Per Christum

One common complaint I hear from many Catholics is that the Church actually expects us to attend Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. There are legitimate reasons for missing Mass, like being too ill to attend, or being snowed in, but I suspect that most Catholics who miss Mass regularly do so because it is not high on their list of priorities, and soccer games, sleeping in, and other activities take precedent. It is even more difficult to claim there is no time for Mass these days, since the Saturday night Mass fulfills the Sunday obligation.

Now, I admit that it is not always exciting to go to Mass, and the pull of TV, running, or something else is strong. Nonetheless, I go to Mass every Sunday because not only does the Church expect it of me, but because I know that if I have time for all sorts of activities unrelated to the eternal fate of my soul, I can give a little time each week to the heavenly banquet that our Lord established. Plus, when considered objectively, the time the Church expects from us for Mass is a small percentage of the week.

I decided to figure it out. I will warn you in advance that math was not my best subject, so if I have made a mistake, please let me know.

There are 168 hours in a week. If Mass lasts about one hour, and we assume 30 minutes travel time to get there and back, Mass takes up 1.5 hours per week of time. This amounts to giving 0.9% of our week to the miracle that is the holy sacrifice of the Mass, i.e. less than one percent of our time. And this, along with a few holy days of obligation, represent the mere minimalism that is expected of us! Compare this with the time we Americans spend watching TV each week, around 5 hours of TV a day; this amounts to 35 hours in a week, or 21% of the hours in a week. So whenever getting up for Mass doesn’t excite me, I just think of the time I give joyfully to TV, exercise, and the internet, and I am reminded that I most definitely have time for the Holy Eucharist!

I recently found a fascinating artifact, a “People’s Mass Book” dated 1966, the year the transitional sacramentary came out in both English and Latin. It was the period when every so often a new piece of the mass would come out in the vernacular. In the Order of the Mass at the opening of the rite, I found this:

Read the rest of this entry »

There are presently 9 Eucharistic prayers now in use in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Twas not always thus, however. For four hundred years prior to the Second Vatican Council, there was only one Eucharistic Prayer in general use in the Latin Church (others such as the Ambrosian Rite of Milan and the Dominican Rite are not for general use, but for particular settings).

Through a complicated maze of scholarship, popular demand, and political pressures, the 1960’s saw the multiplication of the Eucharistic prayers for general use from one to four, each called by its Roman numeral, I-IV . In the 1970’s five other particular use Eucharistic Prayers were added to the sacramentary namely the Eucharistic Prayers for Children I, II, III and for Reconciliation I and II.

Eucharistic Prayer I: The Roman Canon

The Roman Canon is the longest and perhaps the most ancient of the Eucharistic prayers. St. Ambrose had quoted portions of it in the mid 300’s. Among the ancient Eucharistic prayers of the various rites, East and West, it has a strikingly unique structure with a heavy emphasis on the sacrificial nature of the sacrament and the role of the priest in offering it. Read the rest of this entry »

Where I grew up, Eucharistic Prayer 2 held sway in grade school, weekday, funeral, and Sunday Masses… I don’t think I ever heard the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer 1) until I was at least 16. There has been an interesting and ongoing combox discussion on the matter over at Bonfire of the Vanities.

Where I attend weekday Mass on occasion EP 1 is the norm (out of 13 different approved prayers) and I find that pleasing for one simple reason: It offers the following brief exhortations to pray for the living and the dead:

For the living:“Remember, Lord, your people, especially those for whom we now pray, N. et N.”

For the dead:“Remember, Lord, those who have died and have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, especially those for whom we now pray, N. et N. May these, and all who sleep in Christ, find in your presence light, happiness, and peace.”

It is a true mercy to take a moment to remember the dead and the living whose intentions I bring to place on the altar - it is a reminder to fix my intentions at the offertory and then fix my intentions at communion.

Prayer for the dead has been so utterly neglected in the Catholic Church today. This is something we may all, one day, come to see the tragedy of in a most uncomfortable light.

 (NOTE: I am making an effort to better understand how to play with the size of graphics on WordPress - be patient with me! )

The woman who runs Eucharistic adoration at my parish was persistent enough that I finally called her back after expressing interest in November. Her enthusiasm was pretty contagious and she clearly believes in the importance of Eucharistic adoration. I must say, she got me pretty excited about it too, so I signed up. From now on, I’ll be with Jesus in a special way on Mondays at 8:00pm.

I have two points I want to make about adoration and me. First, this is the last practice I would have seen myself embracing seven or eight years ago as an evangelical Protestant. In fact, I probably would have been viscerally bothered by it, even though my mind was curious (I would often recoil in my mind when I heard the words “Mother of God,” for example). Yet, it is an incredible affirmation of the Church’s belief in the Real Presence, which I now wholeheartedly embrace.

Second, as a religion teacher, I am focused on religion 6 hours a day for five days a week. It is even more if you count the planning and the grading. Yet, in the midst of it all, I don’t find much time for spiritual growth or refreshment. I’m hoping that the practice of Eucharistic adoration will provide it: a time away from the hustle and bustle in quiet solitude with Jesus. I know that many people credit adoration with all sorts of graces in their lives, including helping a few discern a call to the priesthood or religious life. I’m hoping for spiritual nourishment and to better live my calling as a husband, father, and teacher.

I’ll keep you updated on my experience and I invite you to share yours.

Image from Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation, Carey, OH

Since September 14, 2007, the Sunday when general permission was given for the celebration of the the traditional rite of the Mass, Latin Rite Catholics whether they know it or not have been living in a very new era.

Now is as good a time as any to take a look at our current Eucharistic prayers and come to appreciate all of them for their beauty and power to bring us the greatest gift in this life as well as understand some of their limitations.

Read the rest of this entry »