There is nothing new about church leaders arguing over worship, including whether the rites have become too casual or superficial. Take St. John Chrysostom, for example, who complained about the irreverence he saw in the churches of Constantinople. Back in the old days, he said, people knew what it meant to solemnly observe the holy mysteries. Alas, some believers seemed to be going through the motions -- in the fourth century. The archbishop urged his flock: "When I say, 'Peace be unto you,' and you say, 'And with your spirit,' say it not with the voice only, but also with the mind; not in mouth only, but in understanding also." With the start of Advent, we also saw the implementation of the revised liturgy in the Catholic Church. It was different and it did require us to be more attentive. There were nervous moments and some folks were smiling when they muffed a response. Everyone was glued to their tri-fold guide. It will be a while before we become completely comfortable with the new Mass. Once we become comfortable with the new responses, then we will begin to focus on what the priest is saying. There are a number of changes for the celebrant and during the consecration it was very obvious. The use of the word chalice instead of cup was most noticeable. Again, time will allow us to more fully explore the changes. As a lifelong Catholic, I have always marveled at the drama of the Mass. It evolves in our conscientiousness the older we become. The nuances are revealed as we mature. It is in celebrating the Lord's Supper for years that we come to appreciate the beauty. It will come again. This is an exercise that will ultimately make us better. The changes encourage us to dig deeper in our faith development. And so I say to you, "Peace be with you and with your spirit."

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, it is a good time to think about those who may not be anticipating the holiday at all. Now is the time to remember friends and family who may have recently lost someone. Think about those who may be experiencing Thanksgiving for the first time without a special loved one. The holiday season is typically stressful because of the expectations we place on these gatherings. Very often people think that having a meal will settle long-held anger or unresolved differences. Often it is quiet the opposite that occurs. Our emotions are heightened and this can lead to misunderstandings. Frequently we will take things out of context because we are looking to be slighted. All of this potential conflict is piled on top of the sadness and loneliness that someone who has lost a loved one during the year is feeling. God calls us to serve those in need. This is a perfect time for all of us to renew our commitment to serving others. Think about your neighbor who may be alone for the first time. Think about a husband who has lost his wife after a long marriage. Where will he go for Thanksgiving? Is there a wife who has lost her husband and may not have family close by? She will probably feel inadequate and useless. Jesus welcomes all to the table. There is always room in the house of the Lord. Invite someone to your Thanksgiving celebration that may be searching for companionship. Just a small caveat though. Frequently when we experience the loss of a loved one, celebrations of this type may be overwhelming. If they do agree to join your celebration, make sure you stay tuned to their mood. If you see changes and shifts, respond to them with love and care. Make sure to include their lost one in your Thanksgiving prayer. You will be called upon to be much more effortful than you might have been in the past but it will be worth it in the end. Allowing yourself to serve as God's earthen vessel, especially during the holiday season, is a perfect way to grow spiritually.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on his fellow bishops to communicate to the world that the sinfulness of the church's members is not "a reason to dismiss the church or her eternal truths, but to embrace her all the more." In his first presidential address since election as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last November, Archbishop Dolan opened and closed with the words: "Love for Jesus and his church must be the passion of our lives." Describing the church as a spiritual family that "to use the talk show vocabulary ... has some 'dysfunction,'" he said the bishops' "most pressing pastoral challenge today is to reclaim that truth, to restore the luster, the credibility, the beauty of the church." But he cited "chilling statistics we cannot ignore" that "fewer and fewer of our beloved people -- to say nothing about those outside the household of the faith -- are convinced that Jesus and his church are one. So they drift from her, get mad at the church, grow lax, join another or just give it all up," Archbishop Dolan said. "If this does not cause us pastors to shudder, I do not know what will."

Each Sunday for decades, Roman Catholic priests have offered the blessing — "Lord be with you." And each Sunday, parishioners would respond, "And also with you." Until this month. Come November 27, the response will be, "And with your spirit." And so will begin a small revolution in a tradition-rich faith. At the end of the month, parishes in English-speaking countries will begin to use a new translation of the Roman Missal, the ritual text of prayers and instructions for celebrating Mass. International committees of specialists worked under a Vatican directive to hew close to the Latin and after years of revisions negotiated by bishops' conferences and the Holy See, dioceses are preparing anxious clergy and parishioners for the rollout, one of the biggest changes in Catholic worship in generations. "We're tinkering with a very intimate and personal moment," said the Rev. Richard Hilgartner, executive director of the worship office for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "It's public worship, it's the church's official public prayer, but for the individual faithful, it's one of the primary means of their encounter with the Lord." In the new translation, in the Nicene Creed, the phrase "one in Being with the Father," will change to "consubstantial with the Father." When a priest prays over the Holy Communion bread and wine, he will ask God for blessings "by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall." The new missal grew out of changes in liturgy that started with the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings on modernizing the church that permitted Mass in local languages instead of Latin. Bishops in English-speaking countries created the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to undertake the translation. The panel produced a missal by 1973, but that version was considered temporary until better texts could be completed. As the commission worked to make the Mass more familiar in idiomatic English, some of the language strayed from the Latin. Also in some cases, the commission sought to use language that would be gender neutral. The work took a new direction in 2001, when the Vatican office in charge of worship issued the directive Liturgiam Authenticam, or Authentic Liturgy, which required translations closer to the Latin. The Vatican also appointed another committee, Vox Clara, or Clear Voice, to oversee the English translation. Jeffrey Tucker, a lay musician at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Auburn, Ala., said he also had concerns about how the translation was handled. Still, he said he found the new missal "extraordinary." The text and music are truly integrated for the first time since the changes from the Second Vatican Council, Tucker said. He has been introducing the new text to lay people and church leaders in recent months, and has found the reaction to mostly be, "Oh, wow.'" "The language is more accurate, but that is the most boring thing you can say about it. The more important thing about the language is that it's beautiful," said Tucker who is managing editor of Sacred Music, the journal of the Church Music Association of America. "Hardly anything ever good comes out of a committee. This time it did."

“Life is Co-Ed” has become the unofficial rallying call of the Catholic University students unhappy and unconvinced by their president’s unprecedented decision to revert all dormitories to single-sex living quarters. John Garvey, president of Catholic, announced in June that the university would be phasing in single-sex residence halls, in an effort to curb binge drinking and casual sex. He said that the change would better align the university with its moral obligations as a Roman Catholic institution. The decision to eliminate co-ed living to revert to single-sex living, which looks to be the first of its kind, has been the talk of the campus since it was enacted at the beginning of this semester, with opinion split almost 50/50 on the issue, students say. Administrators are phasing in the living policy with this year's freshman class, with units for older students remaining co-ed. But that doesn’t mean its intended outcomes are coming to fruition. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, some students say. “If people want to have sex they are going to have sex,” said Melissa Reid, a freshman living in the all-female Ryan Hall. Reid, who goes to Mass nearly every other day, said she talked about the policy in one of her psychology classes recently. Nearly all the students, including Reid, agreed that this housing change will not stop students from having sex or drinking. "If you have to separate people to prevent that then what are you saying about those people?” she said. Interviews with many other students, while walking around near the first-year dormitory area, reveal many similar comments. While students have a range of views about the wisdom of the policy, most agreed that there is still plenty of sex and drinking — and that single-sex living has not fundamentally changed those features of college life. Victor Nakas, associate vice president for public affairs at Catholic, wrote in an e-mail that students' declarations on how much binge drinking and casual sex they see is mere conjecture -- what do freshmen have as a comparison? Nakas also said that administrators know this housing policy is not going to totally eliminate drinking and casual sex. At the beginning of the semester, spray-painted graffiti depicting a man and a woman with the slogan “Life is Co-Ed” appeared on several places on campus and in the nearby Metro station. Now the student government is stepping in to try and put a number on the campus chatter surrounding the issue. Leslie Martin, speaker of Catholic’s student government, said the governing body will be voting at its meeting Wednesday on holding a referendum (which would not be binding on the university) about the issue. "We really want to make sure our student body is able to voice their opinion on such an important issue,” Martin, a senior studying politics said. Martin said to her knowledge no one in the study body was asked about the new policy before it was announced. Martin said there seems to be strong support for the referendum in the government and she expects it to pass. If the measure is approved, in about two weeks students will be able to vote online to voice their support of or opposition to the new housing policy. And Martin said the student government’s delegation is representative of the larger student population: it's split right down the middle on the issue. Personally, Martin said “we do have to remember the Catholic identity of CUA because we are the Catholic University of America,” but, still, the administration needs to smooth out some kinks in the new housing setup. She’d like to see more outlets for opposite-sex socialization and 24-hour study spaces so students don’t feel confined to friendships with those of the same gender, she said. Martin said she does not know how the administration will react if the majority of students have a negative opinion of the same-sex housing policy. But they are going to keep the discussion going — the student government is planning a town hall meeting with the vice president for student life, the general counsel and Garvey to talk about the housing change. A time and date has yet to be set, she said. Nakas said he could not comment on the referendum proposal because he did not have enough information about it. Taking a less neutral stance on the issue is the university’s chapter of DC Students Speak, a district-wide political action group advocating for student issues. The group started an online petition earlier this month, calling for the policy to be struck down. The petition, which has almost 100 signatures, says "mandatory single-sex residence halls denounce reality; promote the seclusion of male and female interaction; and deny students the free and fair right to choice, whether it be their living arrangement and/or decision-making in everyday life." The university is also facing a lawsuit in the wake of the announcement earlier this summer. John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University, who is known for public interest suits, says totally eliminating co-ed dorms would violate the District of Columbia's Human Rights Act. While some students are saying the policy change is a shift back to the 1950s, others understand the reasoning. One freshman living in the all-female Magner Hall said it doesn’t bother her to be living only with other women. She has still been able to make male friends. But now it’s “more tempting to people to [bend the rules]," she said. Nakas said there are currently 11 single-sex dorms on campus, and by fall 2012, all freshmen and sophomores will live in single-sex dwellings. Freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus. Guests may visit student rooms between 9 a.m. and midnight Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Nakas said in most first-year buildings a public safety assistant monitors and signs in room guests from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day. The university enforces these guest limitations with communication between resident assistants and the door attendants to identify rooms that may have gone over their visitation hours. Freshman Liam Crowley is living in the all-male Flather Hall. He put Flather down as his first choice for living preference after an older female friend and fellow student suggested it. He only found out about the housing changes for his class after he put down his deposit and committed to the university. Now, he said, he spends most of his time in the co-ed Centennial Village residence area. Several students said they understood the Catholic values behind the reversal, but said it limits the freshman class’s ability to meet friends of the opposite sex. “I think they should be co-ed and I’m pretty Catholic,” Reid said.