In our fourth session, we talked about the Liturgy of the Word. During the Liturgy of the Word, we hear stories from the Bible. The word "Bible" comes from the Latin word “biblia” which literally means “books,” and even “library.” The Bible is not one book - a Catholic Bible actually has 73 books in it. The Bible includes all different genres. There are books of law, history, poetry, wisdom, prophecy and the gospels (which are a bit like a biography). The Bible is divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. “Testament” literally means “covenant,” so the first part of the Bible describes the covenant God made with the Jews. The Old Testament contains books of law that record the earliest history of God’s people but are mostly focused on rules; history books that tell about things that happened to the Jews; wisdom and poetry that are meant to teach God’s people; and finally, the books of the prophets. After Jesus was born, He established a new covenant with humanity. The New Testament presents this covenant and is composed of the gospels which describe the life and teachings of Jesus; the Acts of the Apostles which records the history of what happened to Jesus’s friends after Jesus went back to heaven; the letters written largely by Paul to churches, groups of people or individuals that teach about Christian life; and the very last book of the Bible called Revelation provides a vision of heaven and things that will occur at the end of time. All of these books were written by people but are called “inspired” because we believe that God inspired the authors as they wrote thereby making their words the Word of God.
We discussed the order of the Liturgy of the Word and the responses that are appropriate at different points in the mass. We read and reflected on the first reading and the gospel for the upcoming Sunday mass. We spent a few minutes discussing why the gospel is special. “Gospel” means “good news,” because we are listening to the story and teachings of Jesus and all that He did for us. It is the highlight of the Liturgy of the Word, and we stand for it as a sign of respect. We sing “Alleluia” meaning “Praise God” before we hear the words, and we practiced making the three crosses on our forehead, lips and heart to symbolize our prayer that we may hear the Word of God with our mind, speak the Word of God with our lips, and love the Word of God with our hearts.
The homily follows, and the priest explains the scriptures to us and how they apply to our daily life. After the homily, we stand for the Profession of Faith. We say our beliefs in a special prayer called the Nicene Creed. This evening, we read through the creed and discussed each part to gain a greater understanding of it.
After the creed come the Prayers of the Faithful. When we are at Mass, we pray for the needs of all members of God’s family and God listens to us. We wrote our own petitions and prayed them together.
July 12th,
In our third session, we discussed the very beginning of the Mass called the Introductory Rites. We reviewed how to enter church respectfully by blessing ourselves with holy water, genuflecting to the tabernacle, and saying hello to God in prayer.
Many people struggle with prayer and wonder how to do it. A commonly taught method uses the acronym ACTS. The four letters of the word ACTS make up the four elements of prayer: Adoration of God, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. We adore God, praising Him for who He is and what He has done. We confess our sins. We thank Him for all the blessings He has given us. We ask Him to intervene in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
As a church we use this same approach at the start of the Mass: We begin with an opening song praising God; we confess our sins during the Confiteor and ask for mercy; we offer thanks and praise to God during the Gloria as we echo the words of the angels at Christ’s birth; and then we say an opening prayer that changes with each Mass and often includes elements of supplication. We talked about each of these moments at the start of Mass and the appropriate responses and postures to maintain during them.
July 5th!
During our second session, we discussed many of the objects that are used in the celebration of Mass.
We opened the meeting with a look at how to enter church respectfully. We dip our fingertips into holy water and make the Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross is a prayer that not only affirms who God is in the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but it is accompanied by a motion that reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice for us on Calvary when He saved us from sin and death. We use water that is called “holy” because it has been blessed by a priest, and it is also reminiscent of our baptism into God’s family. We all promised to try to perform this prayer respectfully rather than whizzing through it as if we were swatting mosquitoes. We also discussed how to enter the pew respectfully by taking a moment to genuflect before the Tabernacle in a moment of adoration for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
During a tour of the church, we identified many objects. There are a series of books that we use in the Liturgy of the Word: As participants in the Mass, we use the hymnal to sing songs and the missal to follow along with the readings and the parts of the Mass; the Lector reads from the Lectionary; and the priest reads from the Book of the Gospels. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest reads from the Sacramentary at the altar. We discussed how an altar is different from a table because a sacrifice is offered there. We offer bread and wine, and it is changed into Christ during the consecration. We identified the paten (a small dish that holds the bread that becomes the Body of Christ), the chalice (a cup that holds the wine that becomes the Blood of Christ), the Ciborium (a cup with a lid that holds the consecrated hosts in the Tabernacle), the Sanctuary lamp that is always lit when Christ is present in the Blessed Sacrament, and the crucifix. We also discussed incense and how the smoke that rises from the thurible symbolizes our prayers and songs rising to the heavens. It was a night full of big words and big ideas, but I hope everyone learned a thing or two and had fun in the process. A tremendously heartfelt “Thank You!!” to Kathy for her wonderful tour and patience with our rambunctious crew!
Join us next week as we begin to delve into the parts of the Mass…….
Our children are making the Journey with us. They have their own special "path"
Charlotte Snyder is the Mom that makes the Elementary kid's activities happen!
We are amazed at her abilities!
She will post a bit about what the kids are learning, as we go along.
During our opening session, we talked about what Mass is and why we go. The Mass is our Church’s celebration of praise and thanks to God. Many families celebrate their love with stories, songs, gifts, and food. At Mass, the Catholic family gathers to celebrate God’s love with stories from the Bible, hymns and psalms of praise, gifts, and a meal too!
Mass can be celebrated anywhere – the kids in our group recalled attending mass outdoors on the beach, at a stadium, and even at the Veteran’s Association. But usually we attend Mass in a church. Churches come in all different shapes, sizes, and designs. We all made a Church and decorated it individually, but we noticed that in each case, when you opened up the doors, you found a heart with “God is Love” written on it. Regardless of what the Church looks like from the outside, Jesus lives inside all of them since the bread and wine are changed into His body and blood during consecration. So the Church is God’s house!
We all have families, and the church is our family too. When we were baptized, we all became God’s kids. We are his sons and daughters, and we are Jesus’s brothers and sisters. So God’s house is our house too, and we are invited to gather there and to share in a family meal – the Eucharist – when we are old enough.
We discussed that sometimes it isn’t easy to pay attention during Mass, and sometimes there are other things we might feel like doing instead. But God asks us to make one day holy, and He wants us to visit Him in His house. He loves us so much and has given us so many blessings, and we should always say thank you when we receive gifts. What might happen if we didn’t say thank you to our family and friends who gave us gifts for our birthday or Christmas? What would happen if someone gave us a gift and we never opened it or even acknowledged that it was there? We might not get any more. We should always say thank you, and going to Mass is a way of saying thank you to God and to Jesus for all of the gifts we have received. And we can meet lots of other people who believe many of the same things we do, and we can stand up for what we believe in.
At the end of our session, we touched briefly on the overall structure of the Mass. We noticed that there are two main parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We made a mass mobile that highlighted this.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone again next week for a church treasure hunt as we become more familiar with the objects that are used in our celebration!
