How To Understand Catholic Worship: The Mass

Let’s talk about the Mass! But before we get into the current form of worship carried out by Christians today in the 21st century, let’s look at what one of the first Christians had to say about the way they worship.

Justin Martyr lived from around 100 AD to 167 AD. He converted to Christianity in the year 130. From there, his mission became to defend the Christian faith. Click here to read an excerpt from his first apologetic letter to Emperor Titus.

What is the Mass? 

The term Mass comes from the Latin phrase “Ite Missa Est,” which means Go, it is finished. The priest said this at the dismissal. Naturally, people popularized the term to refer to the service. However, the service is the most extraordinary form of worship. It’s a prayer in itself. Through the Mass, we seek God, and He comes to meet us physically through the eucharist. Since the Eucharist, the consecrated bread and wine, is the most crucial part of the worship, it is referred to the service as “the Lord’s Supper,” or “the breaking of the bread,” or “the Sacrifice.”

It’s all about sacrifice!! Jesus as the high priest, is our intercessor, offering himself up to God for the forgiveness of our sins and transgressions. We foretaste what worship is like in heaven by partaking in the Eucharist. Heavenly and earthly worship are united through Christ (Revelations 5 and 8).

While Catholics are only obliged to attend Sunday or Saturday Vigils, Mass is offered daily. Check out your local parish for their service hours!

The Four Parts of the Mass

Introductory Rites

The commemoration begins with the laity standing as the clergy and altar servers make their way to the sanctuary. The clergy venerates the altar with a kiss out of reverence and sometimes incense the altar to prepare it for the Mass. Then the priest greets the congregation calling upon God through the sign of the cross: this is an invitation to remember our baptism. He proceeds to wish God’s grace upon the gathered by saying, “the Lord be with you,” to which we respond, ” and with your spirit.“

Penitential Act or Blessings

We talk time to acknowledge our sins and pray for God’s mercy by reciting  Kyrie Eleison, Greek for Lord, Have Mercy. (Fun fact: greek was used first in Mass before Latin became more popular.) Sometimes the penitential act is omitted if the priest sprinkles holy water on the congregation to remember the forgiveness of our sins through baptism. 

Gloria and Collect 

After seeking God’s mercy, we proclaim God’s goodness by singing the Gloria, which is Latin for Glory. And the priest leads us in prayer, known as the collect, to transition to the Liturgy of the Word. The prayer is: “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to people of goodwill on earth…” (Omitted during lent).

The Liturgy of the Word

The congregation sits to listen to the Word of God. Typically, we have two readings (the latter is always from the Gospels), but on Sundays and other Holy Days, we listen to two non-Gospel biblical readings and the Gospel. 

The first reading is usually from the Old Testament, except during the season of Lent. The second reading is from the New Testament, excluding the Gospels. At the end of each reading, the lector says, “the Word of the Lord,” and we respond, “Thanks be to God.”

We sing or say a responsorial psalm or scriptural prayer between the two readings. The cantor leads the psalm, and we respond to a given part, much like a refrain of a song. 

Before the Gospel is read, we all stand and sing, Alleluiah, to acknowledge we are about to hear the words of Jesus Christ. (Omitted during lent). The clergy raises the Bible, and it’s customary to bow out of respect gently. Then the clergy could incense the Bible and then announces the Gospel (i.e., A reading from the Gospel of John, to which we respond “Glory to you Lord” as we sign our foreheads, lips, and hearts. We ask God to open our minds to understand His Word, our lips to proclaim His Glory, and our hearts to allow His love to flow from us). 

At the end of the gospel reading, the deacon or priest says, “the Gospel of the Lord,” and we respond, “praise to your, Lord Jesus Christ.” We sit and meditate on what God has spoken to us that day. 

Though not required, it is customary for the priest or deacon to give a homily to help us understand the readings and teach us how to apply them to our lives. 

We stand and profess our faith together by reciting the creed following a short moment of silence. This could be the Nicene Creed or the Apostle’s Creed. Moved by our faith, we offer prayers for the world’s needs read by the deacon or priest. Our response to each intention is, “Lord, hear our prayer.”

Having proclaimed and heard the Word of God and affirmed our faith, we move to the Liturgy.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist

We nourished our spirits with the Word of God; now, we will nourish our bodies by consuming the Bread of Life. After all, we are both body and soul. 

We sit as the offertory takes place. Here, people bring bread and wine to the altar and any monetary offerings the laity can contribute to the church. 

The priest then takes the offerings and asks God to bless them. If a hymn is not sung at that time, we respond, “Blessed be God forever.”

The priest performs the lavabo, where he washes his hands and prays to be clean from iniquity and be made worthy of celebrating the eucharist. 

The priest asks the people to pray that the sacrifice we offer to God is pleasing to Him. (Since Christ is the sacrifice, it will be accepted by God, but our human limitations and sins are not acceptable to God, so we ask that God looks not into our flaws but instead sees the unblemished lamb presented.) We stand to respond, “may the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the pray and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His Holy Church.” 

Eucharistic Prayer 

In thanksgiving, we pray for what God has done and for what He is preparing us to receive by saying: 

Priest: The Lord be with you.

People: And with your spirit.

Priest: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.

People: It is right and just.

Acclamation Sanctus (Holy) Prayer

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven, and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” 

This prayer helps us unite with those worshiping God in Heaven based on Revelation 4:8. 

Epiclesis (Greek for calling down upon)

We kneel for reverence as the priest calls upon God to send his Spirit upon the bread and wine so they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We prepare for the consecration as the priest starts the institution narrative by recalling the Lord’s words at the last supper, “This is my body,” and “This is the chalice of my blood.”

At that moment, God transforms the bread and blood into the body and blood of Christ to fulfill the promises echoed in John 6 “Who ever eats my body and drinks my blood will have eternal life.” 

The priest holds up the chalice and hosts up so the people can see and worship Jesus. 

Memorial Acclamation

We acknowledge it’s a mystery of faith and sing or say, “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again,” as St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:26.

The priest says a prayer to remember the ministry of Jesus, and we remember the sacrifice Jesus offered for us. At the same time, we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices following the precepts of Romand 12:1 “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship.” 

With Jesus now truly present, the priest asks God to bless the living and the dead by giving us His mercy and salvation. To conclude the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest proclaims God’s glory by praying, “Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, O God, O Mighty Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, forever and ever.” The people respond in agreement by saying or singing, “Amen,” and we stand.

Communion Preparation

It’s time to come together in the teachings of Christ. We pray for others and make peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

(The Lord’s prayer; the priest prays we may be delivered from evil, to which we respond, “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours, now and forever” found in the Didache).

Rite of Peace

The priest prays, “look not on our sins, but on the faith of Your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with Your will.” and then he calls us to exchange the sign of peace (which used to be a kiss, now a handshake is more appropriate, but post-covid a nod and smile will do) following Matthew 5:23-24 and Philippians 1:27.

At this time, the priest breaks part of the consecrated bread as Jesus broke the bread at the last supper. This is known as fraction. It symbolically represents the body of Christ suffering on the cross. Furthermore, the priest drops a piece of the consecrated bread into the chalice to symbolize Jesus’ resurrection: the body and blood uniting once more after coming back to life. 

Meanwhile, the laity prays the Agnus Die (Lamb of God in Latin), which says, “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.” Then the congregation may kneel and wait their turn to receive the communion.

Communion

The highlight of the day has come!! The priest prays quietly to prepare to receive communion. Then he holds up the eucharist and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb.” We respond, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.” Mirroring the words of the Roman Centurion in Matthew 8:8. 

We firmly believe the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ are present in the eucharist through the appearance of bread and wine. The body and blood of Christ are distributed to the faithful to receive the bread of life, as Jesus said in John 6. One must be in good moral standing, fast at least an hour before communion, and agree with the Catholic Church’s teachings to line up and partake in communion. For this reason, we encourage Catholics to go to reconciliation as soon as possible since we stand firm with St. Paul in his teaching to the Corinthians:

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves” (1 Cor 11: 27-29). 

Those not prepared to take communion can say a prayer in their hearts. One of the most popular ones is, 

Remember that you are in the presence of Christ; even if you are in your pew, He sees you and hears you. Don’t be afraid to engage in conversation with Him. And if you partake of the Eucharist, and respond, Amen, keep in mind that Jesus is there with you in the most intimate way imagined. If He healed people by the touch of His cloak, think of all He can do by embracing Him fully. Give thanks to God for the gifts of Jesus.

(Also, since all of Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divine are present, there is no need to receive both wine and bread.) 

See the post on the eucharist for more. 

Once everyone who could receive communion did, the clergy and altar servers clean up the altar, and any leftover consecrated bread is taken to the tabernacle. The priest takes a moment of silence to spend with the Lord, then we rise and say a short prayer in thanksgiving. 

(The Lord is present for about 10 mins before the bread and wine are digested and no longer hold their essence.)

Concluding Rites 

The priest gives announcements of the parish and community before greeting the congregation by saying, “the Lord be with you,” and we respond, “and with your spirit.” 

Then the final blessing is given, and we conclude by making the sign of the cross as the priest says, “May almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” All respond, “Amen.” This practice goes back to the Old Testament found in Numbers 6:22-27.

The clergy dismisses the faithful by announcing the Mass has ended and encouraging us to proclaim the Good News! We respond, “Thanks be to God.”

The clergy reveres the altar once more before leaving by venerating the place where Christ comes to us in the Eucharist. 

A final hymn is sung as we all depart! 

Now nourished physically and spiritually by God, we are ready to live out our Christian faith in the ungodly world 🙂

Did you find any similarities to how St. Justin Martyr described the Christian service of their time?

And as always, leave your prayer intentions below!!

God bless you!!