The Mass is the renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary, by which worship of God of infinite value is rendered, and a most precious good is obtained for the faithful.
Newsroom (04/07/2022 21:00, Gaudium Press) I propose to make a “pilgrimage” – with the mind, not by walking – through the various parts that make up the Mass.
It is necessary to know well or rediscover what the Holy Mass is. It follows an admirable itinerary that the faithful should know better and follow more attentively so that their participation in it may be fruitful. Participation is not mere attendance or passive presence because it is an event ordered to the glory of the Holy Trinity and for the benefit of the redeemed, especially those who come together to celebrate it, ministers and faithful.
We know that the Mass is the unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary, through which worship is rendered to God of infinite value and a most precious good is obtained for the faithful. Can one conceive of being indifferent, distracted or impatient in celebrating such a mystery? Sometimes, through lack of knowledge or irresponsible disinterest, these incongruities occur.
The widespread Roman rite in the West follows this path:
The Initial Rites prepare to hear the Word and celebrate the Eucharist.
Entrance Procession: We arrive at the temple and jubilantly prepare to celebrate our Faith’s central mystery. Opening greeting: After kissing the altar and making the sign of the cross, the priest greets the gathered assembly. Penitential Act: We humbly ask the Lord to forgive us for our sins. Glory: We praise God, recognizing His holiness and our contingency. Prayer/Collection: This is the prayer that the priest, in the name of all, makes to the Father, gathering the intentions of the community.
Liturgy of the Word. God, who gives himself to us as food in his Word.
First Reading: In the Old Testament, God speaks to us through the history of the people of Israel and their prophets. Psalm: We meditate on the impulse of an inspired psalm. Second Reading: In the New Testament, God speaks to us directly through the Apostles. Gospel: The redemptive mystery of Christ is proclaimed. Homily: The celebrant explains the Word of God, which is not theory, but life-transforming. Creed: We confess our Faith. Prayer of the Faithful: We ask for the most urgent needs.
In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we come to the heart of the Mass
Presentation of the Gifts: The bread of wheat and the wine of the vine that will become the body and blood of Christ. Our intentions, lives and desires are also presented. Preface: Prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God, three times holy.
Epiclesis: The celebrant extends his hands over the offerings and invokes the Holy Spirit, so that by his action, transubstantiation may take place.
Consecration: The bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Acclamation: We praise the central mystery of our Faith. Intercession: We offer the sacrifice in communion with the whole Church, asking for the Pope, the bishops, the living and the dead.
Doxology: The priest offers to the Father the Body and Blood of Jesus in the unity of the Holy Spirit giving to the Trinity “all honor and all glory” to which the faithful respond: “Amen”. Our Father: We pray to the Father as Jesus taught us.
Communion: The faithful come forward to receive the Bread of Life. Prayer of thanksgiving.
The final rites are Benediction, farewell, and sending forth: nourished with the bread of the Word and the Eucharist, we return to our activities, ready to live what we have celebrated.”
Here is a brief outline of a blessed pilgrimage from which one always comes out enriched and goes out of necessity and not out of obligation… which is also Sunday, the Lord’s Day!
The celebration of the Mass obeys an established liturgy which goes back to apostolic times and reaches our days, similar in its essential characteristics. However, with important accidental differences in the thirty rites with which it is celebrated today in the various countries of the East and West. The Latin liturgy comprises the Roman rite with its Ambrosian (Milan), Mozarabic (Toledo), Brazarabic (Braga), Carmelite, Carthusian, and Dominican variants. What an extraordinary spiritual, theological and cultural patrimony!
As we know, in the beginning, the Eucharist was celebrated during a meal, the agape being the solemn gathering par excellence in oriental customs; at the conclusion of a Passover Supper, the Lord instituted the sacrament. But already the Didache, a work of Christian literature from the first century, when referring to the Eucharist, does not mention that it was celebrated during a dinner.
Around the year 100, St. Ignatius of Antioch tells us about the sacrificial character of the Eucharist celebrated on an altar. And in the second century, St. Justin, in his Eucharistic Discourse, expounds on the sequence of the celebration as being outside a meal. In harmony with the expiatory content of the Mass, the domestic table made way for the altar, suitable for offering sacrifices.
Norms and rubrics in the Liturgical Books rule, govern and protect the celebration of the Mass. To the priest, the Church entrusts that which she, in turn, has received. “The liturgy cannot be treated by the celebrant and the community as private property” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 52).
Unfortunately, in this matter, it is not unusual to find ambiguities and fantasies that destroy the people of God. Ignoring the value of the Mass or disfiguring it in its celebration is no trifle. “A single Mass glorifies God more than all the glory given to Him by all the saints in heaven, including the Blessed Virgin, during all eternity,” wrote the Dominican theologian Friar Antonio Royo Marín; such is the value of a Mass, of a single Mass!
Some ignorant person will still pretend to fulfill his Sunday obligation by watching the Mass on television; that is part of the sad legacy that Covid left… that he doesn’t want to leave us. But, of course, the televised Mass is still a good program.
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
