Of Mass...
I was talking with C the other day, about M entering the monastery, (and there was something to do with mass as well) and she happened to comment that M probably wasn't entering the monastery for the mass, but more for the prayers. This is the same person who talks about being a good christian and having a relationship with God, without necessarily having to go to mass all the time...
How did we get to where mass is this thing to be shunned? We might complain that masses (especially in Quebec) are pretty lifeless, and that there isn't much community within the parish, and I might agree with that, but since when does that make mass something to be put away on a shelf and forgotten? How can you even think like that?
First of all, mass is also a prayer, not some "Church function". Mass is the most important prayer of the whole Catholic faith. I think people have got it in their heads that they're going to mass to be entertained or to be fed comforting stuff like God loves you just the way you are so you don't necessarily have to bother to make yourself better...
I don't go to mass to be entertained. I go to mass because mass is sacred. So sacred in fact that it is the only prayer in the whole world in which one is both PHYSICALLY and spiritually in communion with God our Father. If you only pray one prayer in your life, it should be mass. I mean, Jesus said do this in memory of me. He instituted the mass for a reason. Those who say they "follow" Jesus and don't need Mass to do this, don't know what they are talking about, because Jesus ASKED us to do this.
I miss my parish back in Prince George. There were a lot of young people, young families, and a great feeling of community. Not because the priest went out of his way to be entertaining, although he did tell jokes in his homily, not because the mass was being so changed to fit what the general populace thought it should be like, but because there were still many young families, (that always puts life into anything) and because of the coffee and cookies we almost always had after mass, in the parish hall, which created a wonderful opportunity for people to get to know one another. That definitely improved parish participation in other functions like badminton games on Sunday nights in the Parish School gym, or spagghetti dinners to raise money, or retreats, or... etc etc... People really knew what mass was all about, and THAT itself gave life to it.
How did we get to where mass is this thing to be shunned? We might complain that masses (especially in Quebec) are pretty lifeless, and that there isn't much community within the parish, and I might agree with that, but since when does that make mass something to be put away on a shelf and forgotten? How can you even think like that?
First of all, mass is also a prayer, not some "Church function". Mass is the most important prayer of the whole Catholic faith. I think people have got it in their heads that they're going to mass to be entertained or to be fed comforting stuff like God loves you just the way you are so you don't necessarily have to bother to make yourself better...
I don't go to mass to be entertained. I go to mass because mass is sacred. So sacred in fact that it is the only prayer in the whole world in which one is both PHYSICALLY and spiritually in communion with God our Father. If you only pray one prayer in your life, it should be mass. I mean, Jesus said do this in memory of me. He instituted the mass for a reason. Those who say they "follow" Jesus and don't need Mass to do this, don't know what they are talking about, because Jesus ASKED us to do this.
I miss my parish back in Prince George. There were a lot of young people, young families, and a great feeling of community. Not because the priest went out of his way to be entertaining, although he did tell jokes in his homily, not because the mass was being so changed to fit what the general populace thought it should be like, but because there were still many young families, (that always puts life into anything) and because of the coffee and cookies we almost always had after mass, in the parish hall, which created a wonderful opportunity for people to get to know one another. That definitely improved parish participation in other functions like badminton games on Sunday nights in the Parish School gym, or spagghetti dinners to raise money, or retreats, or... etc etc... People really knew what mass was all about, and THAT itself gave life to it.
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