Divine Worship

Refer to our Sunday Experience pages to find different prayers to pray as a family sometime during the week as well as setting up a prayer space and other activities as a family..

For the Learn do the following:

1. Watch Video at the top of the page. (if you want more resources, or are interested in learning more about the topic click on the Extra tab).
2. Click on the appropriate grade for your child.
3. Read the "relates to..." section at the beginning.  This is helpful to understand what to convey to your child is important about this lesson.  It will        help make the lesson both an intellectual and a lived lesson.
4. Read through and familiarize yourself with the sample script. 
5. Teach your child the lesson, either using your own words or the sample script.
6. Either discuss the questions with your child (best option), or have your child write out answers to the questions.
7. Have your child do the activities and/or do the activities with them.  
8. If working with a parish return the appropriate material in the way they have requested.

All Content for "The Way", Learn, is original content and copyright of the Diocese of Kalamazoo and may not be copied, reproduced, or used without prior written consent of the Diocese of Kalamazoo.   © 2020 Diocese of Kalamazoo

Relates to Jesus: Jesus is to be worshipped and praised on Sunday for this is the day that He rose from the dead and definitively conquered death.

Relates to my Faith: Sundays are holy days of solemnity that remind us of Easter and call for us to rest from our labors in order to best praise God who loves and saves us.

Sample Script:
 

Attending Mass each Sunday is a privilege given to us as baptized Catholics.  When we worship at Mass we enter into the same prayer that the apostles experienced.  Who is your favorite apostle?  He knew how important it is to worship God each week too.  It is our responsibility to attend Mass each week, gathering with the family of God to give praise and adoration to God.  Think of how important being a member of our family is.  It is the same with God’s family.  We are each an important part of this family, so much so that the Church commands us to gather at Mass every Sunday and on Holy Days.  We call Sunday the Lord’s Day to highlight that it is the most important day of our week, and the day we gather to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection.  In this way we fulfill the commandment to “Keep holy the Sabbath” (Exodus 20. 8-11). 

The priest leads us in praying the Mass.  Because of the graces of the Sacrament of Holy Orders he acts “in the person of Christ.”  It is Jesus, through the person of the priest, who offers Himself as a sacrifice to God and makes the bread and wine become His body and blood.  The Deacon has the special role of proclaiming the Gospel reading as well as assisting the priest at the altar. 

We all have a role in the Mass too.  We give God praise through our movements, like genuflecting when we enter the pew, making the sign of cross, standing for the Gospel, kneeling for the Eucharistic prayer, and through saying the prayers.  It is important that we learn the prayers of the Mass so we can join in the prayer.  (Work with your child to first learn the simple responses and then move on to the longer prayers as the year progresses.  Practice the responses:  “The Lord be with you” to which we respond “And with your Spirit.”   “The Word of the Lord” to which we respond “Thanks be to God.”  “The Gospel of the Lord” to which we respond “Praise be to you, Lord Jesus Christ.”  Etcetera.  You might find it helpful to borrow a missalette from your parish) 

These outward gestures and prayers should reflect the attitude of your heart too.  At Mass we also pray inwardly, thanking God for the special gift of Jesus and all the things God has done for us.  Mass is a time to tune in to God, and really give ourselves to him in prayer.  We give ourselves to God to thank him for all he has given to us.

The Mass has two main parts, which we call the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  During the Liturgy of the Word we listen to readings from the Bible to learn about how God has acted throughout history in the lives of His people.  In the Gospel we hear about Jesus’ life and teaching.  During the Liturgy of the Eucharist the simple gifts of bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Did you ever notice that sometimes Father wears different color vestments?  Do you remember what any of those colors are?  What color vestments was Father wearing last Sunday?  Those colors tell us something about our faith.  The Church has special seasons:  Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and what we call “ordinary time.”  Often the church is decorated in special ways for each of these seasons.  They act like the months of the calendar, giving order to our lives as Christians and helping us to focus on special events in our faith.  In this way they help us grow in our faith and continue to learn more about Jesus’ life and all that he teaches us.  Advent isn’t just a time to put up the Christmas tree and buy presents.  It is a time for us to remember when people were waiting for Jesus to come, and to prepare our hearts for the celebration of his birth.  Christmas isn’t just a day to give each other material things that don’t last, but to celebrate the great gift God gave us in sending his Son to become human.  We celebrate that special gift not just for one day but for 3 weeks.  Lent is time to remember how Jesus gave his life for us so that we could have life forever in heaven.  We focus on getting closer to God, and often “give up” something we like as a small sacrifice to honor the huge sacrifice Jesus gave for us when he died on the cross.  Easter is a time to celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead and restored our relationship with God.  We celebrate Easter for six weeks.  Ordinary time is a period of weeks where we concentrate on Jesus’ teaching and miracles.  We call it ordinary because it is numbered first, second, third week, etc., not because we think it is not important.   These special seasons keep us focused on all the things God has done for us!

Questions:

Why do we call Sunday “the Lord’s Day”?

Why it is important that we go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days?

What are the two main parts of the Mass?

What does it mean that the priest acts “in persona Christi” at Mass?

Why are the different seasons of the Church year important?

Activities:   

Discuss with your child the different ways he/she prays at Mass.  What are some outward examples?  What are some internal examples?

Practice the simple Mass responses with your child.

The Lord be with you.  And with your spirit.

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Lift your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just.

 

Relates to Jesus: Jesus meets us most intimately at Mass and gives us grace to live our life after the laws of God and thus be the holy daughter or son we are called to be.

Relates to my Faith: The Church's profession of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Second Person of the Trinity, as our Savior and Redeemer is what drives our liturgy in praising the One True God.

Sample Script:
 

The Mass focuses on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Let’s review who Jesus is.  He is the eternal Son of God and the second person of the Trinity.  Jesus is the fullest revelation of God.  He is fully divine, and also fully human.  That is a truth that God has revealed to us that is hard to understand.  Because of God the Father’s great love for humanity, he sent His Son Jesus to become human and live among us.  Jesus was carried in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph was his foster father.  We celebrate his birth on Christmas Day. 

Jesus loved God the Father, and he taught us about who God is and how to follow him.  Jesus loved humanity so much that he gave his life on the cross and died for our sins.  Three days after his death on the cross he rose from the dead.  He appeared to his apostles after he rose.  Remember that they ate with him, and St. Thomas touched his wounds.  Jesus was physically present to his apostles, he had a body; he wasn’t a ghost.  Forty days after he rose from the dead Jesus ascended to heaven.  Just before he ascended Jesus promised the apostles that he would be with them always, even until the end of time (Mt 28.20).   That promise wasn’t just to the apostles, but to all those they would teach, and those Christians who would come after them across the centuries right to Christians in our time.     The promise was to us!   

How is Jesus present with us today?  In the Mass, we encounter Jesus in several ways.  Can you tell me any of them?  Jesus is present to us in the people gathered for Mass.  We encounter Jesus in the Word of God, especially in the Gospel. We should always try to listen very carefully to God’s Word when it is proclaimed at Mass.  We encounter Jesus in the person of the priest, who acts in the person of Christ (in persona Christi) during Mass.  In a very special and unique way, Jesus is present to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is his very Body and Blood, given to us in the form of bread and wine.  This is really Jesus, not just a symbol of him.  The Eucharist is the most personal encounter with Jesus we can have on this earth since he gives himself, body, blood, soul and divinity, to us.

Remember the night before Jesus died when he at the Last Supper with the apostles?  That wasn’t just any meal, but a very special meal that was eaten once a year on the Jewish Feast of Passover.   This feast recalled the actions of God in bringing the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt.  Jesus instituted both the Mass and the Eucharist at the Last Supper.  Read Luke 22.19-20.  This passage records the words of Jesus as he prayed over the bread and wine at the Last Supper, transforming them to His Body and Blood.  These words should sound familiar to you, because they are the words the priest, acting in the person of Christ, prays over the bread and wine at Mass.  By speaking these words, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the priest changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus.  

The Mass is a memorial of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.  It is a very special type of memorial, because it is much stronger than just remembering an event that happened long ago.  It’s not like remembering your birthday party last year, or the vacation we took last summer.  In our faith life, memorial and remembering have a much deeper meaning, like it did for Jesus and the Jewish people.  This type of remembering, through the power of God, makes the event present to us now.  When we remember the events that led up to Jesus being nailed to the cross (which we call his passion), his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead, we become present at those events.  The Last Supper, Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection are all made present to us at Mass.  The power of God allows us to be present to that historical event.  You can see why it is very important to give our full attention to what is happening at Mass.   

The Mass is our most perfect prayer.   We know that because Jesus gave us the Mass at the Last Supper, and he told the apostles to “do this in remembrance of me.”   At Mass, the bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood, and we are united with Jesus when we receive the Eucharist.  The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek language and it means “thanksgiving.”  We are thankful to God for many things, but the most important reason is that he gives his very self to us in the Eucharist.  Coming to Mass and participating in the prayers as fully as we can is an opportunity to give thanks and praise to God in the most perfect way possible.  When we think of the gift we receive at Mass, the very body and blood of Jesus, it should help understand why it is so important that we come to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days.  We have an obligation to come together to give thanks and praise to God. That is so important to our relationship to God that it is a sin if we fail to come.  God works through the Church to bring us his special graces through the Sacraments and the prayer of the Church.  To  not be a part of that is to like telling God we don’t want or need his gifts.

Questions:

What would you say to a friend who says it is not necessary to attend Mass every Sunday?

How do we encounter Jesus Christ at Mass?

What do we remember at each Mass? What is extra special about what we remember?

What is the Eucharist?

Why is it so important to come together to worship God at Mass?

Activities:
The next time that you go to Mass, pay attention throughout the entirety of Mass and take note of the number of things that remind you of Jesus. Write these down when you get home and make this a practice each you go to Mass.

Ask your family, on the way home from Mass, to each talk about a thing or two that struck them about Mass. How did they experience Jesus speaking to them through the Mass?

Relates to Jesus: Jesus gave us the divine liturgy to re-present His sacrifice on Calvary, allowing us to participate in Jesus' salvific work historically, spiritually, and actually.

Relates to my Faith: The Church makes it her primary Precept that we participate in Sunday Mass and Holy Days of Obligation so that you and me might have the most intimate contact with the Son of God.

Sample Script:
What do you think is the difference between a place where people gather (think of your school, the soccer or baseball field, etc.), and our parish Church?  They are all places where people from different locations and backgrounds gather for a specific event or activity, but they are very different.   A Church is a very special building that has been blessed and dedicated to God.  We call it “holy ground” because God is present there in a very special way.  The Bible often talks about God’s dwelling place.  For the Hebrew people during their 40 years in the desert, God’s special dwelling place was the Ark of the Covenant.  It held the tablets of the Ten Commandments.  After they entered the Promised Land the temple in Jerusalem became God’s special dwelling place.  It was there that the sacrifices were made to God, and the covenant renewed between God and the Hebrew people.  For us as Catholic Christians, our parish church represents God’s special dwelling place, because Jesus resides there in the tabernacle.  When we celebrate the Mass we are celebrating Jesus’ establishing a new covenant though his death on the cross.  The sanctuary, where we gather to worship God and celebrate the Mass, also reminds us of God’s dwelling place in Heaven.  When we are in the Church we act with reverence and respect, acknowledging that God is present there.

Think of miraculous event that happens at every Mass.  The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus, and we are made present to the events of the Last Supper and Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.  God suspends the rules of time and space for those precious moments, and we are united with the saints in heaven in giving praise to God.  The Eucharist is truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus.  It is not just a symbol.  It IS really him, present to us in bodily form, even though it still looks and tastes like bread and wine.  God is not outdone in his generosity and love for us!  Jesus said “I am the Bread of Life.”  What do you think he meant?  He goes on to tell us more about what he means in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.  Jesus says in John 6. 54-56:  “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  Can you think of any time when Jesus was teaching that he said something and then said, oh that’s not what I meant.  Jesus knew his words would challenge people, and some people walked away from him because they couldn’t accept this teaching.  We experience the truth of this teaching every time we receive the Eucharist at Mass.  Jesus gives us his body and blood as spiritual food so that we are united with him in a special way and he comes to live in our hearts.  We call the Eucharist the source and summit of our faith, because the Mass is our most perfect prayer, and Jesus promises eternal life in heaven to those who believe in him and receive his body and blood. 

The Mass is a very important part of our lives as Christians.  Let’s talk about the parts of the Mass.  (It would be helpful to have a missalette to assist you in reviewing the parts of the Mass). There is an order to our prayer, and each part teaches us about God and our relationship to Him.  Can you tell me the two main parts of the Mass?  The Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  Each of those can be divided into smaller parts.

Within the Liturgy of the Word are the Introductory Rites.  These prayers draw us together so that we form one group out of all the individuals and families who have come from their various homes and life situations.   Think of all the things you might be doing before we leave the house to come to Mass.  Every person in the Church has left behind what they were doing to be there.  But being physically present isn’t enough.  We have to turn off thinking about the everyday things in our life and focus on why we are at Mass, to give worship and praise to God.  So the Introductory Rites help us to do that.  They help us to let go of what we had been doing or thinking about before coming to Church, and to focus on God. In doing that we become a community, the family of God, and not an accidental grouping of people.

Can you tell me what some of the things are that we do at the beginning of Mass?  We usually start with a song, don’t we?  Then we make the Sign of the Cross, which is how we start all our prayers.  That action is also a prayer, which reminds us our baptism and the three persons of the Trinity.   Then we pray the Penitential Rite.  None of us are perfect, and we remember that as we come before God we have done things that have hurt other people and hurt our friendship with God.  As we remember that we’ve done wrong we also ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Do you remember the words to those prayers?  There are different choices, so we might pray, “Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.”   Or we might pray “I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do …”   Then we pray the Gloria, a great prayer of praise.  It starts with the statement “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.”  Who first spoke those words in Scripture? The angels when they appeared to the shepherds announcing the birth of Jesus!  These prayers all help us to prepare our hearts to hear the Word of God when the readings are proclaimed.

The Liturgy of the Word continues with the readings.  How many readings from the Bible do we have at Mass on Sunday?  The first reading is from the Old Testament, and tells us about how God chose the Hebrew people to be his own.   Then we pray the Psalm Response, which is one of the Psalms in the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament.  The second reading is from the New Testament, like one of the letters St. Paul wrote to one of the early Christian communities.  We hear about how the people who believed in Jesus lived, and that helps us to learn how to live our faith.  Then we stand to hear a reading from one of the four Gospels which tell us about the life and teachings of Jesus.  Then Father or the Deacon give the homily, helping us to understand what the readings teach us and how to live that out in our lives.  Even though we are listening during the readings and the homily, we are actively involved by giving our full attention to God and what He is telling us.

The Liturgy of the Word concludes with the Creed, the great prayer in which we state what we believe as Catholics.  Then we pray the Prayer of the Faithful, during which we bring to God the needs of our world, the Church, and ourselves.  What are some of the people or things we usually pray for? 

The Liturgy of the Eucharist is the second half of the Mass.  It begins when the gifts are brought up to the altar.  We call this the Offertory.  What gifts are brought up?  (bread and wine)   Why do we offer God bread and wine? (because it will become the Body and Blood of Jesus.)  We also offer ourselves to God, which is symbolized by the collection).  The priest receives our gifts, and takes the bread and wine to the altar.  He asks God to receive them as our sacrifice offered to him.   We join ourselves to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Then the priest prays the Eucharistic prayer.  During the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest, acting in the person of Jesus, prays over the bread and wine and speaks the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper.  This is my body… this is my blood… Do this in memory of me.  By the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine are changed into Body and Blood of Jesus.  During Communion we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus, and spend time in quiet prayer in thanksgiving for this great gift and privilege. 

At the end of Mass we pray the Concluding Rites.  The priest prays a blessing over us, and we are sent forth to bring Christ to the world.  The word Mass comes for the Latin word “missa”, which means sent.  All the gifts and graces God gives us are not meant for us alone.  We are to share them with all we meet, so that everyone knows about the gift of salvation and eternal life that Jesus won for us on the cross.

The Mass and receiving the Eucharist are so important to our lives as Christians that the Church says we have a duty to go to Mass every Sunday and on Holy Days of obligation.  It is so important to the health of our faith life that if we miss Mass without a good reason (like being sick, or needing to care for a sick family member) it is a sin.  Our relationship with God should be a priority in the activities of our weekend.  Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the day that Jesus rose from the dead.  At every Mass we celebrate the resurrection.  In fact, Sunday is sometimes called “little Easter.”  Our response to the resurrection should be one of joyful thanksgiving.  We have a duty to spend time in prayer with the community giving praise and thanks to God.   When you were baptized you became a child of God and a member of his body, the Church.   The Mass isn’t a private prayer.  It is the Church’s prayer, our most perfect way to give praise to God.   It is one in which we join with all those present and unite our prayer to the prayer of Jesus.   It is also an opportunity to receive a very personal gift, the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Questions:

What would you say to a friend who says it is not necessary to attend Mass every Sunday?

Name a couple of things that make a church such a special building.

Why is the Eucharist such an important part of Mass?

What are some things that are present within the Liturgy of the Word? Name 3 things.

What are some of the things present within the Liturgy of the Eucharist? Name 3 things.

Activities:
After Mass, take a tour of your parish. What in the building tells you something about God? What are some of things that you notice that you didn't notice before?

Choose one of the parts of Mass as discussed above. Make an effort to really focus in on this part of the Mass. How does this particular part of the Mass helps us to know God? What in this part of the Mass is helpful for your faith?

Relates to Jesus: Jesus' coming as God and man gives us not only a divine mediator but also a relatable bridge that intimately bonds us to our Creator.

Relates to my Faith: Our Catholic Church continues and promotes the closeness with God that He desires for His people so that we might have the opportunity to grow close and fall in love with Him who loves us.

Sample Script:
I want to be sure that you understand what is happening when we are at Mass.  Although we live in time and space, God is not bound by them.  God is outside time and space.  At Mass we enter into Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.  It’s not just that we think about it.  We don’t repeat it or re-enact it.  God makes us present to it.  Jesus died on the cross once for all times and all people.  We know that happened almost 2000 years ago.  Yet at Mass, we become present to those historical events.  We are brought to the table at the Last Supper, and to the foot of the cross.  It is how Jesus won salvation for us.  It’s hard to understand because it is almost more than our brains can hold.  But it really happens at every Mass by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the graces of the sacrament of Holy Orders. 

Have you ever sacrificed something for the good of another person?  Maybe you let your brother play with your favorite toy, or left the last cookie you had been eyeing for your sister.  During Lent you probably “gave up” something as a gesture of repentance to God.  Making sacrifices can be hard, can’t they?  For it to be a true sacrifice it has to be a sincere gift, and we have to do it whole heartedly.  If we hold something back, only do it half way, the action loses meaning.

Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  That is why we refer to him as the Lamb of God.  Remember that in the Old Testament offering sacrifices was an important way that the people worshipped God.   The priests offered the sacrifice for the people.  When the offering was in thanksgiving, or asking God for his blessing, they would offer the best produce from their crops, what scripture calls the “first fruits.”  When the offering was made to express sorrow for sin and show their desire to atone for their sin, they sacrificed an animal.  It had to be the best animal of the flock.  The animal represented the sins of the people.  The blood of the animal was especially important, because blood represented life.  The life of the animal was offered to God as repentance for sin.  The blood was sprinkled on the altar, and sometimes on the people.   After the temple in Jerusalem was built, the animal sacrifices took place there. 

The events in the Old Testament often point forward to Jesus, who completed them and brought them to fulfillment.   Jesus took on our sins and  freely offered his life on the cross in atonement for our sin.  He became our sacrifice.  Jesus was fully human and fully divine.  St. Paul tells us that Jesus was like us in all things but sin (Hebrews 4.14-15).   So he was the perfect sacrifice, the spotless lamb, and he offered himself on the cross for all of humanity.  His blood was shed on the cross for us.  His death broke the hold that sin and death had on humanity and restored our relationship with God.  It is this sacrifice that we are made present to at Mass.  In offering himself as a sacrifice Jesus acts as the priest.  Since he is also the one who is being offered, he is the sacrifice.  In his death and resurrection he defeats the power of sin and death and restores our relationship with God.

When we come to Mass we hear the Word of God, the Scriptures, and hold those words carefully in our hearts.  We are made present, in a real way, to Jesus’ death and resurrection, through which we are saved.  In being made present to these events, we join the entire Body of Christ, the Church here on earth and the faithful in heaven in giving praise to God.  We receive the Eucharist, the very body and blood of Jesus, to strengthen us and unite us ever more closely with Jesus. Then we sent out to bring the Good News of salvation to all those around us.  We are given a mission, so that all people will know of salvation in Jesus.  At our baptism we became members of the Church, the Body of Christ, which continues the saving work of God, bringing the news of salvation to the world.

The word liturgy means work, and we call the formal prayer of the Church liturgy.   The Church’s liturgy includes the Mass, our most important act of worship, the Sacraments, Adoration, Liturgy of the Hours, Stations of the Cross and other formal prayers.  At baptism we become a child of God and a member of his body, the Church.  Jesus is the Head of his body (Colossians 1.18).  That is what he meant when he said I am the vine.  You are the branches (John 15.5).  Jesus’ work of salvation continues through the life, work and teachings of the Church.  The formal definition of Liturgy is the participation of the People of God (the Church) in the ‘work of God’ (restoring the relationship with God that had been lost because of sin, our salvation).   How do we participate in the work of God at Mass, in the celebration of the Sacraments, at Adoration or any other formal prayer of the Church?  We participate by preparing our hearts to receive God’s grace, and in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Jesus.  We participate by cooperating with this grace, so that our lives are more focused on God, and more in line with God’s will.  We participate by recognizing the great gifts God has given us, and offering to him our praise, thanksgiving and all of ourself, our very being.  Our work is being open to and cooperating with the work that God is doing in our lives, both individually and as the Body of Christ, the Church.  What we believe shapes how we pray.  How we pray shapes how we live, and treat the people God puts into our lives and the natural world. 

The Church calls of each of us to “full, conscious and active” participation in the Mass.  This means so much more than just being physically present.  It means learning the prayers of the Mass and speaking/singing them with meaning.  Really putting your heart and mind into the words you are praying.   It means becoming students of the Mass so that we continue to deepen our understanding of the meaning of the words and actions, letting God unfold their meaning throughout our lives.   Every part of the Mass is designed to bring our attention to all that God accomplished through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Our response should be a full giving of ourselves in praise and thanksgiving.     

Questions:

Why is Jesus the perfect sacrifice, and the only sacrifice that could fully restore mankind’s relationship with God?

Why is the Mass not a re-enactment or repetition of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection?

How does knowing that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of our Lord change or deepen your appreciation for the Mass?

How can you show your love for Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, more fully and completely?

What does the word liturgy mean?

Activities:
The Christian life highly values sacrifice, as it frees us from things so our attention can be placed on God and the other. As a family, talk about something that you could sacrifice on a regular basis for the good of someone else. What is something you could give up lovingly? How do you see God in this event? What in your sacrifice reminds you of Jesus' sacrifice?

The Church has many different forms of prayer. Review some of the prayer practices listed above, choose one you haven't done before, and see if you like it or not. Try to do it once a day for week and invite your siblings and/or parents to join you!

Relates to Jesus: Jesus models for you and me how to pray and thus shows the importance of having this regular communication with the Divine so that we can participate in the life of grace offered through the Mass.

Relates to my Faith: Our Catholic faith teaches us that Jesus is truly present at the Divine Liturgy of the Mass through the Eucharist and through the priest offering the sacrifice.

Sample Script:
Do you know what a mediator is?  Think of a time you had a disagreement with one of your siblings and took the matter to your mother or father to settle.  Or if you had a disagreement with a classmate at school, and took it to your teacher to help settle it.  When you did that, your parent or teacher was acting in the role of a mediator.  Someone who stands between two parties and helps them reach agreement and restore a peaceful interaction in a specific situation.  Being a mediator isn’t the same thing as asking for intercession.  We often pray to the Virgin Mary or a favorite saint to intercede for us.  Interceding means speaking on the behalf of someone else.   When we pray for the needs of a friend or family member we act as an intercessor, bringing their specific need or situation before God.  The role of a mediator is much deeper and complex.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and men.  (#480)   St. Paul in his first letter to Timothy states, “For there is one God.  There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all.”  (I Timothy 2.5-6)  St. Paul points to the reason Jesus is the one and only true mediator:  the Incarnation.  Jesus is fully human and fully divine, and as such he understands the joys, challenges and sufferings of human nature.  Jesus being fully human, is like us in all things but sin (Hebrews 4.14-15).  Jesus is also fully divine, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God.  He shares God’s unconditional love for all of his creation, and his desire to reconcile humanity to himself.  No human by his/her own power can perfectly atone for sin.  Jesus, the sinless one, takes on our nature and our sins and freely offers himself on the cross as a sacrifice to the Father.  Sin and death are defeated and our relationship to God is restored.  Through his death Jesus removed the obstacle of sin that had stood between God and men, and brought reconciliation.  His mediation brought salvation to the world.

We also speak of Jesus as our High Priest, the ultimate, irreplaceable High Priest.  From the Old Testament we learn that the priests led the ritual prayer of the people.  They were anointed as a sign of being chosen by God for that role.   They were the representative of God to His people, and also of the people to God.    They offered the sacrifices in the name of the people. When the Passover lambs were sacrificed in the temple, the blood was collected and the priest poured the blood of the lamb on the altar.  The people and events of the Old Testament often foreshadow, or point forward to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.   The priesthood of the Old Testament points toward what the priesthood of Jesus will be.   Jesus completes and fulfills the Jewish priesthood.   He is sinless and offers the sacrifice for us, unlike the Jewish priests who offered sacrifices for the sins of themselves and the people.  His priesthood is everlasting, and his sacrifice offered once for all people and all time.  Jesus’ sacrifice (himself) is the perfect sacrifice that brought about remission of sin. Jesus, in dying for our sins, becomes our sacrificial lamb, and the cross the altar on which his blood is poured out.

Jesus completed and fulfilled the priesthood of the old covenant (Jewish priesthood) and instituted the priesthood of the New Covenant at the Last Supper when he instructed the apostles to “do this in remembrance of me.”  What is the role of the priest at Mass and all the formal prayers of the Church, which we call the liturgy?  He leads the people in prayer, and is our representative before God.  But he is more than just our representative.  By the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, he also acts in persona Christi which means he acts in the person of Christ.  That is why the priest wears different clothing, which we call vestments.  They help us remember that he is not leading our prayer as himself, but in the person of Christ.   When the priest speaks the words of the consecration at Mass, (“Take this all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.  Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Do this in memory of me.”) it is Christ who is speaking and acting.  Only Jesus has the power to confect the Eucharist, to change the bread and wine into his Body and Blood.  When the priest speaks the words of absolution when we go to Confession, “I absolve you of your sins…” it is Jesus who speaks.  Acting in the person of Christ during the liturgy, the priest makes the presence of Christ, the Head of the Church visible to the community.   By establishing the priesthood, Jesus continues his work of salvation through His Church in the world today.   

We are called to full, active and conscious participation in the Mass.  We aren’t just sitting there like we are watching a movie. We aren’t there just to receive something from God.   We offer ourselves, all of our lives and our being, with the gifts that are brought to the altar.  Jesus offers our prayers with his when he offers himself to God through the person of the priest.   We are an active part of this work of praise and thanksgiving. The various prayers of the Mass are meant to help us to be engaged and participate as fully as we can in the Mass.  If you look at the prayers of the Mass carefully, you will see there is a pattern that is repeated throughout the Mass:  God speaks to us and we respond.  Let’s look at some of the prayers.

The Sign of the Cross:  We begin the Mass, like we begin all our prayer, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  This prayer should remind us of our baptism, and of the Trinity.  This prayer is also a gesture, as we physically trace the cross upon our bodies.  We call to mind how our redemption was achieved, through the death of Christ on the cross.  We often make the Sign of the Cross without thinking about what we are doing.   It is a simple prayer and gesture that speaks volumes, and we should be very intentional when we do it.

Amen:  It’s such a small word, but it packs a big punch!  Amen means “so be it”, but in the urgent or intense sense that my life depends on it.  It is never a neutral word.  We should put all of our being into speaking it.

The Penitential Rite encourages us to admit our sinfulness and need for God’s forgiveness and mercy.  It helps us to be humble before God, knowing that he knows us more intimately than we know ourselves.  As we ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness for our sins and failures, crying out Lord have mercy!  Christ have mercy!  We admit that our sins have an impact on our relationship with God and with others  as we pray “I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned….”   These prayers prepare us to encounter God in Word and Sacrament. 

The Gloria:  After remembering our sins, we recall with joy the glory of the God who saves us.  This great prayer of praise begins with the words of the angels proclaiming the birth of Jesus:  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.”  The same Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary that day in history will be bodily present to us in the Eucharist.   Using titles drawn from Scripture we praise the members of the Trinity and acknowledge their glory and power.

As God’s Word is proclaimed in the readings, we express our gratitude (“Thanks be to God.”) and praise (“Alleluia,” a Hebrew word meaning “Praise the Lord.”)  God speaks to us in the Scriptures, and we respond with thanksgiving and praise.

The Creed:   The English word creed comes from the Latin word “credo” which means “I believe.”  We stand as a people united, and respond to the gift of God’s Word in the Scripture by formally proclaiming what we believe.  The prayer has three sections that address each member of the Trinity.   Each small phrase is a powerful statement of belief.  This isn’t just an intellectual statement.  These are the beliefs on which I build my life.

At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer the priest invites us to life up our hearts, and we reply “We lift them up to the Lord.”  He then calls us to give thanks to God and we reply:  “It is right and just.”  In the Bible the heart is understood as the center of the person, where your thoughts, feelings and actions come from.  The heart is the source of all we think, say and do.  So in lifting our hearts to the Lord, we are offering him all of who we are.  This isn’t just an exchange of words spoken from our intellect (head), it is an expression of our total being.  Every ounce of our being should be focused on what is about to happen during the Eucharistic prayer.  He reminds us that our attitude should be one of deep gratitude and thanksgiving for all that God has done, and for the miracle we are about to witness as the bread and wine are changed to the Body and Blood of Christ.

Holy Holy Holy:  As the Eucharistic Prayer begins, we join the angels and saints in proclaiming the indescribable holiness of God.  “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory…. “  These words echo the words spoken by heavenly beings when both the prophet Isaiah and the apostle John received a vision of God’s throne in heaven (Isaiah 6.2-3; Revelation 4. 8).  We are about to witness the ultimate act of our salvation, as the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus.  God has suspended time and space, and we stand with the angels at the heavenly banquet.  We kneel as a sign of reverence.

Memorial Acclamation:  In response to the great mystery that has taken place, where the bread and wine have been changed to the Body and Blood of Jesus, we express with a sense of great awe and wonder they mystery of our faith.  That mystery is the Paschal mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We proclaim the historical fact of his death and resurrection, the reality that he is present to us now in the appearance of bread and wine, and that he will come in glory at the end of time.  A short, concise statement of a reality that defies expression. 

Lamb of God:  Jesus is the new paschal lamb who is sacrificed for us.  Addressing Jesus as the Lamb of God echoes Scripture, especially John the Baptist, who identified Jesus as the Lamb of God. (John 1.29 and 1.36). 

Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.  We are about to receive Jesus, body and blood, soul and divinity, into our bodies.  This prayer expresses our sense of unworthiness at so great a gift.

There are many other prayers in the Mass that we did not discuss.  The Mass is structured so that we open ourselves to the presence of God and be open to receiving his Word and Jesus himself.  We are called to respond by giving all of ourselves to God with a deep sense of gratitude, praise and thanksgiving.

Questions:

Why is Jesus the one and only mediator between God and men?

How is Jesus the ultimate High Priest?

Do I come to Mass to receive or to give? What am I doing to prepare my soul for Mass?

What does the word Creed mean? 

What does Amen mean to us?  How should we say it?

Activities:

Choose a section of the Gloria and prayerfully read it.  Which titles or descriptions of God are your favorite?  Why?

Identify some of the prayers of the Mass that express gratitude, thanksgiving and praise.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus, in uniting God and man in His very person, also united Heaven and earth. When we attend Mass, the Mass we live and pray participates in the Mass in Heaven that eternally praises the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Relates to my Faith:  Our prayer offered and grace received at Mass have eternal ramifications: praising God, seeking Jesus' mediation in our life, being united with the Saints, praying for the suffering souls in purgatory to name just a few.

Sample Script:  
After Jesus ascended to heaven, his followers, the members of the Church throughout the ages, have been obedient to the call to continue His saving work by announcing the Good News of salvation to all the world.   Through our baptism we become members of the Body of Christ, the Church.   The Church has existed for almost 2000 years, so the Body of Christ has members both here on earth and in heaven.  Christ is the head of the Body, and the members are one body, even though we live subject to the laws of time and space and the members in heaven do not.  This unity is expressed in the term “communion of saints,” which is one of the articles stated in the Apostles Creed.  The faithful, whether living or dead, form the one Body of Christ, his Church. 

This unity is experienced in the Liturgy, the formal prayer of the Church.  It in the liturgy that the Church ratifies the New Covenant established by Jesus.  When we celebrate the various rites that comprise the Church’s liturgy, whether the Mass, the Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours, Stations of the Cross, etc., our act of worship is united with the eternal worship of the saints in heaven.  The Body of Christ is one, and it acts as one in worshipping God. 

The Mass is the center of our worship and the most complete experience of this unity.  It is here that we celebrate the sacrifice that established the New Covenant, “the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.” (CCC 1067)  By power of God the Last Supper, the cross and the empty tomb are re-presented (made present) to us.  We are really there.  We believe that every Mass celebrated here on earth is brought into the heavenly liturgy.  The veil between earth and heaven is lifted briefly, and we join the angels and saints in heaven at the heavenly banquet.  The Church triumphant (the saints) and the angels in heaven are united with Jesus in eternity.  The Church on earth is united with Jesus through Word and Sacrament.  Heaven and earth are united in the timeless sacrifice of the Eucharist.  Because we only know the limits of time and space it is hard for us to grasp this reality.   

Both Scripture and Tradition support this belief:

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews describes the Christian community as surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses.” (Hebrews 12.1)  Who would those witnesses be but those who were faithful to the covenant and have now passed from this life into heaven. 

The Catechism says that, “In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy” and that “with all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them.” (see full text CCC # 1090)

From the prayers of the Mass: 

At the beginning of Mass, in the Penitential Rite, as we confess our sinfulness we link our prayers to the prayers of those in heaven:  “I confess to Almighty God…and I ask Mary, ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.” 

Preface to Eucharistic Prayer Two:  “And so, with the Angels and all the Saints, we declare your glory, as with one voice we acclaim:”  (we all pray) Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of hosts….)

Preface to Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I:  “As so, filled with wonder, we extol the power of your love, and, proclaiming our joy at the salvation that comes from you, we join in the heavenly hymn of countless hosts, as without end we acclaim:  :”  (we all pray) Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of hosts….)

Preface to Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II:  Therefore, as we give you ceaseless thanks with the choirs of heaven, we cry out to your majesty on earth, and without end we acclaim:” :”  (we all pray) Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of hosts….)

Eucharistic Prayer One:  “In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God:  command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty, so that all of us, who through this participation at the altar receive most holy Body and Blood of your Son, may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.”

There is so much going on at Mass that requires spiritual sight.  We can’t physically see the presence of the heavenly hosts, but we are truly united with them in Jesus. All the Sacraments, because they bring us into deeper union with Christ, also unite us with the members of His Body, the Church in heaven and on earth.

Questions:

Why is the Mass the center point of our worship?

What is the communion of saints? How are we united with the saints?

What similarities do you recognize within the various prayers mentioned above?

Look at Revelation 4:1-11 together as a family. Find here an example of some of the heavenly liturgy. What are some of the things you notice?

What similarities do you see between Mass on Sunday and what is happening in heaven?

Activities:
Write a short couple of paragraphs describing what is going on at Mass. Include who is present, physically and spiritually, who is being worshipped, and how each role (participant, lector, priest, musician, etc.) is praising God.

Spend about 30 minutes in prayer, asking God to help you understand the Mass more fully. Are there any parts that are difficult for you? Ask God to help you have more understanding in these difficult areas.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus offers the sacrifice of Himself in the Eucharist so that He might be intimately close to each soul who worthily receives Him at Mass.

Relates to my Faith: The Catholic Church does well to safeguard the doctrine of the Eucharist through the Apostolic Succession of her bishops who are charged with the holy duty of maintaining right teaching to all the faithful.

Sample Script:
We profess that the one God is a unity of three persons we call the Trinity:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We can distinguish the actions of each person of the Trinity in the Mass, but it is important to remember that God is one, and when one person of the Trinity acts, he does so in union with the other two.  For example, Jesus never acts without the Father and Holy Spirit.  As we look at the Mass, let’s take some time to identify how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are at work.

The Father is the source of all blessings.  The nature and extent of God’s blessings upon humanity and all of creation is revealed in the liturgy of the Church.  We give praise and adoration to God the Father and acknowledge Him as the origin of all the divine, life giving actions throughout human history (the events of salvation history).  We refer to God’s divine action as blessings, because they strengthen our spiritual life.  In Jesus, His incarnate Son, the Father fills us with blessings.  Through Jesus the Father pours upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The prayers of the Mass are addressed to the Father, who receives both the prayer and the sacrifice. 

Jesus is our High Priest and one true mediator.  He unites our prayer to his as he offers himself as our sacrifice.  Jesus instituted the Sacraments and acts through them.  The Sacraments aren’t just prayer rituals.  Jesus is at work in each one, his words making each rite effect or cause what they celebrate.  For instance, in baptism we celebrate cleansing from original sin and entrance into the Church as a unique member of the Body of Christ, and what actually happens during the Sacramental rite is that the person is cleansed from sin and become a member of the Church.  Christ acts to bestow his grace upon us.

The Holy Spirit is the gift the Father and Jesus bestow upon the Church.  In the Creed we proclaim that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.  That phrase expresses our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the liturgy, preparing our hearts and minds to encounter God in Word and Sacrament, unifying us and forming us into a community.  As members of the Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit works to bring us into an  ever deepening relationship with Jesus, and unites us to his mission. The Holy Spirit sanctifies.  During the Eucharistic Prayer in a prayer called the Epiclesis, the priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine to transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ, and to make holy all who will receive them.  The Holy Spirit is the memory of the Church, and it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the Paschal mystery is made present to us in the Mass. 

What about our role in the Mass?  Every person in the assembly, whether lay person or clergy has a role.  The priest leads the prayer “in persona Christi”, in the person of Christ.  This is a unique function of the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  The priest intercedes on our behalf before the Father, offering our prayers as part of the sacrifice for the people. Only a priest who is validly ordained can confect the Eucharist, changing the bread and wine into the body and Blood of Jesus. Anyone can say those words, but only by the grace of ordination do the words have effect because it is Jesus himself who speaks the words of consecration speaking though the ordained priest.  Valid ordination means that the Sacrament was conferred by a Bishop, a successor of the apostles.  (Apostolic succession). 

Often lay people fulfill a specific role at Mass, perhaps as an altar server, a lector or a Eucharistic Minister.  But every person present has a role, and that is to be a fully present as possible, speaking the prayers, performing the gestures (e.g. genuflecting, kneeling, the Sign of the Cross), opening our minds and hearts to the presence of God in Word and Sacrament, and giving to God all that we are, the totality of our being.  The Catechism calls that full, conscious, active participation.  Passivity is not a correct response to the presence and gift of God! Our participation in Mass or the earthly liturgy is truly a preparation and participation in the eternal heavenly liturgy with God, Mary, the saints, and the angels. Because of our communion with God, Who transcends time and space, we are ever connected to the Church Triumphant (those in Heaven) and all souls worshiping God through the Mass on earth (the Church Militant).

Here, we find the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith. Jesus, as we know from the Gospel stories, demands a choice to either follow him or not. If we follow him, we choose unity by seeking to grow in our relationship with him and the Church, keeping Jesus present in the Eucharist as our center and from which everything else flows. This is why we need to frequently go to Mass and receive the Eucharist as much as possible, especially at Easter to celebrate his resurrection. The Eucharist is where we find our closeness with God. Being in union with our Eucharistic Lord allows us to encounter God more fully in our lives, find our vocation as his son or daughter, and work to build-up his Kingdom here on earth by living the life that he has for us. It is comforting to know that when we do this intentionally, we have all of Heaven cheering us on!

Questions:
How is God the Father seen in the liturgy?

How is Jesus seen in the liturgy?

How is the Holy Spirit seen in the liturgy?

What role do you have in the liturgy?

In what ways does the Eucharist inspire you to grow in and live your faith?

Activities:
Describe how you see the work of each member of the Trinity during Mass. Compare and contrast these workings on a sheet of paper and look for the individual work of each Person of the Trinity when you go to Mass.

At Mass, watch the different roles of the various people with "a part" in the Mass. What are these roles and what do you notice about them? Place yourself in each of these roles. What could you see yourself doing in serving the Church and God?

Relates to Jesus: Jesus gives us the Mass at the Last Supper to set forth the imperative to worship God and receive Him so that our lives might be directed properly.

Relates to my Faith: The obligation to attend Mass is an obligation in part because the worship of God is the most important action in our lives, giving thanks and praise to the One who gives us life and sustains us with His love and grace.

Sample Script:
The Catholic Church is full of a number of great traditions. Having a religion that is given to you and me from a loving God, who desires to be a part of every moment of our life, it is no surprise that if we lived by the Church calendar, we would find ourselves busy each and every day. I mean, look at Easter. Our secular world celebrates Easter on one Sunday, they have an egg hunt, eat some dinner, and back to work on Monday. From the Catholic Church perspective, Easter Sunday is the Sunday of Sundays, as we celebrate our salvation from sin and death and eternal damnation. The gates of Heaven are thrown open for us by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, so we celebrate! We receive Jesus Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity at the Holy Eucharist during THE High Mass of the Year, we have an Easter egg hunt with gifts inside to remind us of the gift of Jesus coming forth from the tomb, we have a huge dinner to feast and rejoice in the fact that we who once were dead in sin our now alive with the grace of Christ. And it doesn’t stop there, as the Easter season continues, with the next eight days after Easter (called the Octave of Easter) being treated with the same pomp and celebration as Easter Sunday. The Easter season continues further, stretching a total of 50 days (all the way to Pentecost) in which we rejoice at our salvation and receive the grace of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to enliven and deepen our faith. To add, Christmas and the season of Christmas receives a similar celebration as we rejoice in the birth of our Savior.

Further, the traditions of the Church include other, daily, offerings that are cause for our attention as well. Our daily prayer life, which can look a thousand different ways, is our connection to our relationship with God, and His to us. The importance of prayer extends well before the advent of Christianity as prayer is a principle means by which the loving God communicates with you and me. When we pray, we hear God’s voice talking to us and we have a chance to let our voice be heard by God. Again, there are so many ways that this can come about and we should explore different prayers and different ways to pray in our life, but one way the Church has set forth for us to pray is through the use of the Liturgy of the Hours. Here, we sing praise and encounter God’s presence with His people, mostly through the Psalms. Perhaps most importantly, the Liturgy of the Hours allows us to approach God as we approach a trusted and close friend; with whatever we have at that moment. Love, fear, anger, sadness, joy… Any human emotion at any time of day, God wants to be a part of and we see that as we pray over and reflect on the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours. These books of prayer (4 total that cover the entire Church year of Ordinary Time, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter) are called “Hours” because the religious and clergy of the Church pray these at different hours throughout each day. Our Pope, our Bishop and our Diocesan priests, including your parish priest, pray the Liturgy of the Hours five times a day.

The Sacraments of the Church are another important part of Church tradition. These are personal and intimate encounters with God that reveal the presence of God in our life and accompany us throughout our spiritual journey. All of the Sacraments are graced with the presence of God, with the Eucharist being the source and summit of our faith, being the real presence of Jesus Christ. Adoration holds a special part in our tradition as this type of intimate prayer, adoring the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, opens for us a face-to-face encounter with Jesus that is like none other on earth. Here, Jesus speaks to you and me and we speak to Jesus, just as two friends speak and spend time together.

With this understanding of the reality of the Eucharist, we come to recognize why Sunday Mass and Holy Days of Obligation to attend Mass are so important. God is a God of love and He desires to be with you and me to assist us with life. He wants to be in such a relationship with you and me that we encounter life together with Him so we can experience the fullness of life. We must attend Mass each week and do our best to offer the hour to God fully; being attentive, singing the songs, listening to the readings and homily, intentionally offering our prayers. This is our duty to offer full, active, conscience participation at Mass; giving God His due worship and praise which graces us with His presence to carry with us throughout our week. We cannot take our responsibility to worship God at Mass lightly as this is critical to maintaining our physical and spiritual relationship with Him who creates us, sustains us, and loves us. Going to Mass is the most important thing that we will do all week! Let’s make every effort not to miss this great opportunity of grace.

Questions:
Name some of the highlights of Easter and the Easter season.

Why is prayer so important, particularly during the Advent and Lenten season?

What about the Sacraments make them so important?

With the Eucharist being of the utmost importance, how is it that Sunday Mass is so important?

List some of the ways that we can maintain and strengthen our relationship with God?
 

Activities:
The Church is right to remind us of the necessity of keeping God central to each moment of our life. Looking at your life, outside of Sunday Mass and other prayer that you practice, how do you keep God focused in each moment of your life? Consider the ways that you do, and the ways that you don't. Write down some ideas to continue and to strengthen ways to keep God in each moment.

Talk to your family members about ways that they show "full, active, conscience" participation in Mass. Discuss that this doesn't necessarily mean that you are "doing" something at Mass (i.e. lectoring) but that this is a process of giving oneself entirely before, during, and after Mass to encounter Jesus Christ and to invite Him to take residence in your heart.

The Divine Liturgy

Scriptural References: OT: Gen 14:18; Gen. 22:9-13; Exodus 12:14-28; Ex 20:8-11; cf. Ex 24:8-11; Lev 23:3-44; 2 Kings 4:42-44; 2 Chr 30:15-17; 35:1,6,11,13; Jer 33:18; Isaiah 53:7; Zech. 9:15-16; Neh. 9:15; Wis.16:20; Psalm 78:24-25; 105:40; Ezra 6:20-21; Ezek. 6:20-21   NT: Matt. 14:19, 15:36; 26:26-29; Mark 6:41, 8:6; 14:22-25 Luke 9:16; 22:14-20; Luke 24:30-35; John 4:21-24; John 6;  Acts 2:42; 20:28; 1 Cor 11:23-34; Rev. 2:7; 22:14 

Catechism References: CCC nos. 1066-1209; 1345-1405

Videos:  Explanation of the Word, "Liturgy" by the Liturgical Institute (3 m 11 s)
The Holy Mass Explained: A Walk-thru of the Catholic Mass from Start to Finish by Fr. Daniel Peterson (59 m 9 s)
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen on The Meaning of the Mass (Intermediate material) (29 m)  
Scott Hahn: Understanding the Mass Through Scripture (Expert material) (1h 4m)  
The Veil Removed - A fun "it'll get you thinking" video on that which we don't see that is going on at the Mass (7m 15 s)

Extra Narrative

Why must Sunday Mass be our form of Worship? 
It is not an unimportant question to ask, "As a Catholic, why must I attend Mass to fulfill my Sunday obligation to God? Can't I just do my own thing?" Many people will take a walk or exercise on a Sunday morning as their answer to that question and think that satisfies the work of worship we owe to God in the Thrd Commandment: "Keep holy the Lord's day". However, even if you are Jewish and have yet to recognize the coming of the Messiah, the worship due to God is prescribed in the Torah (the OT books of the Law), but as Christians, we recognize that Christ himself prescribed the form of our worship at the Last Supper. He immediately made this clear in his actions as told by St. Luke in the narrative of The Road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13ff) when on the evening of his Resurrection, Jesus walked--unrecognized--with two of his disciples, stayed for supper, then presided over the meal, breaking bread with them in the same fashion as he did three nights previously at the Last Supper and revealing himself at the moment of the breaking of the bread. Likewise, the evidence for the Mass as the prescribed form of worship in the three synoptic Gospels (Mt, Mk, and Lk), the epistles of St. Paul, and in the earliest non-bibllical teaching documents let alone the practice of the early Church is overwhelming. (Though the words of consecration are not present in the Gospel of John, John writes with a theological purpose. The Bread of Life Discourse found in chapter 6, especially starting with verse 32, is John's explanation of the Eucharist as Christ's body and blood. Many scholars see this chapter as the theological pinnacle and structural "top rung" of John's gospel). 

The Mass is the Only True Form of Worship
Secondly, the worship of God, in the true sense of that word and not the loose sense in which it is carelessly tossed about, can only be accomplished by another infinite being because God himself is infinite (unlimited). For us humans, who are finite (limited) creatures, the worship of God is not possible. Let that sink in. Our "worship" is nothing when compared to the infinite, and thus cannot be accomplished, but for Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God the Father, being both God and man, worship is not only possible, it is defined. This is why the Second Person of God--the Logos (the Word)--had to come as a human being, and why he, in his Divine person, had to be both fully God and fully human in his two natures. As the Divine Head of the Church, we, the mystical Body of Christ, at every Mass, are joined to Christ, the Head, and presented by him, to the Father, pleasing to Him. This is why we must be baptized before we are able to worship. Baptism not only symbolically, but in reality, joins us to the unity of the Godhead such that we participate in the Divine sonship of Jesus to the Father in the Holy Spirit, thus enabling us to truly participate in the worship of Jesus to his Father. Our holy communion with Christ, then, is not only the sign and symbol of that participation, but truly fulfills that participation and transforms us as partakers in the Divine reality. (In the Easter rite Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, that mystery is termed, "divinization"). 

What exactly is the Mass? 
So, what did Jesus do when he instituted the Mass as the form of worship of His Father? At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "I have greatly desired to eat this passover with you before my suffering. For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Lk 22:15-16). Why did he greatly desire this particular supper? Because it would become the means by which Jesus would remain with us until all time is fulfilled. As the story of the Last Supper continues, Jesus tells his apostles, "This is my body, given for you", and at the time for the sharing of the fourth cup of the Last Supper, which, by the way, is formally called "the cup of salvation" in the Passover seder meal, Jesus calls the chalilce of wine he shares "my blood of the new covenant which will be shared for the many for the forgiveness of sins." In these words, Jesus links what will happen to him on the cross the next day, with what is happening in the ceremonial meal they are now sharing. The word for this is called, "anamnesis", which, in the Jewish concept of memory, and understood in the Passover seder, is a participation in the reality of the events of the Passover. (This is precisely why Jesus insists so much on forgiveness and mercy when he is speaking to his Jewish audience--because the recollection of painful memories is to experience them all over again. It is interesting, that this concept--tied in with forgiveness--is also at the heart of psychological healing in the modern treatment of trauma.) In other words, what is happening at the Mass is Jesus' obedient offering of his suffering, passion, and death to the Father to atone not only for the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, but for all of mankind's sins from the beginning to the end of time! By this action, Jesus repaired the bridge over the infinite abyss which separated us from our Heavenly Father. This was the moment God had planned for us from the time he foresaw from all eternity the disaster of sin in his creation of us (cf. Gen 3:15). The Mass joins us in the one offering of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection, not just symbolically, but in all ontological reality. How is that possible? How indeed. It is possible because "with God all things are possible" (Mt 19:26), and because God is God being eternal, outside of time and thus not restricted to its dimensions, its necessary limitations, or the limits of nature, because He is omnipotent, omniscient, and most importantly for our purposes, all-loving.  And why does God care? Because he loves us. He created each person for no other reason but his desire for us to join Him in Heaven at the end of our time on earth. He planned our rescue through his Son for us. He planned all this for you and your personal salvation. Jesus suffered a cruel and unjust death because of the sins you and I committed. One must consider, how dare we give that no importance? How dare we remain indifferent? How do we expect to answer for our indifference before God one day in light of all Christ unjustly suffered to restore us to the Father? Let that sink in. Let us instead turn to the Divine Mercy and trust in Jesus. By uniting ourselves to Him in the Mass (given our proper disposition), our Loving Father in Heaven sees his Son first, and through Him, us, purified by His blood.

More than Meets the Eye: The Divine Liturgy is a Participation in and Foretaste of Heaven
Watch the video in the Video links above on, The Veil Removed. At every Mass around the world, all of Heaven is there with us. At the altar the priest acts not on his own, but in the very person of Christ (in persona Christi). From the moment of the consecration on, when Jesus becomes present in the Host and Chalice, the priest becomes one with Christ and with Him is offering himself to the Father in the Holy Spirit. The angels are there ministering invisibly to Him. All heaven becomes present. The "veil" is the veil of our own limited dimensions of physical time and space through which cannot penetrate (unless of course God permits it--which for many Saints he has, even as he did for St. Paul, cf. 2 Cor 12:2) except for passing from this life through death. This is why it is called, the Divine Liturgy, because in its operation, we participate in the Divine in a substantial and ontological way. This is something that cannot happen by appreciating the beauty of God's creation in a sunrise or sunset, or communing with nature from a mountaintop somewhere. While in prayer, we are always in a state of communion with God, but it neither replaces nor satisfies the obligation to or reality of worship. Again, because only in Christ, is worship possible, and because Christ himself prescribed the form of his Worship in the Mass.

"Leitourgos"-The People at Work
As explained in the short video on the word, Liturgy in the video links above, the word, "Liturgy", derives from two Greek root words that combine to form the word, "Leitourgos" which is often translated, "work of the people", but really it is closer in meaning to, "the people at work". This "work" is, above all, first, the work of Christ. It is also our work because we are joined to Christ in His work, and His work in the Liturgy, is the work of Christ's redemption for us and our salvation. The idea of the "work of the people" since the change of the Mass at the Second Vatican Council, has sometimes been misapplied to the Liturgy by pastors or parish lay committees to alter the liturgy entering elements that do not belong within it by the prescriptions of the Mass. The most current prescriptions and principles of the Mass are found in The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) in the revised edition of 2002 and 2012. National Catholic Conferences of Bishops worldwide have the authority to make limited changes as they see fit. When we recall what is happening during the Mass, we must all ponder the dignity of Christ's death and resurrection therein and be mindful that the Divine Liturgy is not a show or a venue in which to show off human endeavor or talent. Nor is the pulpit or priesthood a vehicle to expound upon political opinion, except as politics intersects with Catholic teaching, in which case pastors then have a duty to inform conscience properly aligned with the whole of Catholic teaching (and not just selected elements). Addtionally, while there are special moments in which, for instance, clapping is an appropriate expression (the baptism or confirmation of someone, the ordination of a deacon or priest. a marriage, etc.) it should always be remembered as Jesus stated, "My house shall be called a house of prayer" (Mt 21:13). We must remember that the Mass is, rather, all that we have said above. While the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council have allowed for certain concessions within the Liturgy. Using the Liturgy as one's own personal experiment is unjust to all catholics who have a right to expect to worship as the universal Chuch prescribes, and as such is strictly forbidden by Canon Law, not to mention that in extreme cases, unauthorized changes can invalidate the Mass itself. Only the Suprme Pontiff or, with certain limitations, National Bishops' Conferences or even individual Bishops can make limited alterations to the Liturgy outside that which is prescribed by the GIRM and Canon Law.

Sacrificial Offering or Celebration?
Yes. The Mass is both. It is the offering of Christ to his Father as explained above, but it is also a joyfilled, yet dignified celebration, one filled with expectation, hope and victory. The Mass never leaves Jesus suspended dead on the cross. Rather, the resurrection of Christ is the constitutive sign of the victory over sin and death that Christ accomplished for us. It is the resurrected Christ whom we receive in Holy Communion. The resurrection is the "sure sign" of our salvation and is an essential operative element of salvation itself. (For a good article on this subject, see link here: Jesus Didn’t Just “Die for Our Salvation”: Why He Rose from the Dead). We "celebrate" Jesus' victory over sin and death and share in that victory at every Mass. 

The Lord's Day
Because God created us out of love--for each of us, personally--and because as a perfect Father, he knows what we need in order to live life in the abundance that he has always desired for us (John 10:10). He knows that if left to our own fallen human nature we will forget Him, and we need Him to thrive in this life, not in the overabundance of material riches, but in every aspect of our lives, the foundation of which is spiritual first. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all his righteousness, then all these (other) things will be given unto you" (Mt 6:33).

And the Lord said, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates..." (Ex 20:8-10). 

One of the hardships that the Pharoahs of Egypt forced upon the Hebrews whom they eventually made their slaves was the hardship of work seven days a week all day long. God commanded--not suggested--his Chosen People to rest "one day in seven" because God himself had rested on the seventh day after the six days of his work of creation (Whether these "days" are to be taken literally or figuratively as eons, is not of concern here. Rather, God's intent was a "day"--a 24 hour period of rest--after six days of work), and that the day of rest was prescribed as a day given to God for the worship due to him, and to us for our rest ("The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath" --Mk 2:27). God prescribed for the Israelites that our rest was to be focused on the remembrance of God who took them out of 400 years of bondage by his own hand. (Fun fact: In Hebrew numerology, 40 is a period of purification, 10 a number of completeness. Times 10 is a very long time. Thus 400 years is a very long period of purification). 

Furthermore, as we see even now in our current culture, that without God, some people will work themselves and their businesses--out of whatever motivation--seven days a week, and will force their employees to do the same. As a child growing up in the 1960's and early 70's, I personally remember that nearly all businesses were closed on Sundays. This included shopping centers and even grocery stores (shopping malls had yet to be invented). Parking lots of busineses were empty. Factories and places of business were closed. It is the reason 7-11 stores were not called, "24/7" stores. They were open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m, and not on Sundays. Only the Jewish bakeries were open on Sunday mornings (because their Sabbath is Saturday, the day they were closed).The majority of people--yes, the majority--were at a church of their choice on Sunday mornings. But, as the love of God has grown even colder in the last 50 years, we have seen, not only in our own culture, but around the world that we have once again have let the Pharoahs of Egypt enslave us to work. It is not, of course, that work is a bad thing in the least. In fact, industry and labor are goods desired by God, but only when they are working towards his purposes and leave time to give God the justice of our worship due to Him as our creator and the Creator or all things. We see that in communist countries in which atheism is adopted as an official position of the government, that industry and work supplant God as their reason for existence. The State is their god. When we forget God and the purpose for which He created us, he will allow us to be delivered over to evil, not out of some bizarre human sense of revenge, but out of love, just as a parent corrects a child with discipline out of the greater good of the child, so God will work for our own good that we may come back to Him. There is no third way. We are either for God or against Him (Luke 11:23). That choice is ours. So, let us choose life (Dt 30:19).

The Church's Second Lung: The Eastern Rites
Pope John Paul II used to say the Church breathes with two lungs, East and West. While most Catholics are aware of the Orthodox Church (Eastern, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, etc.), which is the dominant Christian Church in the area formerly known as Asia Minor, the old Soviet Bloc states (i.e., Bulgaria, Moldavia, Romania, etc), and Russia which were one united under the Pope until the Great Eastern Schism (or split) of A.D. 1064, which has its own unique expression of the Divine Liturgy, known as the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (also of Saint Basil the Great), both Catholic Saints who wrote those liturgies, what most Catholics aren't aware of is that there is a part of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine re-united with the Catholic Church in A.D. 1596, while keeping its own liturigcal traditions, customs, and thelogical emphases of their Catholic beliefs (for instance, the Byzantine focus on the Trinity vs. Latin focus on Christ). This liturgical expression of the Catholic faith is called "Byzantine", named after Constantinople's former name, pre-Emperor Constantine, which was Byzantium, modern day Istanbul. This is the most populated of the Catholc Church's 23 Eastern rites. Some of the other Churches, known as "Self-governing Churches" (i.e., Churches sui juris), all of which are Catholic and united under the Pope of Rome, and all of which have their own unique litrugical expressions (i.e., their version of the Mass), include Churches such as the Byzantine Ukrainian rite, Byzantine Ruthenian rite, Maronite rite (after the Lebanese hermit, Saint Maron), Syriac Rite (Israel and Syria), Melkite Greek Rite (Greece), Chaldean rite (Iraq), Armenian rite (northern Balkans), Coptic rite (Egypt), Syrian-Malabar rite (India),  and the Alexandrian rite (Egypt). Some of these are a family of rites broken down into sub-sections larger rites. There are more than 17 million Eastern rite Catholics worldwide. Any practicing Catholic in good standing and properly disposed of any rite, including the Roman (or Latin) rite, which is the major rite worldwide, and the rite most people think of when the Catholic Church is being referred to, may attend and fulfill their Sunday or Holy Day obligation and receive Holy Communion in any other Catholic rite Church sui juris. 

As we just stated, when most people refer to the Catholic Church, they either say or imply the Roman Catholic Church, but they should understand that the Roman Catholic Church is one rite among the others. As it happens, it is a Western (or Latin) rite, and the majority rite Church throughout the world, but not the only Western rite Church either, though there are far less Western rite Churches. Some of the other Western rites include the Mozarabic Rite, Amborisan Rite (after St. Ambrose), the Carthusian rite, and the Bendictine Rite (after St. Benedict), among few others.

What's the Deal with the Traditional Latin Mass?
One of the major outcomes of the Second Vatican Council was the revision of the Latin Mass that had been in use since Pope Pius V iinstituted it in A.D. 1570. This liturgy was known as the Tridentine Mass so-called after the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The new liturgical expression of the Mass of Vatican II would incorporate the languages people actually used and speak today in order to help them understand the Scriptural readings being proclaimed during Mass, and to help them understand what was being said during the Mass. Pope Pius VI's constitutional document on the Sacred Litrugy entitled, Sacrosanctum Concilium, called for and laid out the guidelines for a new order (or litrugical expression) of the Mass. This new order (or "Novus Ordo" in Latin) became the liturgical expression of the Mass we currently use in our Sunday and daily Masses throughout the word, each in that community's own language.  

This new expression of the Mass which replaced the Tridentine Mass upset many people for a variety of reasons, and many thought that the Church did not have the authority to institute a new liturgy because of the way Pope Pius V wrote his Motu Propio  (a type of document used by a Pope to make a formal declaration) that instituted the Tridentine Mass which declared it permanent "for all time". At issue during the Council was whether any one Pope had the authority to make such a declaration permanently binding on the Church for all time. The issue tied into the difference between doctrines on faith and morals (which must be permanently held if they are part of the Deposit of Faith bcause they are given by God) and Church customs, traditions, and discipline (which the Church does have the authority to change because they are made by human beings). While the Mass itself is part of the Deposit of Faith given to us by Christ himself and commanded to be said for all time, i.e., "Do this in memory of me," the expression of the Mass, that is the Liturgy itself, is not part of the Deposit of Faith. The basic structure of the Mass can be seen in the Letter of St. Justin the Martyr in 155 A.D. This basic structure of the Litrugy has been remarkably consistent across all Catholic (and Orthodox) traditions through the ages and this structure has remained in the Mass of Vatican II. However, the only words Christ gave us for the Liturgy were the words of consecration. Everything else was developed and adapted over time. This is not to give the impression that the Liturgy was therefore developed by a random and haphazard process, rather by Tradition and the teaching authority of the Church through the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The expression of how the Mass would be celebrated in the various regions through the centuries, its structure and words, were carefully and prayerfully developed, adopted, and approved by various local Church authorities through the apostles and their successors as the early Church developed and its communities grew. So, no one has the authority to make changes to the Liturgy--including one's own pastor--except the authentic teaching authority of the Church herself (Bishop's do have authority to make limited changes within the rule of Canon Law). 

For a number of years after the institution of the Novus Ordo Liturgy (the transition started in 1966 and was formally promulgated in 1970), most bishop's forbade the use of the Tridentine Mass on the exhortation of the Conregation for Divine Worship making it illicit for their priests to offer Mass in that form. In 1984, Pope John Paul II granted a special indult for the use of the 1962 (Pope John XXIII's) edition of the Tridentine Mass which began its slow re-introduction in the Church. Then, in 1988, in his Motu Propio, Ecclesia Dei, he encouraged all bishops "to make broad and generous use of this faculty". Finally, in July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI, in his Motu Propio, Summorum Pontificum, aregued that the Tridentine Mass was never abrogated and declared that the 1962 version of the Tridentine Mass could be celebrated as an "extraordinary form" which allowed wide usage of that form of the Mass, but still under limited conditions. In October 2021, however, Pope Francis, in his Motu Proprio on the use of the Tridentine Mass, once again highly restricted its use. Bishops still have the final say in the usage of the Extraordinary Form in their diocese, but the Motu Propio greatly restricts its use. Under Pope Benedict XVI, the older Latin forms of the Sacramental rites were generously allowed, but Pope Francis has since restricted those rites, once again.