The word “liturgy” means “the work of the People”. We are like an orchestra when we come together for Mass. For we come together to worship God not as individuals who happen to be in the same place, at the same time, doing the same thing. No, we come together as a community of believers, one entity, one body to worship God who through Jesus formed us into His Family, His sons and daughter, brothers and sisters. Each and every one of us has a role.

Sometimes in an orchestral piece, one or several musicians actively are to play their instruments while the others listens and prepare for their part. At other times the full orchestra is engaged. The same is true at Mass.

At time we act in unison as in singing and giving voice to various prayer and listening to the Scriptures being read. At other times the priest, cantor, and psalmist have a solo part. At time they sing in dialogue with the rest of the community as in the sung dialogue of "The Lord be with you” “And also with you." At other times they alternate with the congregation as when the cantor or psalmist sings the verse of the responsorial psalm or hymn and the community sing the refrain. Then there are times when we sing as one voice. It is at these times no one voice should dominate or be heard above the other but we are to be truly one voice – all of us singing out in full voice.

But, not only do we come to together to worship as the Body of Christ in the world today, but in the Liturgy of the Mass Christ transforms us ever more into being his Body. Christ is one; as his followers we are to take on his one mind, one heart and one way of life. Being a community working together is not easy for us in our culture of individualism and me-ism which allows everyone to do his or her own thing just so as no one hinders what I want to do. It is only by openness to the working of the Holy Spirit that will bring us to truly being the Body of Christ.

The Catholic Church begins its church or liturgical year with the season of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. The word “Advent” means “coming”. It is a season pregnant with hope, expectation, excitement and joy. We identifying with the Hebrew people of the Old Testament. As they looked forward to the coming of the promised messiah so Catholic Christians look forward to the coming of Jesus.

God did not abandon his people, God did not abandon us. He sent the Son, the Word Jesus to save his people and the whole world from sin and death. This Jesus the Christ will come again in glory at the end to time, bring all who have accepted him to the full joy of eternal life in heaven. But Christ is not way out there in the distant future. He comes to us also in the present in many ways during our life time. He comes to us at our death to welcome us to heaven. All this would not be our if Jesus the Christ had not come in time 2000 years ago, born of the Virgin Many. Lest we could ever forget that we look forward to celebrating his coming in time, God the Word taking on our human nature, born on Christmas Day.

Advent is the time we intensify our longing and preparation for these various coming of Jesus especially though prayer, reflection of the Sacred Scripture and good works. We need to be careful to make sure this time is spent in preparation and not in anticipating celebrations.

“Christmas” or “Christ having been sent” (mas comes from the Latin word “mitto” meaning “to send”) is a season of great joy. Jesus, the Word of God taking on our human nature has come among us. Our joy is so great that we continue to celebrate this great Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord for up to 12 or so days.

During this joyful season of Christmas we celebrate a number of great feasts to augment our celebration; The feasts of St. Stephen ( first Christian martyr), St. John the Evangelist, the Holy Family, the Holy Innocents, Mary – the Mother of God, the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord.

The 40 or so days of Lent begin on Ash Wednesday with Mass and the Blessing and Distribution of ashes (usually from the palms of the previous Palm Sunday. Ashes remind us of our mortality and need to do Penance.

We must die with Christ if we wish to rise with Christ: die to our self – centeredness, our materialism, our way as opposed to Christ’s way and rise to Christ’s way. While this is a daily and life-long endeavor for Christians, we bring this more clearly to mind each year through our Lenten practices and as a preparation for our celebration of the Triduum (cf. below). Lent is also the final preparation time for those joining us in faith through the Easter Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist.

We do penance to express our desire for reconciliation, conversion, change of heart, and our sorrow that God and others have been offended by our and others’ sins and failures.

We do penance as we give alms as a way of sharing our time, talents and treasures as stewards of God’s blessings; through prayer and reflection which help us center more on God and others than ourselves; and through fasting, abstaining, and self denial, we reduce the pampering of ourselves and our taking so much for granted. In doing so, we also identify with the poor and needy throughout the world.

To show our solidarity (acting with one mind and heart) as a faith community in admitting our sins and failures and our need to do penance: those of us 14 and older are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. Those of us 18-59 are to fast, usually considered to limit ourselves to one full meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and refraining from eating between meals.

Almsgiving suggestions: sharing with the needy what you save through fasting and abstaining by donating to the area food pantry, or the Rice Bowl and world needy through the Catholic Relief Services (mark your gift under “world needy” on your Sunday envelope); visiting the sick, homebound; reaching out to others; alleviating the hurts done by sin.

Prayer and reflection suggestions: morning and night prayers, scripture reading, rosary, Stations of the Cross, family prayer, weekday Mass besides Sunday Mass.

Fasting/abstaining/self denial suggestions: reducing our daily portions of food, refraining from eating between meals, from pop, alcohol, smoking, TV, internet…

The 72 hours from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter is known as the Triduum which means three days. During these 72 hours we commemorate the most sacred events of Jesus’ life and our salvation. While we celebrate these mysteries of Jesus’ last supper, passion, death, and resurrection each time we gather for Mass, our celebrations during these three days are special and serve to make these mysteries more meaningful during the rest of the year.

The Easter Season extends from the evening of Easter until the evening of Pentecost. Our job in the resurrection is so great that we celebrate for 50 days.

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the seventh Sunday of Easter and on Pentecost Sunday, the 50^th day, we celebrate the manifestation of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

The rest of the Church year outside the Advent-Christmas and the Lent-Tiduum-Easter Season is known as the Ordinary or Ordered time. The Scripture readings for this time have been selected to offer an opportunity for the faith community to flesh out the great mysteries and truths of God’s word to us in a calm and ordered way.

The Sunday Scripture readings are on a three year cycle. Year A concentrates on the Gospel According to Matthew, Year B on Mark, and Year C on Luke. Passages from the Gospel According to John are periodically used each year.

The first of the three Sunday Scripture readings are chosen to complement the gospel reading. The second readings are sequential passages from the various letters of the New Testament.

The weekday Scripture readings for daily Mass are on a two year cycle. The Gospel passages are the same for both years. The first readings are different for the two years.

On the night before he died Jesus broke bread saying “This is my Body” and passed the cup saying “This is my Blood.” Then Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Remembering is not just recalling something to mind. Remembering allows us to come in contact with past events and allows these past events to become new historical realities. Our remembering re-attaches, re-members us, makes us a member again with a person or event (like a doctor re-members an arm that was severed.)

Remembering the great events of Jesus’ life, his Last Supper, his passion and death, his resurrection and ascension, allows us to enter into these events and allow them to encourage us, raise questions in us, and elicit a response from us…

The more consciously, the more actively, we are remembering, the more the remembered events become a new force in our lives.

When we gather for Eucharist (in thanksgiving) to remember the Lord who died and rose for us, Jesus is present among us and is also remembering. He remembers his total acceptance of the consequences of his faithfulness to the Father, his self-sacrificing love of the Father and of us, and his trust and his placing everything in his Father’s hands. He recalls his forgiveness of those who oppose him, and the Father’s faithfulness in raising him from the dead. His remembering stirs up all that took place within him. As he remembers, he offers himself anew in an unbloody manner (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1367), thereby making his sacrifice on the cross present again, allowing it to be a new saving force. The Eucharist becomes a sacrament accomplishing that of which it speaks, making more real its saving effects – freeing us of our sins, changing our hearts, bringing us into an ever new relationship with our God as did his actual death upon the cross an his resurrection. St. Paul expresses that reality when he writes: “Every time, then, you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26)

But our remembering of Jesus is no ordinary remembering. As Catholics, we believe that Jesus is present to us in, through, and with the faith community when we gather to remember him at Eucharist. He is present in, with, and through the presiding priest who authenticates those assembled as truly gathered in his name. He is present to us as he reveals his thoughts, values, and motives in the proclamation of the Scriptures and the homily. He becomes sacramentally present in the fullness of his humanity and divinity under the appearances of bread and wine by the power of the Holy Spirit as we remember how on the night before he died, he took bread and wine and told us to eat and drink of it for it was his body and his blood.

Each time we gather in Jesus’ memory in gratitude and supplication, not only does Jesus remember is passion, death and resurrection and we remember Jesus, we ask the Father to remember Jesus’ death and resurrection and to look favorable on us because of Jesus and Jesus’ great love.

Jesus, in inviting us to eat and drink of him, took and takes a great risk. In fact, he took the risk of being put to death because of what he revealed about himself and in his saying that in revealing himself he was revealing the Father. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (Jn 14: 9-10)

In taking that risk, Jesus acknowledged the Father as the Source of all his being and surrendered himself totally to the Father. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit…” (Lk 23: 46) He took the risk out of love for his Father and for us. That risk-taking is his sacrifice – his holy deed – his living out of the Father’s will by which we have been saved. (The word “sacrifice” from the Latin – “sacer-holy”, and “facio-act” – means “holy deed” or to make “holy” or “God-like”.)

Every time we accept an invitation to eat and drink of another we take a risk. We open ourselves up to being influenced and being changed by the other. In eating and drinking of another, we surrender ourselves to the other in an intimate embrace of love. We allow ourselves to be possessed by the other and to possess the other. Changed, we might no longer be accepted by family and friends. But when we do so no matter what are the consequences, our risk-taking becomes our sacrifice, our gift of love.

At Eucharist in our risk-taking in taking on the mind and heart of Jesus to be “body given” and “blood poured out” for others we, like Jesus, acknowledge and surrender ourselves to the Father as the Source of all our being. We join our personal “sacrifice” (our risk-taking) and the faith community’s sacrifice (its risk taking) to Jesus’ sacrifice (his risk taking). Our sacrifice joined with his becomes the one sacrifice of the Body of Christ.

At the last supper Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Do what? We are certainly to gather in his memory to break the bread of his word and body and pass the cup of his blood as he did at the last supper. But more than that, at that last supper he gave of himself – take and eat, take and drink of me; holding nothing back he even accepted death out of love for us. He symbolically emphasized that as he washed the feet of his disciples – the task of the lowliest slave in his day. In memory of him, then, we are to give of ourselves to him and to others. That is what we are sent forth for Eucharist to do.

We come to Eucharist to eat and drink of Jesus, to take on his mind and heart. He is our model. But it is not enough to know about Jesus. It is not enough for us just to be good persons, living good lives. We come together to eat and drink of Jesus together to get to know him and to ask him to change our hearts and forms us in his image. That as he totally gave of himself at the last supper Jesus when he washed the feet of his disciples and broke the bread and passed the cup in anticipation of his “body broken” and his “blood poured out” for all upon the cross, we might do the same.

When we say “Amen” to “The Body of Christ” and “The Blood of Christ”, we express our willingness to be “body given” and “blood poured out” for all and to wash the feet of all, to accept all as brothers and sisters – family in remembrance of him. “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15: 2-13)

If, then, we truly celebrate the Eucharist, it becomes the driving force behind our forgiving, our unselfish works of charity, our working for social justice, and our daily reaching out in love to those around us both individually and as a faith community. For we remember not just his death but why he died, why he was put to death – because he forgave in the Father’s name and challenged and confronted the injustices of his day.

In insisting that we “do this in memory of him”, Jesus insists that we, too, work for forgiveness and reconciliation and challenge and confront the injustices of our day, taking the risk that we, too, might be put to death.

The celebration of Eucharist that does not lead to working to bring about forgiveness and reconciliation, social and religious justice, and the spreading of the good news no matter the consequences, is not Eucharist; it is not living out Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me”.

At the first Eucharist Jesus prayed that we may be one as he and the Father are one. Breaking the bread of his body and passing the cup of his blood Jesus ushered in the new covenant – making possible our being the Family of God.

At Eucharist we come together to be God’s family in fact and not just in word. Gathered in his memory we live out our being sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters, God’s family. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13: 35)

Jesus’ Last Supper, the First Eucharist, had its tensions and pain – the discipleship jocking for position, the prospects of Jesus’ death hanging over it, Judas leaving to betray Jesus.

Our Eucharistic gathering, too, are not always what they should be. Some may be upset by the music, the decoration, the crying of children, the homily, the length, and some walk away.

In that trying time of the Last Supper Jesus did not walk away. He lived with the imperfect situation, painful as it was – taking all of it as part of his dying to self and rising to his Father’s will.

Our very Eucharist celebration asks that same dying to self and acceptance of the imperfect situation making real the dying and rising in us that we are celebrating in memory of Jesus. We are an imperfect Church always needing the Savior, Jesus.

If we truly celebrate the Eucharist with great joy, we accept the gift (Jesus), from the giver (Jesus), the way the gift (Jesus). We accept the gift of Jesus himself, how and when he wishes to give of himself – that is, as our food and drink when we are gathered in his name and are doing what he did at the Last Supper in remembrance of him. We do not gather in secret; our celebrations are public; we let the whole world know of the generosity of our God and our gratitude.

The prophet Isaiah describes heaven as a banquet that will take place in the New Jerusalem. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.”

(Is 25:6) Jesus uses the same imagery in his parable of the king who gave a wedding feast for his son. (Mt 22:1-14) Our Eucharist gatherings are the preparation, the constant reminder, the pledge, the hope, the trial run in miniature, the looking forward and foretaste of heaven.

Jesus said, “Amen, amen…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” (Jn 6: 53-54)

As we eat and drink of Jesus we take on his mind, heart and way of life. Taking on his mind, heart, and way of life we can come into an ever-closer relationship with our heavenly Father and each other. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (Jn 14: 23) Jesus is eternal life and only when we have taken on his mind and heart will we be in the loving and caring relationships that will enable us to enjoy heaven.

Gathered in heaven in memory of Jesus, we will remember and be re-remembered to him for all eternity. Our joy will be our being a community in communion in being one family, one voice, eternally praising and thanking our God. Having shared the one living Bread and having drunk form the one cup, we will truly be companions. We will rejoice forever as persons having been forgiven and having forgiven – experiencing the fullness of love. We will be living as the family of God in the new covenant relationship, as sons/daughters, brothers/sisters, should live, at peace with each other, enjoying each other’s company.

Called to the eternal banquet, we will share all we are and have with each other. There will be no more fears, no more masks, and no more secrets. Everyone will be whole. Jesus, the Word of God, will continue to be the way to the Father. Through his humanity he will continue to reveal himself and, therefore, the Father. In knowing him all the more, we will know the Father all the more and see our God “face to face.” (1 Cor 13:12)

Thank you, Father, for the gift of Jesus who shares all he is and has with us so that we can be formed in his image and likeness and, like him, can have eternal life.

Father, what a marvelous gift is the Eucharist, a gathering and celebration which say so much about the extent of Your love for us and that of Your Word, Jesus. What an unspeakable gift is Jesus, so active in the Eucharist, truly present to us in so many ways when we gather for Eucharist. You have given him to us as our food and drink that we might be formed in his image and likeness. He is our way, our reconciliation and our gift back to you. Help us to grow in appreciation and thankfulness for this great gift. No wonder we call it Eucharist – thanksgiving.

We gather on these three days not to reenact the events of the Lord’s Last Supper, his Passion and Death and his glorious Resurrection nor to put us back in history. We gather to remember these greatest signs of God’s love, to praise and thank God for these great gifts and to let these mysteries of God’s love form us ever more in the image of Christ with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

These three mysteries are one great expression of God’s love; separated they lose their meaning. That is why it is important that we gather the three times over these 72 hours to make our celebration one big celebration in three stages from Jesus’ offering himself to the Father at the Last Supper to its being carried out in his death and resurrection – a Trilogy of Worship.

Out Trilogy of Worship begins with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper in the early evening of Holy Thursday.

On the night before he died, Jesus gathered his apostles for the Jewish Passover Meal remembering their passage from slavery to freedom and how on the night before they marked their doorposts with the blood of a lamb and the angel of death passed over their homes, striking the first born of the Egyptians and setting the stage for their release.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, offers himself that night to the Father, freeing us from the slavery to sin and death as he takes bread and wine and gives us his body and blood. Having totally given himself in that action, all that was left was to carry out that offering of himself in his willingness to accept his death and to rise to new life.

We gather to remember that momentous act of love, by celebrating the Eucharist as he told us to do. “Do this in remembrance of me.”

The Gospel According to John has Jesus at the last meal wash the feet of his disciples, telling them to do the same. We are to reach out to others in love and concern even through the most lowly and undignified task if need be. To remind us of this, the priest washes the feet of some present. Mindful of our need to be concerned for the poor the instructions for this liturgy encourages us to bring food for the poor.

At the end of Mass, the Blessed Sacrament for the sick and Good Friday’s Liturgy is taken in procession to a place of repose. All are encouraged to spend some time in prayer.

Lest we ever forget that great expression of Jesus’ love for us, we gather to remember Jesus’ Passion and Death on its annual anniversary day. To honor the suffering and death of Jesus and prepare to share more deeply in his resurrection all are encouraged to fast on Good Friday until the Easter Vigil. This is known as the Paschal Fast.

The ceremony begins with silent prayer. Three reading are proclaimed for our reflection: a reading from Isaiah and from the Letter to the Hebrews followed by the Reading of the Passion from the Gospel According to John. After the homily intercessory prayers are offered for various groups of people in the world.

Good Friday is one day of the year when Mass is not celebrated. A cross is unveiled in three stages. “This is the wood of the cross on which is hung the Savior of the World.” “Come, let us worship” is sung at each stage. All are invited to venerate the cross – the basis of the Mass.

Holy Communion only under the appearance of bread, from the previous days Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper is brought to the altar. After the Lord’s Prayer and a simple Communion rite the service ends in silence.

Jesus is the light of the world, revealing the Father to us so that getting to know Him we can enjoy His company forever in heaven.

The ancients consider fire one of the four elements making up the world. With the big bang (fire) the earth was formed and the light of that blast enables photosynthesis and all life. Fire in Scripture also symbolizes the presence of God: The pillar of fire leading the Hebrew people out of slavery, the tongues of fire at Pentecost, lightening and volcanic action on Mount Sinai.

The Easter Candle, a symbol of Christ the Light is lit from the new fire. Jesus the light dispels the darkness of sin and death, He is the pillar of fire, leading the way, while enlightening others, loses nothing of his own light.

Taking their light from the light of Christ all follow the Light of Christ into the church dispelling the darkness within. Three times “Christ Our Light” is acclaimed. Three times “Thanks be to God” rings out throughout the church.

Once the Easter candle has been place near the ambo, the Easter Proclamation is sung proclaiming to the whole world the greatness of this “most blessed of all nights; chosen by God to see Christ rising form the dead.”

Christ is our light as we listen and respond in song to God telling us again of His love which has brought us to this most holy night.

We hear again of God’s gift of creation; how He is a God who would never ask for human sacrifice through the story of Abraham and Isaac; a God who came to the rescue of His people, leading them from slavery in Egypt to a promised land. Passages from the prophets tell of God’s forgiveness and mercy brings us to sing with great joy of Glory to God reminding us of the angels’ song on the night of Jesus’ birth. St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans makes clear that unless we die with him we will not rise with him. The gospel passage proclaims the reason why we’ve gathered on this most Holy Night – the resurrection of the Lord from the dead.

Christ has come to bring us to new life, a whole new way of relating to God. God welcomes us into His family as His sons and daughters through a new covenant in His love. “I will be Father to you; you will be my beloved sons and daughters.”

Becoming a member of the Church is a momentous step to take, both for the welcoming church and the elect who are entering the Church. All of us need God’s help to live and model that new Life in Christ. We lift up our hearts in prayer, asking all the saints, our brothers and sisters, to pray with and for us.

Our pray is, that like the Hebrew people of old, may all who pass through this water be freed from the slavery of sin and death and rise to the new life in Christ.

Having renounced sin and professed their faith the candidates are baptized, clothed in a white garment and given a candle lit from the Easter Candle, symbolizing their new life in Christ and their need to follow Christ the light of the world.

Lest any of us forget the momentous moment of our own baptism we again light our candles from the Easter Candle and renew their Baptismal Promises.

The newly baptized, are now confirmed, verified as one of us by their being sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the first time the newly baptized and confirmed join fully with the Faith Community in the celebration of the Eucharist. They now have the privilege to join their gift of themselves with Jesus’ gift of himself to the Father in one great sacrifice of praise and share in the banquet of the Body and Blood of the Lord for the first time.

The Sign of the Cross

As we begin our Sunday liturgy we make the sign of the cross. At the beginning of our baptismal rite, we trace the sign of the cross on the forehead of the person to be baptized.

Jesus said those who wish to follow him must pick up their cross daily. He also said the servant is no greater than the master. He carried his cross unto death.

The cross is integral to being a Christian. There is no new life, no resurrection that does not embrace the dying that is the cross.

In the baptismal rite, we implant the cross upon the one to be baptized. At each Sunday Mass we start by a visual sign of who we are – a people who embrace the cross, the dying to one’s self, and to sin, so necessary if we are to rise to live Christ’s way. Jesus is our way.

Truly the cross is our sign, our family shield, our emblem of who we are as Catholic Christians.

Times of Silence

The pause after the opening greeting gives us an occasion to recall our sinfulness and God’s compassionate forgiveness.

The pause between the “Let us pray” and the opening prayer gives us time to gather all of our personal prayer intentions and needs and present them to the Lord.

The pauses before and after the readings are the time to ask he Lord to open our ears and hearts to hear His word and to chew and digest what He is saying to us and integrate it into our lives and make it our own.

The silent time after all have received Holy Communion is another time for quiet prayer.

Reverences when Receiving Holy Communion

In our diocese the reverence when receiving Holy Communion is not kneeling nor genuflecting but a simple bow/nod of the head after the minister says – ‘The Body/Blood of Christ” followed by “Amen” or while saying the ‘Amen”.

The bow is not something strange. “Amen” means, “yes”. Notice how often we slightly nod/lower out heads when we answer “yes” to a question.

All are encouraged to drink the precious Blood from the cup. It not receiving from the cup then pause and make a simple bow of the head as one passes by the cup in recognition the presence of the Lord under the appearances of wine.

Mass Begins and Ends in the Home

Our participation in Sunday Eucharist begins during the week as we plan, think ahead to Sunday, reflect upon the upcoming Sunday readings and prepare the gift of ourselves. It is that gift of ourselves that we will present to Jesus at the Preparation of the Gifts so that he can join that gift of ourselves with the gift of himself and offer it in adoration to the Father during the Eucharistic Prayer.

During the presentation of the gifts with its procession we as a faith community bring forward the bread and the wine to be changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. We, too, ask the gift of ourselves represented by the bread and the wine also be changed/transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, becoming his hands, feet, mouth, his life-giving element in the world.

Our participation in Sunday Mass never ends. The word “Mass” comes for the Latin “being sent” We are sent forth each Sunday from Mass to bear witness to Jesus and to carry on his mission in word and action. In fact if we really listen to God speaking to us through His word and the liturgy itself, we will be changed persons. Having reflected on God’s Word, Jesus, we will apply it to ourselves and to our lives.

Some Worship Etiquette

· Arrive not just on time but ahead of time, giving you time to gather your thoughts and hearts as to what we are about to do.

· Get rid of all gum before coming into church and eliminate the use of perfumes etc. as they can cause allergic reaction in others.

· Turn off cell phones.

· Leave your water bottles out of church.

· Be hospitable: notice, greet, be friendly, and welcome those worshipping with us.

· Come closer to the altar and join the others as that we are not all spread out but give a real sense of being God’s family, a community, an orchestra of praise.

· Join in the responses and the singing. Singing if often stated as praying twice because we have to put our whole selves into it.

· Stay until the presiding priest has processed out.

Processions At Mass

Processions play an important role in our celebration of Sunday Eucharist. Processions, like parades and marches, unite people and show solidarity. The entrance procession, the gospel procession (through very brief), the procession with the gifts, the communion procession and the recessional all place an important role.

The entrance procession starting from our homes gather us together. The gospel procession gives honor to the place of the gospels in our lives. The procession to bring the gifts to the altar emphasizes the individual and community aspects of our giving. The communion procession expresses our coming as a community of believers to eat and drink of the Lord. The recession expresses our returning to our homes to carry on the mission of Jesus.

When to Stand, Sit, Kneel

· Entrance Procession thru the opening prayer – stand

· After the opening prayers to the alleluia before the Gospel – sit

· Alleluia before the Gospel thru the Gospel – stand

· Homily and reflection time – sit

· Creed and General Intercessions – stand

· Presentation of the gifts – sit

· After the priest washes his hand to the end of the Holy, Holy, Holy –stand

· End of the Holy, Holy, Holy thru the great Amen before the Our Father – kneel

· Our Father until all have received Holy communion – stand

· After all have received until the Prayer after Communion – sit or kneel

· Prayer after Communion to end of Mass and dismissal – stand

Standing, Sitting, Kneeling

Standing is a sign of respect, being at attention, the liturgical stance when praying and during processions. Sitting is a time of listening and reflecting, kneeling a time of adoration.

A significant change is standing from the Our Father until all have received Holy Communion. We approach/process to the altar to receive, not as individuals, but as a community. Out of respect we stand until all have received. Since we are in procession, it is time for singing together.

What is Appropriate Dress for Mass

While dress can be limited to what is available for us to wear, how we dress can reflect how we view ourselves and others, who or what we represent, what we are doing and the situation. In most case we do not ear our best clothes to dig ditches or to clean a garage or barn. We are inclined to dress up at least a bit for weddings and funerals and usually dress differently when seeking a job than when we are at a beach party. So what is appropriate dress for Sunday Mass?

To answer that question we need to look at what does Mass mean to me and to those I am joining in worship. Is it a beach picnic or party, a casual gathering or a very sacred gathering at God's table.

How important is Sunday Mass to me? Is it something I just have to do under some duress or something into which put my heart and soul? What is my attitude towards those I’ joining? What do I want to say about what I am doing by the way I dress?

Drinking From The Cup

Our “Amen’s” to “The Body of Christ” and to “The Blood of Christ” and our receiving the host and drinking from the cup at Eucharist are powerful language, bold statements of our commitment to follow Jesus. Our outstretched hands to receive, our “Amen” to “The Body of Christ” and our eating of the Body of Christ signify that we accept the Lord and all for which he stands. Drinking from the cup adds another powerful dimension to our statement to follow Jesus. It is one thing to state and be willing to accept the Lord; it is another thing to add “no matter how hard it is or whatever it takes”. Our “Amen” to “The Blood of Christ” and then our drinking from the cup makes that added statement.

The “cup” in scripture has a dual meaning – the “cup of joy” and the “cup of suffering”. When the mother of the sons of Zebedee asked Jesus whether one of her sons could sit at his right and the other at his left in his kingdom, Jesus responded that that decisiont was up to the Father. But, then, he went on to ask them whether they could drink from the cup (of suffering) from which he was to drink – could/would they share in his suffering? “Can you drink of the cup that I am going to drink?” (Mt 20:22) In the agony of the garden, Jesus asks the Father, “if it is possible, let this cup (again of suffering) pass from me.”(Mt 26:39)

In drinking from the cup, we express our willingness to drink, not only from Jesus’ cup of joy but also of his cup of suffering; we express our acceptance of Jesus – “no matter how hard it will be or what it will take.” We are willing to die with Christ that we might rise with him, to die to our own ways of thinking and acting and take on his mind and heart that we might rise to live his life. Our drinking from the cup completes our statement “to accept Jesus” as stated in our reception of the host, adding, “no matter what – even if we have to join in the sufferings of Jesus.” This is not to deny that we believe Jesus is totally present both under the appearances of the bread and the wine but ritualized actions can symbolize and express our deepest beliefs.

Another way of looking at drinking from the cup is to realize that in Hebrew the word “redeemer” means, “blood-bond”. Jesus as one of us, kin, is our redeemer. As one of us he could not be true to himself if he did not rescue us, his kinsmen. In accepting Jesus as our redeemer we accept being in a blood-bond, kin with him. Our drinking from the cup is a way of expressing our acceptance of Jesus as redeemer and the one with whom we are in a blood-bond.

When we come to celebrate Mass together we involve not just our minds and consciousness but our whole selves, everything we are: our attitudes and emotions, our psychic selves and our bodies. We think and reflect; we are silent and listen, sing and speak; we stand, kneel, sit, genuflect, process, bow.

We taste the bread and wine. We smell the flowers, the oil of Chrism, the incense, the bread and wine and even our body odors. We notice the silence and hear he prayers verbalized, the singing, the bells, babies crying, the ruffle of papers and pages, the kneelers. We touch and are touched as we sign ourselves, make contact with others, are anointed and have hands laid on us. We see each other, the decorations, the colored vestments, the flickering candles, the altar, the ambo, the presider’s chair…

The Sign of the Cross

Times of Silence

A Bow during the Recitation of the Creed

Drinking From The Cup