|
The Most Holy
Sacrifice
of
the Mass
A Primer
for Clueless
Catholics
Part I
We are Clueless
You haven’t
the foggiest idea what is going on during Mass.
You may not even know why you're there.
The reasons are many:
-
It’s what Catholics do and I am Catholic.
-
I want my kids to grow up in this tradition
that comes from my parents, grandparents, and
forebears throughout the 2000 years preceding
my coming into this world through them.
-
It is something good to do and it is holy ...
although why it is good and why it is holy remains
a mystery to me.
-
My friends go ... although they do not know
why either.
-
I need God’s help, and if I go to Mass He will
look favorably on me.
-
God is there ... although just how He is there,
I do not understand — after all, God is
everywhere, right?— so why is this place
so special?
Do not be ashamed. It is not your fault. There
are answers — good answers —
for all the questions this short list brings up.
You
were never taught.
It is really that simple. No one took the time to
sit down and talk with you about what is
the most important event in your life
– and it occurs every 7 days. In fact, whatever
else you do during the other 167 hours of the week
(job, school, charity— in fact, every
other responsibility, necessity, or good
work) however good, kind, lofty, noble, pales
in significance to the Mass.
The Basics:
Before you go further in this brief study – and
it is a study that we invite you to —
of the single most important thing in your life,
we must make a promise to you
first: it will not be dry or boring, nor will it
be fraught with meaningless pieties. You will understand
what the Mass is, why it is holy, and why you must
be there. This is our promise to you.
It will not be “socially correct”ť, sanitized
to sensitivities, or keeping in step with the passing
fads that blow through the pews and across the Altars
as so many shifting winds following that elusive
mantra of “what is in vogue”. There is perpetuity
in the Church, and unchangeable elements of the
Mass. Hopefully, we will enable you to see beyond
the Mass so often presented as entertainment, hosted
by an entertainer, to the deep and very sacred reality
within it.
“The
Mass”,
as we most often call it, is really short for,
“The
Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”.
Linger
a moment on those 7 words, for they contain quite
nearly everything that you will need to know in
order to understand why you go to Church, or why
you ought to.
The Mass, first and foremost, is a Sacrifice.
Not a figurative sacrifice, not a mere remembrance
of something done long ago, and not a metaphor.
It is a real sacrifice. At Mass you are witnessing
— even participating in — a sacrifice, very real
and very present.
Does that surprise you?
We do not hear very much about this — but
unless we understand this most fundamental,
this absolutely central aspect of
the Mass, nothing else makes sense. Our lack of
understanding the Mass as a Sacrifice contributes
to most of the confusion that surrounds our going
there and being there.
But what is the nature of this Sacrifice, and how
is it enacted? Who does the sacrificing and who
or what is sacrificed? How do we ourselves
participate in it?
Tomorrow we will begin to understand.
(click any graphic above to expand it)
What we have learned
today:
The Mass is a Sacrifice
____________________________
PDF Printer Friendly Version
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If
you can find a
Traditional Latin Mass in your diocese (the
Tridentine Mass of 1962, prior to the many unfortunate
changes and liturgical abuses common to nearly every
Mass celebrated in the vernacular subsequent to Vatican
II) ... we have one suggestion:
GO!
Find one! If you are in the Greater
Boston area, three immediately come to mind:
321 South Broadway
Lawrence
MA 01843 (Dominican
Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters, O.P. — Ordo
Praedicatorum) 978-686-7921
The distinctive white
tunic, or habit, and black scapular of the
Dominicans
are the first intimation that things at Sacred Heart
are different from most parishes — and distinctly
different from Novus Ordo parishes — the
more one enters into the Church. Holy statuary, beautifully
crafted, abounds. There is a Communion Rail!
An Altar of marble
(an Altar
of Sacrifice!) majestically ascends to the Sanctuary
— in place of the dreary wooden “table
of the Lord” that became the pseudo-Catholic equivalent
of Protestant disdain for the Sacraments ... and most
especially “the Holy Eucharist as really and truly the
Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.” And
the Mass is entirely in Latin
(the homily in English)! It is Holy Mother Church in
every way prior to its appalling disfigurement by Vatican
II. In a word, it is
unapologetically, vibrantly,
and refreshingly, Catholic.
282 Still River Road
Still River, MA. 01467. 978-456-8296
The Benedictine Abbey,
and the Saint Benedict Center (Slaves of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary) for many valiant years retained the Traditional
Latin Mass — until it relented to pressure from
the Vatican and was eventually reconciled with it. In
turn it was eventually allowed to celebrate the “Extraordinary
Form of the Mass”ť (the last Traditional Catholic Latin
Mass, dated 1962, and re-instituted by Pope Benedict
XVI in his Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum
in July 2007. From the junction of I-93 and 95 (Rt.
128) it is approximately an hour drive west. It offers
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
in Latin
only.
-
Mary Immaculate of
Lourdes,
270 Elliot Street,
Newton, MA
02464 617-244-0558
See our review
here. Mary Immaculate of Lourdes is a large parish
that offers the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Homepage:
https://maryimmaculateoflourdes.org/en/
Sunday 10 AM
High Mass in Latin according to the “Extraordinary Form
of the Mass” . The
Novus Ordo
is also celebrated daily at Mary Immaculate of
Lourdes. Approximately 15 minutes east from Rte 95 (128)
and about a 45 minute drive south from the junction
of I-93 and 95 (Rt. 128) it is approximately an hour
drive west.
If you have experienced
little of sanctity ... and much in the way of silliness
... if you have encountered (wo)man more than you have
encountered God ... if you have left as empty as you
had arrived ... go to a Tridentine Latin
Mass. If you were born after 1960 you will experience
something you have never before encountered; something
of unutterable beauty, sanctity, solemnity, and ceremony
that your forbears knelt before for over 2 millennia.
You will find God.
Absolutely everything,
every gesture, every act, is directed to God Who is
the sole focus of the Most Holy Sacrifice that
we call the Mass — and
not to a music “Ministry” or a priest as an entertainer
— most often a comedian
— who demand your applause ... at the
foot of the crucified Christ. If you have never
really and truly experienced “the utterly sacred” and
have no idea what it means, what that experience is
... the experience of proximity to God Himself
... go to a Tridentine Latin Mass! Your life in, with,
and through Christ will never be the same again. You
will know what “worship” really is ... and how
very different it is from the many forms of self-adulation
you have encountered in every vernacular Mass (no two
are exactly alike). Instead of the exaltation of man,
you will find the exaltation of God
—
and come to realize the vast gulf between the two and
the paltry exchange that has been traded off when man
chose to worship God on his own terms and sought
to share the very Throne with Him.
For those
who cannot find a Latin Tridentine Mass, or whose bishop
or pastor, in defiance of Rome, deliberately suppresses
it — we offer the following as a way of attending
the vernacular Mass without losing your faith as a consequence
of it:
Go
to Part:
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
Download the entire series as a PDF
Totally Faithful to
the Sacred Deposit of Faith
entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem,
et servasti verbum Meum, nec non negasti
Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little
power, and yet you have kept My word, and
have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
Copyright © 2004 - 2025 Boston Catholic Journal. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise stated, permission is granted
by the Boston Catholic Journal for the copying
and distribution of the articles and audio
files under the following conditions:
No additions, deletions, or changes are
to be made to the text or audio files in
any way, and the copies may not be sold
for a profit. In the reproduction, in any
format of any image, graphic, text, or audio
file, attribution must be given to the Boston
Catholic Journal.
|
|
