Resources and sometimes frank commentary regarding His Holy Mass
A Brief Cathechsim on His Holy Mass
What is The Holy Mass?
The answer to this question is open-ended, as any writing on The Mass must be. As The Mass is the re-presentation of The Sacrifice of Calvary, of The Sacrifice of Jesus offering Himself to The Father for our sins, as It is a participation in the heavenly worship already taking place, the “full answer” to this question is literally infinite (Ps 139:18).
Remember the vision given to the great St. Thomas Aquinas:
He had written many books, had even received a “compliment” from Our Lord Himself when Our Lord appeared and said to Thomas, “Thou hast written well of Me, Thomas.”
And yet, towards the end of his life, God gave to Thomas a final vision, during Holy Mass Itself, which then caused Thomas to declare of all of his written works: “It’s all straw…”. The Mass, our foretaste of the life of heavenly glory, is “utterly beyond.”
Thus, it goes without saying (or should) that It should be offered with the greatest care, reverence, Faith, sincerity and gratitude that can be given. The careless, trivializing, childish, minimizing manner — the “de-Eucharisticization of the Church,” in the words of the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen — with which It is offered at most parishes in our day today betrays the loss of Faith, of understanding, of real spiritual fatherhood, and much, much more.
How Old is The Mass?
As we know, The Holy Mass was instituted by Our Lord Himself, and given to the His holy Apostles to carry on and hand down for the rest of time. Our Lord spoke deeply of His love and great desire to institute His Holy Mass (Lk 22:15).
However, Our Blessed Lord did not simply “think up The Mass on the fly,” as it were. The Sacrifice of The Mass and His Eucharistic Presence were always God’s Plan. Jesus is The Lamb, as we know, Who is even now worshipped in Heaven, but also Who has always been “The Lamb slain from the very foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). Thus, God prepared the way for The Holy Mass throughout all the centuries before the time of Our Lord, even at the very beginning, immediately following the Fall of our first parents.
Thus, the reality is, if we include all of the time that God was preparing the way for the Institution of The Mass, by prefiguring the Offering of The Spotless Lamb Himself in all the ways and all the times mentioned in Sacred Scripture, then The Mass does indeed go back to the very beginning, to the acceptable offering of Abel (Gen. 4:4) and even to God’s promise of The Redeemer born of The Woman (Gen. 3:15) immediately after The Fall.
Thus, a priest holds all of Salvation History in his hands when he does what he does at The Altar of God during Mass, and proclaims it through his praying of the Canon of The Mass.
What is The Meaning of The Mass?
Again, the answer to this question is open-ended, can never be “fully answered…
Why is The Mass so important?
As The Mass is the worship of God, It is one of the most important parts of our lives. Even on weekdays when we do not go to Mass, the saints have been inspired to make the Morning Offering, during which we “connect” everything of the following day to The Mass through Our Lady to The Sacred Heart of Her Divine Son.
Additionally, it must be remembered (especially in these days of Relativism, self-centeredness and such) that The Mass is not something we make up ourselves or are able to change in this way or that way (again, this is the Real Vaticaan II! SC 22, 31). It is, rather, Something that is already “going on” outside of ourselves, outside of our parish, outside of our diocese, outside of our country, outside of our world! It is already “going on” in Heaven, The Worship of The Lamb densely, spiritually, mystically described in The Book of Revelation. Our participation in This Heavenly Worship must thus conform to the Heavenly Reality as much as possible
What are the many various aspects of The Mass that need to be considered when we are learning about, studying or discussing It?
There are many layers, many levels of answers to this question:
Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s Book, The Catholic Mass: Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy, describes The Mass in Its aspects of: Prayer, Adoration, Ritual, Sacrifice, Splendor, Sacred Action, Thanksgiving, Listening, The Church’s Life, Salvation’s Source, and The Wedding Feast
The great Archbishop Fulton Sheen called The Mass “A Drama” of Three Acts: We offer Ourselves to Him, we die with Him, and we receive new Life from Him; he further said that The Mass is “the continuation of Calvary,” here in our time and place with Him. He also affirmed that “The Mass is an Action,” an action of Christ, of The Holy Spirit, and with the cooperation of His Church.
Furthermore, The Mass is mystical, a Mystery – but saying this includes no connotation or notion of an esoteric “way out-there-ness” to it. These realities are concrete! Indeed, there is nothing more concrete than all of the realities of The Mass!
The Mass is “almost all, virtually totally” contemplative (ie, NOT ACTIVE, IS NOT OUR ACTION, NOT merely us “DOING STUFF” as so misunderstood and taught snd practiced in most parishes today)
The Mass is The Primary Embodiment of Tradition
The Mass is The Principle Organ of the Church’s ordinary Magisterium – Pope Pius IX
The Mass is The Sum and Summary of the entire Christian Faith (CCC 1327)
The Mass is very fast – everything happens very quickly. A few words and It is “over”
from a homily – the Physical Presence of Our Lord has passed into His Mysterious Presence in His Sacraments
There is Only One Mass
It is Unity, achieved in Him, by Him, through Him, for Him
All theological systems, liturgical studies, biblical unfoldings lead to This Truth: It is All His, He Is The Eternal High Priest – we are only invited to participate – correctly. NOT to make It ours, NOT to change anything, but only to receive, cooperate, listen, obey
The Mass is Jesus, today, in all His Splendor and Fulness of His Reality, across all time, all history pivoting around Him and His Mass…
furthermore, It is His Triumphant Victory, the casting out of the prince of this world
…thus It is concomitantly His Triumphant Return…The Eschaton
The Mass is certainly mysterious, mystical, sacramental, subtle, etc, etc, etc – but It is ALSO at the same time very, very, very CONCRETE
getting things “out of order,” or “mixed up,” or “un-centered on Christ” has massive, massive, indescribably deep and wide negative effects upon His Church, His people, and the world He came to redeem
Eschatological
Cosmic
Over the centuries, The Mass has become a Work of Art, a cumulative Work of Art of The Holy Spirit Himself, as He started from the very beginning with the sacrifice of Abel, all the way to the Second Vatican Council (and what He truly intended there, which, as ever more research proves, was intentionally subverted)
It is The Official Public Worship of the Church — not of one parish, not of one town, not of one diocese, not of one country. It is the Public Worship of the Universal Church.
It is The Christian Faith, It is The Christian Reality, It is The Christian Totality
What was Vatican II?
Vatican II was the Council of all the bishops of the world held to “usher in a new springtime” in the Church
The hoped-for springtime has not happened (yet). Books and libraries can be read about this reality. The saintly archbishop Sheen explains that “whenever there is an outpouring of The Holy Spirit, there is a simultaneous outpouring of effort by the evil spirit as well,” and also that the “spirit of the world” was let in, embraced, followed, with no critical discernment.
The results, today, are seen in bishops who do not know, teach, or uphold The Faith, The Mass is offered to “the people,” effectively, and He is unknown and ignored
Why is The Mass before Vatican II and after Vatican II so different?
In short, the bishops approved minor, organic growth in the liturgy of the Church. But, as proved by the ever-growing body of credible research, evil actors very high up in the Church who held great power and authority subverted the Council, and implemented disastrous changes. Thus, The Mass today, as It is (un)known, (mis)understood, (mal)practiced and “offered” is not what The Church has done for Her previous 2000 years.
Did Vatican II totally change The Mass?
No. The bishops of the Church authorized minor changes, organic growth, in The Mass and other parts of the liturgy of the Church
The huge innovations were introduced by evil men very high in the Church, and stupidly followed by shepherds who should have known better
Why is there no more Latin?
The bishops of Vatican II voted to continue, in the main, the use of Latin, while permitting the use of the vernacular in places.
Again, the wholesale abandonment of the use of Latin was never approved by the bishops of the Council, and should hsve been rejected snd stopped by the shepherds of the Church when it did begin happening.
What is the language used during The Mass?
Far, far more than childish, irrational arguments from worldly-minded persons speaking against the use of Latin, on the deepest levels the true language of The Mass is what the Church calls “the language of the signs.”2
Virtually all of these signs have been removed from The Mass following the Council, although the Council itself said nothing but the very opposite. Hence, there is no more sacred sign of a unifying, spoken, mystical language, signifying the One Voice of our One High Priest; there is no more sacred sign of our focus (of HIS focus! The Mass ISHis!) on The Father; there is no more sacred sign of our union and cooperation with the choirs of heavenly angels, as they certainly do not sing cheap, lowest-common-denominator music with profane instruments which casts aside The Word of God; there is no more sacred sign of The Man Christ Jesus in the Sanctuary because now any old person can “be up there” doing as many different “ministries” as can be created; there is no more sacred sign of His Precious Blood being cherished by His people in expensive, worthy sacred vessels as everything is cheap and ugly and mass-produced; there is no more sacred sign of His Church taking painstaking care and concern for His Presence in The Sacred Species as Holy Communion is now distributed under both Forms dangerously and totally unneccessarily; there is no more sacred concrete architectural sign to proclaim to His people and to the world that “This is The House of God, Really and Truly” because our churches are cheap and ugly, are designed by those without the Faith, for a People without the Faith…
Why does the priest face towards the people, after so many centuries of facing God with the people?
This “direction” which the priest faces during The Mass is known as the “posture” of The Mass. The “ad orientem” posture, where priest and people face the same direction, is virtually 2000 years old and has incredible depth, significance, beauty and much more. The “versus populum” posture is an innovation forced upon the Church after the Council, but which the bishops of the Council did not even consider changing. The ad orientem posture has a significance, meaning, value and utter Truth that cannot be overstated. Indeed, the saintly, erudite and always trustworthy Cardinal Ratzinger, master student and teacher of the liturgy taught that it is essential
.
Why is the music at Mass today so very, very different? And why so very, very poor and shallow and just plain bad? How can people be paid to produce such bad music for something that is (supposed to be) so very deep, important and meaningful?
Why are girls asked to be altar servers in some places, but not in others?
Why in some places are they strict about receiving Holy Communion, but in most places very, very easy?
Why is there so much controversy and contention between those who prefer the Extraordinary Form of The Mass and the bishops and those others who only want the Novus Ordo Mass?
Books can be written — and have been — to answer this question. In short, the lack of following the Real Vatican II is a start. There has been NO authentic teaching to bring anyone deeper into The Mass and other parts of the Church’s Liturgy. The “architect” of the reform, Abp. Bugnini, was exiled by Pope Paul VI after some sort of horrendous truth was brought to the attention of Paul VI. Secondly, it has been asserted that Pope John Paul I was murdered quickly before he could begin his cleansing of the Vatican, leaving Bugnini’s “partner” in charge of the office that chose which men to elevated to the episcopate. While some might view these assertions as ridiculous, a person with open eyes and ears cannot help but look at the fruit of the “works” of the successors of the apostles for the last 60 years and sadly accept the WIll of God. One wonders why Paul VI did not afterwards reject and eliminate all of the work of Bugnini, but…two possible answers to that question occur. First, in his own personal relationship with Our Lord, and His Own Mystery of Betrayal by one of His own, one of His closest, chosen ones, he must have discerned/heard God call him to walk fully the path of betrayal. Some would and could argue (credibly) that the effects on the Church would be of such magnitude that they negate this line of reasoning. In response to that challenge, one thinks of Isaac being “betrayed” by Isaac when he deceptively stole the blessing of the first-born from Esau; Isaac realized it but did not change it. He must have “seen The Hand of God” working in the situation, even though it seemed to be unjust, objectively, and chose not to force a change of course. We will find out for certain only at The General JudgementSo, thus we are left today with a) a man-made and man-focused Mass and Liturgy, and b) with bishops chosen and formed by their own “fathers” who were intentionally elevated to their office because they were NOT men of God. And, again, if you disagree with this blunt statement, how do YOU better explain the clerical abuse crisis? The effeminicization of the priesthood, of His Mass and Liturgy, of “preaching” (there is no real preaching today), etc, etc., etc., etcThus, for a variety of reasons and causes, the “leaders” of the Church on earth have no real education in human nature, the nature of worship, the authentic and correct understanding of the worship of the Church. Secondly, those who favor the Extraordinary Form do themselves no favors by their own lack of education and hostility to anything new. Their GOAL is laudable, commendable, and should be shared by all. However, God The Holy Spirit DID call the Church forward — not backward — in Vatican II, in Sacrosanctum Concilium. Merely holding on to the past is NOT what He wants.The Holy Spirit said through the bishops at the Council thata) The Mass would be modifed organically (I am paraphrasing — there would be minor changes and “updates” in The Mass. Nothing major, nothing earth-shattering).
b) EVERYONE in the Church was called to participate in The Mass more deeply (Why? EVERYONE is called to be a Saint!!!! There is only ONE WAY to do this! GET CLOSER TO JESUS, BY HIS MASS, THE ONLY
WAY)
c) First, this required more deep education, catechesis, training, etc., for everyone (except the bishops — who needed it most of all, obvious from how easy it was to decieve them and everyone else after the Council).But, to answer the question, finally: The bishops of today do not have the education, formation, holiness, the Absolute Focus On Jesus that their spiritual fatherhood vocation requires. This was done intentionally. They are focused on any number of “being focused on worldliness” aspects that are available today. Thus, as the great Cardinal Ratzinger said (he spoke with respect to The Mass and Liturgy, but his words apply to everything in God’s Church): “The focus on God has increasingly been lost.” Thus, with no direction, the faithful too go every which way. And, those who at least want to hold on to the Truth and security of the past are thus marked (sometimes virtually, but at other times literally) as enemies.The devil knows how to divide.Come, Lord Jesus! Come, Holy Spirit! Mother Mary, Pray for us! Mother Angelica, Saint of The Mass and of The Eucharist, Pray for us!”
Why are so many priests and bishops not credible (especially in the west, and western-affected countries)?
Who is “in charge” of the Mass and other parts of the Church’s Liturgy? Who is “in charge” of the Church? Who is “in charge” of a diocese?
These questions are, with respect to The Mass and Liturgy of the Church, someone new, in the sense that never before in the history of the Church has The Mass and other parts of the Church’s Liturgy been so able to be considered a potential “plaything” of a pope, a bishop, or a priest, in the ways that It is today. Regardless of the truth, the lack of understanding and of authentic teaching and reception of the Reality and Truth of The Mass and Liturgy of the Church on the part of the bishops of the Church and thus their (stunted) spiritual sons perpetuates the effeminacy and worldliness of the celebration of The Mass and the Sacraments in the vast majority of the world today.We all know that the Church is Apostolic, and that the bishops are their legitimate successors. However, as taught most recently by the great Pope Saint John Paul II, the Pope is NOT an absolute monarch. He does have authority to rule, make decisions, choices as to governance, etc. But, as is finally being proclaimed (in too few places, as of now), The Mass and The Liturgy of the Church are what truly have The Primacy. And, they have their own rules, truths, principles. These (so, so, so very sadly) are unknown to our bishops, who all too obviously do look at themselves as “rulers” — against the very words of Our Lord. And — one more time — as taught by Vatican I, repeated by Archbishop Sheen, any ordained man is FIRST RELATED TO CHRIST THE HEAD! And, AFTER THAT, only then is related to the other members of His Mystical Body. Their FIRST concern is The Mass, the Liturgy, the Things of God — NOT being “Bishop Nice Guy” who puts God and His Word last.
Thus, although this might be somewhat new to hear — although it should not be, if the Real Vatican II was being taught and lived — it is The Mass and The Liturgy that is First in the Church, in Rome, in the diocese, in the parish. And, It is BEYOND sacred. Never to be treated as a “plaything.” The prayer, studies, enlightenment and teachings of especially Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope Benedict XVI, and then those of his students (Cardinal Sarah, Fr. Vincent Twomey, etc., are working to bring these truths to the eyes and minds of the faithful. One hopes that The Holy Spirit will work quickly to correct the minds and consciences of our bishops, priests, seminarians, Consecrated persons, and all the faithful, so that the Real Vatican II, the REAL Sacrosanctum Concilium, will finally begin to be taught, implemented, lived.
