Catholic Mass Explained

all right so it's so great to be with you this morning and so it's a real pleasure for me to to give you a walkthrough of the Holy Mass and so just before we talk about the math itself just a couple of things I'd like to point out just as we walk into the church there's two things that we should do even before anything else there's two things that we should look for now the first thing we're going to look for is a container of water but just outside the chapel there's like a little dish with water with holy water okay so that's the one thing that we look for in the main church it's actually a big brick font that's cemented to the floor so that would have been more difficult to bring in here to show you but anyways so this is what we will look for the holy water and the reason we use holy water is that once we find it we put our finger in and we bless ourselves with the sign of the Cross which is simply to remind us of two things so first of all is that we have been baptized and so the water is a reminder of our baptism okay and think about another reason why we would use water in our everyday life what do we use water for we use it to to drink and what about when we're really dirty what do we use water for yeah exactly so to take a bath we use water to help ourselves be clean and so we know that the math is it's like an invitation to dinner so when you go to somebody's house for dinner are you going to show up at the door all dirty with dirty boots dirty shoes no you want to be clean so that when you enter in you're going to be prepared for your hosts okay so there's the two reasons why we use holy water just or we look for holy water when we enter the church the second thing we do is we look for something called the tabernacle so the tabernacle is where we keep Jesus in the Eucharist so there's always an extra supply that we keep at the church which is for people that are thick and they're not able to get to church to mass so that we have that to give to them but also as a reminder that Jesus really is present here in the church so we've learned about how Jesus is really present in the Eucharist so this is where we keep him and so something very important when we see where the tabernacle is in the church is to show a sign of reverence to it and so very simply what is the proper posture is to genuflect to the tabernacle so a genuflecting is typically with our right knee so we would just go down like this on one knee just as we enter the church we make that simple gesture to the tabernacle to show that we are aware that Jesus is here so why the right knee and not the left knee the left knee is actually reserved for royalty so if you were to see a king or a queen a prince or a princess we would genuflect with the left knee but because we're approaching God we genuflect with the right knee now do we have to do that every time we pass the tabernacle not really no but mainly as you enter the church for the first time and as you're getting prepared to leave it's important to do that now the second part of it you might wonder the church is over here on the other side so the tabernacle is in the chapel but this is why there's a window to the church so that when you walk into the church you can actually still see the tabernacle so if you're able to make that gesture as you walk into the church that would be something good so those are the first two things that we like to do as we enter the church so look for the holy water and look for the tabernacle those are the two things alright so on the sheet that I gave you you will see on the left side the math has been divided into four parts so the first part is called the introductory vise and this is when we gather together so there's a lot of things happening at this time there is an opening procession there is probably a song that's being played but in terms of position you will notice in the procession there's typically the altar servers the very front followed by maybe a deacon and the priest is always at the back and the reason that's important is because back in the olden days the person who was at the front was always the most important so the king the Queen the royalty they were always at the front and the servants were always at the back and so this is the reminder that the priest is standing in the person of Jesus for the mass and he is representing Jesus as the one who came to serve you okay and to serve me too so this is this is what happens in that opening procession and so the procession is important because it's the movement and the reason that's important is because we're all moving together toward the same destination we are journeying to get a gather towards God as one body in Christ we are one together united in that moment a very interesting characteristic in this church at things John Vianney you will notice a number of ceramic tiles as you approach the altar but they're all disordered so if you were to look for a pattern with the tiles you know sometimes does the pattern you see on a floor but there's no pattern but the idea is that God will put order into his creation as we approach the altar and as we come together as one towards him so just an interesting side note so by the time the priest reaches the altar there is something that he does okay what he does and if you've seen me do it is I will actually kiss the altar like this and the reason I do that is because if you think about what altars were used for even in biblical times it was to offer a place it was a place where we offer a sacrifice to God and so this is where the action is going to happen during the math at the altar this is where Jesus is going to be become present to us from the bread and the wine he's going to become fully present to us using these two elements and so this is why it's important to acknowledge the altar and for every time we pass by the altar during math it's good to show a sign of reverence as well which is why you might see even when a reader comes during math they might bow to the altar and this is why simply recognizing that Jesus is going to be present here there is an interesting characteristic about any altar in a Catholic Church right underneath this tablecloth there's a stone that has five crosses on it and there's a relic or a reminder of a saint of some saint and the reason there's five crosses on the stone is to remind us and Jesus was on the cross he had five wounds okay one in each hand one in each foot and one in his side so reminding ourselves so the cross is actually an altar in a way itself because it was where Jesus was sacrificed and where he was offered so this is why you would always find five causes somewhere underneath the altar cloth okay so right after that there's a lot of introductory stuff but how does mass begin of course with the sign of the Cross and once again this is simply a reminder of our faith and how we were claimed at our baptism so typically mass begins with something called the the penitential Rite which is when we come in off the street and as I said we might have a little bit of dirt on us we may have done some things that we're not proud of since we've been into the church and so we really need to prepare ourselves to to come before God because we know God is perfect but we are imperfect and so we just want to take a minute to prepare ourselves by saying that we're sorry to God so if any of you any of you has brothers or sisters you know how easy it is to get into a fight with them okay I know myself even I'm a get older now but I have a brother and two sisters and we still fight sometimes and so I live far away from them but there can be disagreements and so it's really a time to come to say we're sorry for anything that we've done anything anyways we may have hurt or offended God okay so right after we've done this the choir will sing this beautiful song called the Gloria because now that we have become friends again we've said we're sorry we sing this beautiful song called the Gloria where we sing praise to God and it's a very familiar song because if you remember at Christmastime at Bethlehem when the angels came to the Shepherd's what they said glory to God in the highest and on earth people on earth peace to people of goodwill so this is a reminder that Jesus that God Himself came to Earth as a tiny child and so it's it's another chance to to recall that reality so now we move into the second part of the mass which is simply the Liturgy of the word which is readings the readings that we have and the most important thing to remember about these readings and the Bible is that the Bible we believe is something called a Living Word which means it's not only a historical document something that happened 2,000 years ago it's actually something relevant for today and something that we can apply in our own lives the different teachings the different maybe exhortations are all very important for us to reflect on and so the first reading is always something from the Old Testament usually and the Old Testament was this written before Jesus or after Jesus was born the Old Testament is before right before Jesus was born so we have a story from the Old Testament following this we have a response oriole thumb which is usually sung by the choir or it could be read and the psalm is actually taken from the Book of Psalms in the Bible which is a collection of poems and songs as well which is why it can be following the responsorial thumb is the second reading which is a reading from the New Testament which is basically when we have Jesus himself he's part of the story and so this is kind of the difference between the two now the New Testament begins with Mary saying yes I will be the mother of God so if you remember the angel visits Mary so she says yes I will be the mother of God so very interesting in the Old Testament it starts with Eve saying no to God but Mary says yes to God and so you see these two stories going side by side and it's very very important to see the difference between the two so following this we have the gospel which means good news so here we have Jesus himself talking with his own voice we hear Jesus himself talk and the gospel is proclaimed by the priests or by the Deacon who is going to be there following this is usually a homily so hopefully it's not too long right hopefully it's just something short but what the homily is is where the priest tries to take those readings and he tries to apply it to to life today how can this relate to our lives together so hopefully that can be done really quickly following the homily the congregation will together profess their faith in something called the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed so it's it's an opportunity to say that we believe in everything that we've heard from the readings and that everything that is going to happen in the next part of the mass because we know the focus is about to change we've gone from words and now we're going to move into the actions of the mass then we have an opportunity to pray for for those who are in need of prayers so this is the general intercessions of the community so we pray for different things like the sick we pray for the dying we pray for authorities we pray for basically everyone who who is in need of prayer within the global church the third part of the math is called the Eucharistic prayer so in the operatory procession you'll see the the wine that is brought up as well as the bread so the bread may take on different appearances sometimes it's it's the large host sometimes it's the medium host sometimes it's a small host but they're all the same the larger ones just simply get broken up and that might be a piece that you end up receiving I during the mass so the wine gets put into something called a chalice so here's one chalice and here's the second chalice now the bread can be put into what's called a seborrhea or something that's more flat is called a patent so it can be either one we have a lot of people we're going to use a larger seborrhea which is like this or even like this this is the really big one that we use for Christmas and for Easter and for larger of celebrations and here's another form of a ciborium so all of these together when there's many they're called seborrhea one is called a ciborium so you might think this looks like a chalice it kind of does and sometimes I know priests that have gotten them confused they put wine in the wrong one but anyway the difference simply is that the ciborium has the lid so this is also where you can put the bread as well okay and so the wine is usually typically in something called a cruet and there's different other things that we use here as well the priest will wash his hands simply just with water with a hand towel and just out of reverence we have to use something called a purification this is going to become the body and blood of Jesus so we have to use the proper the proper towels and things just to show that we're not going to be dropping him on the floor any crumbs or any drops of blood that may that may fall down during the breaking of the bread so this is after the Eucharistic prayer has happened the bread is broken representing so this is now Jesus after the priest to set the prayers the bread is broken to represent that we ourselves are broken and that Jesus was broken on the cross so that we might be made one again okay and at the very end of it all it's very important even as we prepare to receive communion that we we do a couple of other things so we say the Our Father together as a sign of our unity with one another we exchange the sign of peace so we shake somebody's hand beside us or we give them a hug just to say that we are united with one another just at the very end the priest is going to give a blessing and then he will say go in peace to love and serve the Lord so that it's actually an instruction go and serve so sometimes it's difficult to share our faith when we leave this building but we have been built up because we have Jesus enough now and so we can actually go and and and share our faith with others and so that's what the Commission is until we come together again to meet as God's family so I think I have a couple of minutes so I'm going to take just some time to talk about the different colors that we have at Mass you're going to see four different colors that are used and so the one that you will see probably the most frequently is the color green which we use for most of the year for ordinary time we call and this is basically just outside of the season of Easter and Christmas and when it's not a feast day we will see this and the reason we use green is it shows the hope that comes with Christ in his public ministry and green is a sign of life as well that we get from God so it is springtime hopefully we're going to see some green outside on those trees and on the ground right so that's certainly a sign of life that we have the second color that we're actually using right now in the church is is white or gold because we're in the Easter season and so this simply represents joy or it represents purity so sometimes we use this color when there is a saint who was not martyred so for their feast day or any feast day having to do with the Virgin Mary we would use this color as well and of course red you would recognize on Good Friday right we use red on Good Friday or anything to do with the Holy Spirit the fire of the love of God is used for Pentecost or certain feast days like this that's what the red represents and finally for Advent or Lent I should have fixed this a little better we use violet or purple and this just simply represents the color of sacrifice or of kind of offering something to God during a season of preparation so these are the four colors that you would see and colors represent of course season they represent moods they represent emotions and so this is why we use them in the church to help dispose us to to the celebration and the season that we're in and so right before leaving remember those two things that we did as we walked in the church so tabernacle if you can genuflect to it now here's a bit of a trick is that do you bless yourself with holy water on the way out you will see most people do but you're actually not you don't really need to because you've just received Jesus right into you you've had the blessing from the priest and having a third blessing with water would have really no no benefit but it's something I find funny when people shake my hand aftermath their hands are wet because they bless themselves but it's something that you don't have to do so anyway thank you for your attention I know that was a lot of stuff in 20 minutes but but but that's it so thank you you

Channel: office HT

Views: 205,449

Keywords: Catholic, Mass (Religious Practice), Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church (Building), Lower Sackville Nova Scotia (City/Town/Village), St. John Vianney Catholic Church (Building)

Id: wm7SguxPsN4

Length: 19min 58sec (1198 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2015