoke of how they were inter-related and there was no need to have themes for liturgy.

To look at social justice, which was first used in an encyclical in 1931, Koester asked the participants to reflect on their image of God and the images given in Scripture. Speaking of the Trinity, Koester spoke of a relational God that is about divine justice.

She spoke of God as a Creator who made people in His image and a God who initiated right relationships through a covenant with Israel and through the incarnation of His Son. Israel was expected to practice the mercy, compassion and love shown by God with each other. The Old Testament also shows God's justice through the prophets speaking against injustices and the concerns shown for the marginal of society.

Speaking of Jesus' ministry, Koester noted that Jesus asked for much more than was the norm as in His teachings and example. Jesus had a meal ministry and dines with sinners and tax collectors. Koester also spoke of the need to imitate Jesus in the right relationship of justice. Jesus built right relationships through invitation, being available, telling stories, forgiving, touching and feeding others.

"Liturgy should help us be other centered," she said noting that the penitential rite, prayer of the faithful and the Eucharistic Prayers are about restoring the right relationships.

Father Lawrence Boadt spoke on how St. Luke’s Gospel is uniquely different from the other Synoptic Gospels in its focus on the poor and the outcast, the misunderstood foreigner, and the need for strong commitment to both compassion and justice. He noted that it is only in Luke that we find the "little people" such as the shepherds, Zechariah, Anna and Simeon recognizing Jesus before beginning his public ministry. It is in Luke's Gospel that we find the stories of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, Lazarus and Zaccheus.

The three breakout sessions included eight workshop choices. A liturgy was celebrated by Father John O'Connor, O.F.M., as part of the day. Parishioners from All Saints, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. St. Jude's, St. William of York, St. Mary's, St. Matthews's, St. Patrick's, Sacred Heart and St. Francis of Assisi participated.