About The Mass

The Mass

Have you ever thought that the Mass is boring ? For my part, I had thought that the Mass was boring for over twenty years. A few years ago, I attended a conference on the Mass taught by Fr. J-Glenn Murray, a Jesuit priest. Father told us that one day a gentleman had told him "the Mass is boring". Father replied to him "No, the Mass is not boring, you are boring!"

No, no, Father Murray didn't want to be rude. He wanted to get that gentleman's attention and to explain to him about the Mass. Knowing what I know now, I agree with Fr. Murray. The Mass is not boring, I was boring :-( I won't say more, there's a video about the Mass by Fr. Murray presented in this chapter that I'd recommend to you.

Have you ever heard that the Mass is all about empty rituals ? Looking from outside and drawing a hasty conclusion is most of the times a bad habit. Have you ever lighted up a candle ? Have you ever offered flowers ? Have you ever visited a cemetery of soldiers who had died for your country ? I bet you have. Why do we do these things ? Aren't they empty rituals ? The short answer is that there are things out there that can NOT be expressed with words, that's why we express them with symbols like candles, flowers, visit to the soldiers' tombs, etc. The Mass is far from empty rituals. It is full of symbols. At Mass, we express our deep love for God, we express our worship of God with symbols. We do use words, but not only words. We also use body language, candles, incense, flowers, music, clothes, sacred objects ... in short we use things that God gives us to glorify His Name. We use more than words. When we go to our wedding, do we bring only words if we could afford to offer our futur spouse some flowers and perhaps a diamond ? In the long run, I hope you'll discover that the Mass is very much like a wedding. We, Christians, come to Mass to marry Christ. We want to become one with Him. Most importantly, Christ wants to be one with us.

The materials presented below will give you some insights into the Mass, some of them go deeper in the meaning of the Mass than others. If you have not yet checked my introduction to the Mass, you could take a look at Crash Course on the Mass

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