The Importance of Music Music has long been part of how people give thanks and praise to God. We hear of how the people sang in thankful response to God’s action in their lives in Exodus 15, Numbers 21:17, Judges 5, and in 2 Samuel 6:5. The chief document for the way we celebrate Mass …
The ProcessionAs each person arrives for Mass, they find a seat in the pews. It is a good time to pray in silence as you wait for the Mass to begin. When it is time for Mass to begin, the altar servers, lectors, and clergy process in. Their procession is symbolic of the entire congregation gathering …
The Hidden Depths of the Mass #5Gestures Before we enter our pew we genuflect. When we come up for Communion we bow before we receive Communion. Why? Because our gestures mean something. In this case, they signify our reverence for the presence of our Lord in int Tabernacle and in the Eucharist. We genuflect to …
The Hidden Depths of the Mass #4Preparation for Mass What do we mean by preparation? It should include taking a few minutes before Mass to quiet our thoughts and to center ourselves on the Lord. This is often best done by spending a couple of minutes just before Mass begins in silent prayer in church. If something keeps …
The Hidden Depths of the Mass #3 Can We Fully Understand It? As we learn more about the Mass, an important piece to consider is that the Sacraments, including the Eucharist are rooted in mystery. We are not going to understand everything. For example, how God changes the bread and wine into the Body and …
The Origins of the Mass Initially, Christians gathered with Jews on the Sabbath for the Jewish worship that included readings from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and a sermon. Then the Christians gathered on Sunday for the Eucharist. As hostility developed between Jews and Christians, Christians stopped going to Jewish services and made Sunday their …
Beginning this week you will see a new series of articles in our parish bulletin for St. Mary’s of the Lake and St. Benedict’s that I am writing to help people better understand and better appreciate what we do at Mass. I’ll also post it here and on a page I will be creating on my …
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Gone are the days when men came to Sunday Mass in suits and women came in their nice dresses. We are offered something wonderful in the Mass (see my series The Greatest Gift: The Eucharist and Uncovering the Treasurers of the Mass). If we understand what God is offering us in the Mass, his Word …
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would like to talk about something I have spoken about before. Why do we go to Mass? I write this in the midst of Holy Week. In the events we celebrate this week, we see what the Mass offers us. For some people, attendance at …
I recently had a couple who are regularly readers of this blog and participants in my webinars ask me if I have anything new to offer on the liturgical year and/or the lectionary. As regular readers they are already aware of past articles like “The Liturgical Year” on my website. I wrote this article several …
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