A Minute in the Church: The Mass

Gus Lloyd

Description

A Minute in the Church: The Mass is the third book in Gus Lloyd's A Minute in the Church series. In this book, you'll find 51 one-minute teachings about the Catholic Mass. From the names of the vessels and vestments to the deeper meaning behind the rituals and gestures, this book will help Catholics and non-Catholics alike come to a greater understanding and deeper appreciation of the Mass...in a minute!

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Catholic
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 26 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456625535
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2015 by Gus Lloyd
Nihil Obstat: Rev. Msgr. David L. Toups, STD Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: Most Rev. Robert N. Lynch Bishop of St. Petersburg July 15, 2015
Scripture texts used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, copyright © 1991, 1986, and 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC 20017 and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Gus Lloyd
P.O. Box 340983
Tampa, FL 33694-0983
www.GusLloyd.com
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – for example, electronic, photocopy, or recording – without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Design by Nick France
nickfrancedesign.com
Cover photo: Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Tampa, FL

Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2553-5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gus Lloyd is a “revert” to the Catholic faith. After being raised in the Church, he fell away from any faith in his late teens. After giving their lives to Christ in a small, nondenominational Bible church, Gus and his wife, Michelle, decided to check out the Catholic Church again. Their lives were never the same.
Gus is a popular radio talk show host and Catholic Evangelist. He regularly speaks at conferences, retreats and parish missions around the country. After a stint in secular radio in which he worked nearly every format, he began a career in Catholic radio in the early 1990’s. In 2006, after 13 years as the popular morning show host at Spirit FM, the Catholic radio station in Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL, Gus began hosting Seize the Day on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s The Catholic Channel. You can listen to Gus every weekday morning all across North America. To invite Gus to speak at your conference, event or church, contact him through his web site, www.GusLloyd.com .

I would like to thank the many people who have made this book possible, especially Msgr. David Toups. Msgr. Toups worked with me to help make these teachings correct and concise.
Introduction
Same Thing, Different Names
Biblical Origins
Scripture in the Mass
Attending Mass
The Sunday Sabbath
Inside the Church
The Tabernacle
The Altar
Holy Water
The Smells and The Bells
Catholic Posture
The Priest
The Deacon
Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion
Books
Liturgical Colors
Vestments
Vesting Prayers
Vessels
Cloths
Mass Part One: The Liturgy of the Word
Mass Part Two: The Liturgy of the Eucharist
The Procession
The Penitential Rite
The Gloria
The First Reading
The Responsorial Psalm
The Second Reading
The Alleluia Verse
The Gospel
The Homily
Profession of Faith – The Creed
Prayers of the Faithful
The Offertory
Preparation of the Gifts
The Preface and “Holy, Holy, Holy”
The Eucharistic Prayer
Epiclesis
The Institution Narrative
The Major Elevation
The Mystery of Faith
The Great Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
The Sign of Peace
The Lamb of God
“Lord, I Am Not Worthy”
Holy Communion
Receiving Communion I
Receiving Communion II
Doing the Dishes
The Sending
Introduction
“I don’t get anything out of Mass.”
“I’m not being fed at Mass.”
I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard those two sentences. I could make an enormous donation to my favorite charity and still be a wealthy man. In my nearly 25 years on Catholic radio and in ministry, I have heard those words (and slight variations on them) more times than I can count. In fact, they may be the most common things people say when I ask them why they don’t go to Mass anymore. Truth be told, it makes me want to cry.
Believe me when I tell you I get it. In fact, I’ve been there and done that. I grew up Catholic but stopped going to Mass in my mid-to-late teens and stayed away for many years. Those exact same words probably came out of me at some time. Only after I returned to Christ and His Church did I develop a deep love for the Mass. It took time and study.
Why are these sentiments so common? Most people would probably say that they experienced bad liturgy. In other words, the music was terrible, the preaching was boring, the priest couldn’t be understood…the list goes on and on. Those reasons on the surface seem rather valid. After all, we’re an experiential people. When our experiences are less than optimal, we drift. We find ourselves not paying attention. Soon we’re more interested in what others are wearing or doing, and we’ve completely lost focus on what we should be paying attention to. Herein lies the greatest problem: we’re not paying attention. We get so distracted by the externals that we fail to see the greater reality of what is happening right before our very eyes.
I’m a great believer that if anyone had a complete understanding of the Catholic Mass, there is no way they would ever leave the Church. Why? Because they would understand that the Mass is “the wedding feast of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19:9) It is a participation in the heavenly banquet of the King. It is heaven on earth!
At Mass, we get to “eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood.” (John 6:53) I’ve often heard people say that Catholics don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. At Mass, we get to take Jesus – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – into our very bodies. He becomes part of us, one with us. It just doesn’t get any more personal than that, my friend.
That’s how I respond to the second comment above. When someone says they’re not getting “fed” at Mass, I remind them that they are being fed with the Bread of Life – Jesus. There is no greater food. No matter how bad the music is or how boring the preaching is or how unfriendly the congregation is, Jesus is present. I don’t mean to disregard anyone’s genuine feelings about their experience. I just want to stress that there is a greater spiritual reality that needs to be understood.
Let me address briefly the first comment, “I don’t get anything out of Mass.” Like most everything in life, you only get out of it what you put into it. And if what you’re putting into Mass is little or nothing, then that’s what you’ll get out of it. How well are you listening? How much do you understand about the things that are being said and done? Have you studied the deeper meaning behind the words, the rituals, the gestures? That’s what this little book is for – to help you gain a little deeper understanding of the Mass.
As you read this book, there are a few things you need to know. First, a bit of history. Each chapter in this book is a radio script. Each script runs one minute in length. I produce these for the radio, so I’ve had to boil down tons of information into a very short period of time. That’s why you won’t find any of these little teachings to be anywhere near an exhaustive explanation. But each one is a start. My goal is to give you a little nugget that will entice you to dig deeper. I truly hope you will.
One of the great things about my Minute in the Church books is each chapter is “stand alone.” You don’t have to start at the beginning of the book and read to the end. It may be helpful, but not necessary. You can read any chapter in any of the Minute in the Church books and learn something. I hope you’ll find this book easy to read and understand.
If you’re a lifelong Catholic, you may know 99% of what is in this book. Or you may be like I was – terribly unaware of so much of the beauty and richness of the Mass. Either way, I think you’ll find this book helpful. While this book is written generally with Catholics in mind, I believe that our non-Catholic brothers and sisters will find it useful as well, especially those who have been to a Catholic Mass and were puzzled or confused about what was going on.
There are probably thousands of great books out there about the Mass. I encourage you to read as many as you can. We should never stop learning and growing in our faith. Perhaps the best place to start would be the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is quoted fairly often in this book. Paragraphs 1322-1419 are all about the Eucharist and the Mass. Start there; you won’t be sorry.
Finally, I want to share a brief thought about knowledge. It is vitally important that we have knowledge about our faith. We need to know the nuts and bolts, the deeper meaning behind what we do and say and believe. This I call head knowledge. Far more important is having heart knowledge. We must know Jesus Christ. Not just know about Jesus, but know Jesus. We must be in a deep, committed, personal relationship with Him, a love relationship that grows deeper every day. Without that, all the head knowledge in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans. I hope that while this little book helps you know more about the Mass, you’ll always be working on that heart knowledge part as well. May God bless and keep you always.
Gus Lloyd - Pentecost 2015
Same Thing, Different Names
While most Christians are familiar with the term “Mass,” there are many different ways to refer to the same thing. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraphs 1328-1332, refers to many different names for the Eucharist, or Eucharistic celebration.
It is sometimes called The Lord’s Supper or the Breaking of the Bread. These terms show its intrinsic connection with the Last Supper. Because the Eucharist is celebrated communally, it is sometimes referred to as the Eucharistic assembly.
Because “it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior and includes the Church’s offering,” we call it The Holy Sacrifice, or Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Eucharist is also called The Holy and Divine Liturgy, or sometimes simply The Liturgy. This comes from a Greek word meaning “public work” or “the work