A Deeper Understanding of the Mass

Since the changes to the texts of the Mass are rapidly approaching (I can’t believe Advent only about 2 months away!) now seems like an ideal time to look a little more closely at the Mass itself.

The Form
The Mass has two main parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  Why these two parts?  Because the Church follows the example Jesus gave her at Emmaus.  You probably remember the story of Jesus appearing two disciples right after His resurrection, though they don’t recognize Him.  Confused about all that has happened, Jesus patiently explains it to them.

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So He went in to stay with them. When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished out of their sight (Luke 24:27-31)

In the Mass, we follow the pattern Jesus set here.  We begin with the Scriptures, then have the Word of God explained further for us in a homily (which finishes the Liturgy of the Word), and then we celebrate the breaking of the bread, that is, the Eucharist.

This is why our Mass is so amazingly similar to the Mass of the early Christians – because we’re just following Jesus’ example.  Descriptions of the Mass from St. Justin Martyr in the 2nd century, from St. Hippolytus in the 3rd century and from St. Cyril in 4th century are so close in form to our Mass that I can’t recommend enough checking it out for yourselves (Mike Aquilina’s The Mass of the Early Christians is great, or you could also go straight to the sources and read the saints’ primary texts).  It will give you goosebumps!

It’s incredible to think that for nearly 2,000 years the Mass has had a rough form of: confession/contrition for sins, alternating verses between the congregation and the celebrant (i.e., the Psalms in our Mass), the reading of Scripture, a homily, an offering/donation we make to the Church, prayer intentions, a sign of peace, the consecration and finally the distribution of the Eucharist.  And so each time we go to Mass we’re sharing in a Tradition that is truly ancient!

The Eucharist
The Mass is the “source and summit of Christian life” (according to the Second Vatican Council) because it is the highest form of worship.  It is where the Church, and we as individuals, give the greatest glory to God as we remember and make present Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice.  And it’s also where we are most fully united with Him since the Eucharist makes possible a participation in His very divinity!

St. Paul was very careful to ensure the words of institution, which Jesus established at the Last Supper, would be passed down. He wrote:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:23-25)

Jesus’ words are very explicit – not only here, but also in John 6 in His famous Bread of Life discourse.  Jesus is telling us that we are to eat His Body and drink His Blood.  Not symbolically, not figuratively, but literally. “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day’” (Jn 6:53-54).  (For more on this check out my post Why the Real Presence Matters)

This literally understanding has been the teaching of the Church from the very beginning.  The early Church Fathers are unanimous in their belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Less than 100 years after the death of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Antioch explains, “Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Likewise, St. Justin Martyr just a little over 100 years after Christ’s death wrote, “For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.”

The Eucharist is the heart of the Mass.  If we don’t properly understand it, if we can’t explain it to others, then we’re shortchanging ourselves and our relationship with Jesus.  The Eucharist is the greatest expression of Christ’s love (and I say this because it’s the flipside of His sacrifice on the Cross – the two are so intimately connected they’re like the two sides of one coin) and we must always be striving towards a deeper understanding of this love so that we may experience it more fully, and then return it more fully.

Further Study
Since changes are coming, now is the perfect time to learn more about the source and summit of our lives as Christians: the Mass!  The small amount of time it takes to read a book on the subject will pay dividends not only in this life as you attend Mass, but for all eternity as well.  Some of my favorites include:

For brief introductions to the Mass: The How-To Book of the Mass and The Mass

For more on the Eucharist: The Lamb’s Supper, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, Worthy is the Lamb: Biblical Roots of the Eucharist

May the Lord bring us all to deeper understanding of His great gift: the Eucharist.  And may that same Eucharist bring us all to everlasting life, where the veil around His presence will fall and we will finally see our Lord face to face.

Changes to the Mass in 2011

It is important to begin by noting that the Mass itself is not changing.  It’s perhaps misleading to speak of the “New Mass.”  Some of the texts of the Mass are changing, but the elements of the Mass remain the same: the Introductory Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Communion Rite and the Concluding Rites.  That being said, here’s what you need to know about the Roman Missal, Third Edition (if you want a shorter explanation: click here).

Why are changes being made?
JPII promulgated the third edition of the Latin Roman Missal (Missale Romanum) in 2001, and our new missal will now reflect the additional prayers and revisions found in that missal.  We are, after all, one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church and the Mass should reflect our unity.  You will notice quite a few changes in wording largely because when the Latin Mass was first translated into English after Vatican II, some liberties were taken by the translators that are now going to be corrected.  While perhaps an inconvenience, the words we say will now be closer to the texts used at Masses around the world.

When will the Missal begin to be used in the liturgy?
The new translation will be used with the start of Advent, 2011.  That particular Sunday falls on November 27, 2011.

What are some of the changes?
The changes are bolded.  The non-bolded text is there to give enough context so that you can recognize in which part of the Mass the change is occurring.  Again, these changes have been made to make our English missal more true to either the Latin missal or to Vulgate (the Latin Bible).

What does all this mean?
It means that come Advent we will all have to follow the Missal closely as we get used to the changes in the Mass.  For the most part, the changes in our responses are small (nearly the whole of them are listed in the table above, with the exception of the Mysteries of Faith).  So that will make the transition easier for us as we assist at Mass.

The biggest changes are found in the prayers the priest recites.  As the USCCB’s website tells us, “the style of worship will be more formal. But it will also be deeper theologically and more evocative emotionally and intellectually.”  Meaning what?  Some of the language may sound strange to our ears at first, but it’s intended to remind us that we are worshiping the one, true God.  It’s supposed to sound a little strange so that we remember that what we are doing is neither unimportant nor ordinary.  In the Mass we are doing nothing short of sacramentally renewing Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross – if this doesn’t call for special language, nothing does!

Hopefully this post has been some help to you.  If you’d like to learn more, you can go to the USCCB’s site directly here.  Or better yet, look at the new text of the Order of the Mass.  I can’t encourage you enough, no matter how many years you’ve been Catholic, to take this opportunity of an updated Missal to deepen your (and your family’s!) understanding about the purpose,  the structure, and the mysteries of the Mass!  You may also want to check out A Deeper Understanding of the Mass.

Changes to the Mass Come Advent 2011

So if by chance you haven’t heard, come Advent 2011 the Catholic Church in the US (and other English speaking countries) will be using a revised translation of the Roman Missal, the text followed when saying Mass.  After Vatican II the Missale Romanum (Latin for Roman Missal) was set as the “definitive text” of the Liturgy.  Since it was in Latin, it obviously had to be translated into other languages, and apparently there were quite a few, umm, liberties taken by those who translated it into English.  So after about 40 years with a mediocre translation, efforts were made to better align the English text with its Latin counterpart.

As a result, our Roman Missal has undergone more than a dozen changes (far more than other countries such as Spain, whose Missals are also being slightly revised).  Though these changes have already been approved by both the USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome, the new Missal won’t be used until Advent 2011 to allow time for the education of both clergy and laity.

So a few notable changes:

• “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault” added in the middle of the Penitential Act
• When the Priest says, “The Lord be with you” and we respond “And also with you”, we will now respond “And also with your spirit”
• A few changes in the Nicene Creed (“of all things visible and invisible”, “consubstantial with the Father”)
• Different Mysteries of Faith (“Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.”, “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.”)
• “Lord I am not worthy to receive you, only say the word and I shall be healed” is replaced with “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. (I’ll cop to being a little sad about this change – that was my favorite line of the whole Mass!)

For those of you familiar enough with the Mass that you know by heart some of the Eucharist prayers, they are completely different.  So in some ways the Mass will feel a little foreign.  But as we are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the texts followed at a Mass in the US should match as perfectly as possible the texts read at a Mass in Europe or Africa or Latin America.  These changes are ultimately a good thing, they’re making our text more true to Tradition, the Bible and/or the Mass as the universal Church celebrates it.

Check out the new Roman Missal so you can start to familiarize yourself with it.  And share the link with your Catholic friends because we need to help the Church spread the word!

Order of the Mass PDF from USCCB Site

General Info Regarding Changes from USCCB Site

I’ve since written a longer post on the changes to the Mass, which includes more of the changes to the texts: More Changes to the Mass.  You may also want to check out: To A Deeper Understanding of the Mass.  God bless!

Faith & Knowledge: The Ultimate Combination

I’m always amazed when I read the Gospel passage where Jesus returned home to find that His fellow Nazarenes refused to believe in Him.  Even more amazingly, “They took offense at Him” (Mk 6:3).  Why?  Because they thought they knew Him.  They had an idea or a picture in their head of who Jesus was (a neighbor, a carpenter) and so felt disdain when Jesus claimed to be more than that.  And instead of getting to know the real Jesus, they formed opinions from the very limited understanding they had.

Growing up Christian (but especially Catholic) it’s easy to get caught in the trap of the Nazarenes.  We receive a little religious instruction when we are young, but too often fall short of getting to know Jesus and His Church intimately.  And, sadly, many of us just stop studying and learning about our faith after that.

But until we understand why we’re doing what we’re doing, and why we believe what we believe, it won’t have a lot of (or any) meaning.  The Mass, with its structure and ritual, is the perfect case in point.  It can seem very boring unless we understand what is going on and why it matters.  The responsorial psalm, for instance, is rarely repeated by all the congregants.  Do you suppose more would participate if they knew that Christians as early as around 100 AD incorporated a responsorial into their Mass as well?  Catholics are partaking in a nearly 2000 year old tradition, and in doing so are connected to all those who have done it before them.  With just a little knowledge, the psalms can go from being a rote response to a powerful connection to the Church.

And of course this holds for all the other parts of the Mass, especially the prayers during the consecration of the host and wine.  There are also so many Biblical references throughout the Mass that if pointed out and explained would greatly enhance the meaning of the Mass.  But again, this requires really understanding the why, instead of just the what.

St. Clement of Alexandria said it best at the beginning of the third century, “And it seems to me that the first saving change is from paganism to faith; and the second is that from faith to knowledge.  This latter develops into love.”

Faith without knowledge is a religious crisis waiting to happen.  But faith with knowledge is like a house built on a foundation of rock.  No storm or flood will knock it down.  Actively strengthen your foundation!  Learn more!  Jesus has probably already put the desire in your heart – He’s just waiting for you to act on it.