Reflections on the Mass: The Gloria, Part 2

In the second part of the Gloria, we proclaim the truths of our Lord Jesus Christ. We lift up our faith into worship, marveling in awe at Who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

This is Who Jesus is, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is God incarnate, fully human and fully divine, one divine Person with two natures, in full unity without mixture. This is the truth of our faith. We proclaim it here in awe and wonder.

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,

Jesus is God. He is our Lord, fully divine, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet He is also the Son of the Father. This is a mystery that our human minds cannot completely comprehend, yet we believe it because God has revealed it.

When Jesus came among us as God-incarnate, He became the Lamb of God. This is how John the Baptist identified Him, and no Jew of Jesus' day would have mistaken the significance. A lamb was a sacrifice. It indicated the people's desire to acknowledge and atone for their sins, to be right with God, to worship Him in the way He desired to be worshiped. But the blood of an animal would never actually atone for sin or fix the damaged relationship between God and humanity. That required something more, Someone more.

You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Jesus came to truly atone for sins, to reestablish the covenant intimacy between God and humanity through a new covenant. He died on the cross to do it. Now we beg for His mercy, and we are blessed, for He longs to pour it out upon us.

You take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.

We repeat, marveling once again, that Jesus came to save us from our sins. He has taken away our sins, nailing them to the cross. But are we willing to give them up? We beg Jesus to receive our prayer for His grace so that we can immerse ourselves in His mercy and let go of our sins with true repentance.

You are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

The cross was not the end for Jesus. He died, yes, but He rose again and ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us always. He opened the gates of Heaven so that we can join Him there. And what is more, we can begin living eternal life now by His grace, especially in Holy Mass as we receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist.

Reflections on the Mass: The Gloria, Part 1

After the Penitential Rite, we sing the Gloria, at least on Sundays (except during Advent and Lent) and solemnities. The Gloria is a beautiful hymn of praise that allows us to express our awe and wonder before the Holy Trinity as we join the angels and saints in worship.

Glory to God in the highest,

We begin this hymn by echoing the angels who sang over the hills of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus' birth. We give glory to God, meaning that we recognize and proclaim His great glory, basking in it with great joy and striving to immerse ourselves in all the gifts of love He provides for us. We adore God because He is omniscient and omnipotent. We praise His great love. We honor His perfect authority and His immense holiness. We cannot grasp His nature, but we can proclaim His glory.

And on earth peace to people of good will.

We also join the angels in praying for peace to people of good will. Peace here is more than an absence of war or violence. Rather it is the state of being rightly ordered according to God's will. In this kind of peace, there is a completeness. Everything is as it should be: whole and holy.

We praise You, we bless You, we adore You, we glorify You,

We cannot proclaim God's greatness enough. We cannot worship Him enough. We almost stammer as we try. Yet we continue to sing, knowing that God blesses our efforts, weak as they are.

We give You thanks for Your great glory.

As we recite or sing these words, we should sincerely thank God for Who He is and what He has done for us. We can never thank Him enough. We can never even come close. We should be especially mindful of how God's great glory has touched our lives and has transformed us, and we might think, too, of the encounter that we are about to have with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, in the Eucharist. He conceals His glory so that we can receive Him under the appearance of bread and wine, but He is really present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. He truly enters into us in His glory.

Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father.

We then break out into a recital of some of God's many titles. He is our Lord and our God, the King of Heaven. He is so far beyond us that we cannot even imagine. Yet at the same time, He is our almighty Father Who loves us more than we can imagine. He is transcendent and imminent, reigning on high yet stooping down to us in love.

Reflections on the Mass: The Penitential Rite, Part 2

Last week, we discussed the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass, but there are a few more points to make about this important opportunity to humble ourselves before God and ask Him for His mercy and forgiveness.

First, as we pray the Confiteor, we acknowledge that we have committed sins “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.” As we speak these words, we strike our breasts three times, one for each repetition of “fault.” This emphasizes our accusation of ourselves and indicates our desire to do penance for our sins.

While the gesture is symbolic, the desire should be real. Our sins leave a sort of “spiritual muck” on us even when God forgives them. Our mortifications and penances help wash the muck away, and they allow us to show God that we are truly and deeply sorry for the ways in which we have offended Him and that we are eager to make things right.

Sometimes the priest will choose to omit the Confiteor. In that case, he may extend the Kyrie with three short prayers between the petitions. The first is “You were sent to heal the contrite of heart.” This reminds us that Jesus has come, was sent by the Father, to heal those who are truly contrite, who are sorry for their sins and desire to avoid sin in the future. Contrition is a requirement for forgiveness, for if we are not really sorry, we will not even be able to accept the mercy God holds out to us. We will block the channels of mercy on our end.

The second prayer is “You came to call sinners.” Jesus has come to call sinners, and we are all sinners. Notice how He seeks us out. He calls us to Him. He wants us to repent and ask for His mercy.

The third prayer is “You are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us.” Jesus prays to the Father for us. Isn't that amazing? He is our Mediator. He unites us to the Father. He asks the Father for mercy for us.

In the Penitential Rite, then, as brief as it may be, we are called to true repentance for our sins and a reliance on God's great mercy and love.

Reflections on the Mass: The Penitential Rite

Every one of us is a sinner. We all disobey God in thought, word, and action, in what we do and in what we fail to do. That is why we all need God's mercy. The Penitential Rite of the Mass guides us in acknowledging and confessing our sins and begging God for His forgiveness.

It is important to bring our sins before God at the beginning of Mass so that we can clear the air, so to speak. Of course, if we are conscious of any mortal sins, we must always go to Confession and receive absolution before receiving the Eucharist (with contrition and with the firm commitment not to sin again and to make satisfaction for our sins). But even so, we all commit venial sins every day, and this part of the Mass gives us the opportunity to seek and find God's forgiveness.

The priest begins by calling us to “acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.” Then he will pause. We should think of how we have failed God and truly repent, placing our sins before Him in the silence of our hearts.

Then the priest will often lead us in the Confiteor, a prayer of confession. We confess to God and to our fellow Christians that we have sinned, even greatly sinned, for every sin is an offense against God that may have been avoided. We confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed and in what we have not done but should have done. We admit that it is completely our fault. We have free will, and when we sin, we choose it freely. Then we ask for prayer from the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the angels and the saints, and from our brothers and sisters beside us in the pews. Indeed, we must pray for each other and with each other, for we are all in this battle against sin and this striving for holiness together. And we should be grateful that Mary, the angels, and the saints are willing to pray for us and support us.

The priest now prays (either in English or Greek), “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy,” and we repeat the petitions, joining our verses in our plea for God's forgiveness and our recognition that He is more than willing to provide it to people with contrite hearts.

The rite ends with a prayer from the priest: “May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.” We respond with a heartfelt “Amen,” knowing how much we need God's mercy and forgiveness that we may be with Him in Heaven forever.

Reflections on the Mass: The Greeting

Mass begins with the Introductory Rite of Greeting. The priest makes the Sign of the Cross: “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We all respond with a firm “Amen.” Here we enter again, even more formally, into the presence of the Blessed Trinity, and we recognize that the entire Mass is an act of worship to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In fact, the Mass is the highest act of worship and prayer. It is the liturgical rite that God has given to us so that He may be worshiped in the way He has commanded. We give ourselves to Him. He gives Himself to us, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This is His will for us.

We often hear people claiming that they can pray and worship anywhere and that they do not need to go to church to do so. This is false. Yes, we can and should pray and worship anywhere. But God has given us the Mass as His preferred means of worship. And there can be no greater intimacy with God this side of Heaven than in the Mass, for it is only in the Mass that we participate in Jesus' sacrifice made present on the altar in a unbloody manner.

No, we do not re-sacrifice Jesus again and again as some Protestants claim. That is false, too. Jesus' sacrifice now stands outside of time, and therefore, it remains accessible to us through the liturgy that God has given that we might participate in the sacrifice and have it merits applied to ourselves every day if we so choose.

Further, it is only in the Mass (and because of the Mass) that we receive Jesus in the way He most desires to come to us. At the Last Supper, Jesus first gave Himself to His disciples, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. He continues to give Himself to us in that same intensity every time we receive Him in the Eucharist. It is only in the Mass that Jesus becomes really and truly present in the Eucharist. The bread and wine are truly His Body and Blood in substance. We will not experience the same intimacy with our Lord by praying out in the woods some place or even by watching Mass on television. God calls us to worship as part of His Church and to receive Him in the way He knows that we need.

Next, the priest greets us with either “The Lord be with you” or “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” or “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” This is a heartfelt greeting that urges us to enter into the intimacy of the Mass. We remember that God is with us. In fact, in the Mass, Heaven touches earth in a very special way. We are called to open our hearts and our minds and our souls to God's grace and love. We are urged to enter into communion with God right now at the beginning of Mass so that we will be ready to receive Him in the Eucharist.

We respond to the priest's greeting with a heartfelt “And with your spirit.” At this point, we should say a little prayer for the priest as he acts in persona Christi and as Christ acts in and through him throughout the Mass.

Reflections on the Mass: Entrance

As Mass begins, we rise for the entrance procession. While this might seem like merely a way of getting the priest into church, there is certainly more to it. The entrance represents the arrival into the sacred space. It is a formal way of approaching God in worship and bringing our hearts and minds into the Heaven-on-earth moment that is the Mass. We might even call it a mini-pilgrimage of sorts that we watch but also participate in symbolically as the servers, deacon, and priest journey toward the altar.

We rise in reverence as the procession takes place. At many Masses, a server will carry the crucifix, reminding us of Christ's sacrifice that is about to be re-presented in an unbloody manner during the Mass. Other servers may be carrying candles as a reminder of the light of Christ that is to enter into us and, through us, to enlighten the world. Incense may be used as well as a sign of our prayers rising up to God. The deacon or lector may carry an ornate book of the Gospels, God's Word, to be read during the Mass.

As we watch the entrance procession, participating in our hearts, we may sing a hymn that helps us enter into worship. Otherwise, the priest may read an entrance antiphon that focuses our attention on the feast day or a theme from the readings.

When the priest and deacon reach the sanctuary, they genuflect in the presence of our King. They then enter the sanctuary, which is usually set off by a few steps to emphasize its exalted place. After all, Christ is present in the tabernacle. The priest and deacon then kiss the altar, which is a symbol of Jesus. The altar may also contain relics of a saint to be recognized and venerated (not worshiped). Finally, the kiss symbolizes the union between Christ and His Bride, the Church. It is a sign of love that the priest and deacon offer on behalf of all of us.

Reflections on the Mass: Preparations

The Second Vatican Council called the Eucharist, which stands at the heart of Holy Mass, the “source and summit” of our Christian faith and life, for in the Eucharist, we receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Over the next few weeks and perhaps even months, we will reflect on the Mass, digging deeply into its words and actions so that we can experience it with greater reverence and love.

Before Mass, we have the obligation to prepare ourselves to pray devoutly and meet Jesus in the Eucharist. This means going to Confession if we are conscious of a mortal sin, but there is actually quite a bit more to full preparation.

If possible, we should read and meditate on the day's Scripture readings so that we hear them with greater attention when they are read at Mass. This early reading opens our hearts and minds to what God is saying to us in His Word. Then as we listen, we will be more likely to catch what He wants to tell us, and indeed, certain words, phrases, or ideas often jump out that can lead to further meditation later on.

We should always make an effort to arrive at church at least fifteen minutes early. This provides a chance for prayer so that we can transition ourselves out of worldly concerns and into the reverent, sacred atmosphere of the Mass. Our prayer might take the form of offering ourselves to God, leaving our worries at His feet, asking for special blessings, requesting His grace to experience the Mass with a deep gratitude and to receive the Eucharist worthily, and whatever else helps us get our minds and hearts ready to encounter God in the Mass.

As we enter into church, we should make the Sign of the Cross with holy water. This provides us with a visual symbol of our entry into a sacred space. It also reminds us of our Baptism when we entered into God's covenant family and received His indwelling presence in our souls. We might take a moment to renew our Baptismal promises. The Sign of the Cross itself allows us to inscribe ourselves with the Cross, reminding us to unite our sufferings with Christ, and to invoke the Blessed Trinity so that everything we think, say, and do may be pleasing to God and blessed by Him.

Before entering the pew, we genuflect (or bow deeply if genuflecting isn't possible). We are coming into the presence of the King of the Universe Who is in the Tabernacle at this very moment. We must recognize His presence and honor Him with our bodies and our minds.

A note about reverence... The sacred space of the church is not the place to have a friendly chat. That should always be reserved for the gathering area. Within the nave (where the congregation sits), there should be a reverent silence before Mass so that people can pray. Chatting out loud or even in continual whispers is not in keeping with reverence, and it is disrespectful to people trying to pray.

We should devote these precious minutes before Mass to prayer and meditation so that when the liturgy begins we are ready to enter into it fully and worship deeply.