What parallels are there between the Passover meal celebrated by the Israelites, and the Last Supper?
The Mass is often said to be a foretaste of Heaven! Why might people say this?
The article says “Yet, the daily ritual can, at times, so familiarize us with the awesome glory of the Mass, that we might lose sight of how special it is.” What are some ways to remain attentive to so great a celebration?
Jul 26 2014, 10:03 AM
SrSusan (guest): Please look over the article, “The Glory of the Mass.” –
Jul 26 2014, 10:04 AM
SrSusan (guest): http://www.hprweb.com/2014/07/the-glory-of-the-mass/#.U8F7_LKnA5w.email
The Glory of the Mass – Homiletic & Pastoral Review
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Jul 27 2014, 7:23 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Hi Carol Ann!
Jul 27 2014, 7:24 PM
Ca: Hi Sister Susan Marie, how are you?
Jul 27 2014, 7:24 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Ok! It’s a warm summer day in NY!
Jul 27 2014, 7:25 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I was thinking just now of monastic Mass vs Parish Mass and how they are the same yet sometimes different
Jul 27 2014, 7:25 PM
Ca: Yes, we are having unusual weather too. very hot and muggy. Thunderstorms down the coast from us, which is also strange.
Jul 27 2014, 7:26 PM
Ca: They are different. Even parish Masses are different from parish to parish, or even at different hours at the same place.
PM
Sister Susan Marie: Here we follow the pattern of a typical Ny parish Mass but some monasteries I’ve visited , like the hermits up at Livingston Manor, prostrate, for ex at the consecration and so does their congregation:29 PM
Ca: That must be something=I have never seen a prostration, except when the priest does it during Exposition
Jul 27 2014, 7:29 PM
Sister Susan Marie: It was a beautiful thing to witness a family with children doing that
Jul 27 2014, 7:29 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Little kids
Jul 27 2014, 7:29 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Probably not specifically litugical according to the “books” but quite a witness
31 PM
Sister Susan Marie: The first time I went there they also kept the chapel dim early in the morning and read from the pulpit by candlelight
Jul 27 2014, 7:31 PM
Ca: wow, see kids love to worship, if only someone shows them how! I’m not sure if prostration is “optional” in the rubrics or not
2 online
7:31 PM
Ca: that’s beautiful! :32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Quite a difference from another upstate parish where the readers or lectors wore clothes that i was ashamed to look atPM
Sister Susan Marie: Quite a difference from another upstate parish where the readers or lectors wore clothes that i was ashamed to look at
Jul 27 2014, 7:32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Externals do help us worship
Jul 27 2014, 7:33 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Beautiful externals help to make reverent worship- even if true worship is from the heart, in spirit and in truth
PM
Carol Ann: they do, and it can cause such controversy. in one of the “family/school” parishes here, the priest is so anxious for the kids to come at all that he doesn’t enforce a dress code for the teenagers. all kinds of things are worn! 34 PM
Carol Ann: yes, because the externals are a tool to help us focus
Sister Susan Marie: The Mass is often said to be a foretaste of Heaven! Why might people say this? I think because they feel like they are in heaven, esp when a priest says Mass revently
Jul 27 2014, 7:35 PM
Dawn LaBorde: Hi Carol
Jul 27 2014, 7:35 PM
Sister Susan Marie: You are welcome!
6 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Have you had the experience of feeling in a mystical place at Mass? 36 PM
Carol Ann: and because when we receive the Eucharist it is a tiny taste of what it will be like to be actually united to Christ in heaven
Jul 27 2014, 7:36 PM
Dawn LaBorde: Mass is the one place set apart in out secular world
37 PM
Carol Ann: yes, I have had that experience37 PM
Dawn LaBorde: I have experienced deep prayer at Mass or in front of Holy MotherI am deeply grateful for our priest who comes to where some of us live and offer Mass…so I seldom get to the parish
Jul 27 2014, 7:39 PM
Sister Susan Marie: There were several times as if I were riveted; I don’t know how else to say it and one time I actually looked up to the ceiling because I expected to see the angels
Jul 27 2014, 7:39 PM
Sister Susan Marie: That’s special!
Jul 27 2014, 7:39 PM
Dawn LaBorde: that is. and thank you for sharing it
Jul 27 2014, 7:40 PM
Sister Susan Marie: To have the priest come to where I live, at the Monastery, is my usual experience too but our Chapel is like a church
, 7:40 PM
Carol Ann: those are both moving storiesPM
Sister Susan Marie: And yet it is difficult to get our own students to come regularly on Sunday to mass
Dawn LaBorde: I used to travel to parish some miles away for daily Mass. I miss doing this
M
Sister Susan Marie: Oh it is an incomparable gift
Jul 27 2014, 7:47 PM
Sister Susan Marie: as it say, an unmatchable grace
Jul 27 2014, 7:48 PM
Carol Ann: it is unmatchable. I like to stay after too and sit by the tabernacle, but it isn’t always possible
Jul 27 2014, 7:48 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I remember Cardinal O’Connor saying to us at St Patrick’s, you have just done the most important thing you will do all day
PM
Dawn LaBorde: I notice a difference in closeness you might say not receiving Jesus everyday. although I know he is there and I thank God for the gift of weekly priest coming…unmatchable yes.
Jul 27 2014, 7:49 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: i debate with myself about this – go and be blessed or sleep
Sister Susan Marie: Temptations will always be there to dissuade us
Jul 27 2014, 7:49 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: the body is so weak
Jul 27 2014, 7:50 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes- but remember there is also spiritual communion, especially when you cannot get to Mass daily
Jul 27 2014, 7:51 PM
Sister Susan Marie: He is within our souls
Jul 27 2014, 7:51 PM
Dawn LaBorde: can you talk more about that Sr?
:52 PM
Carol Ann: and we can do that even if we have already been to Mass? or is that like receiving twice?
Jul 27 2014, 7:53 PM
Sister Susan Marie: http://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/spiritual-communion.html
Spiritual Communion: Prayer With Our Lord Anywhere
Jul 27 2014, 7:54 PM
Sister Susan Marie: That’s a good question! I can’t speak for the Church on that one- but I think we can spiritually commune woth Him even after sacramental communion
Jul 27 2014, 7:54 PM
Sister Susan Marie: My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You have already come, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Jul 27 2014, 7:54 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: I know members of Opus dei do sit with our Lord after mass…
Jul 27 2014, 7:55 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Here it is Carol: You can receive the Lord in Holy Communion up to twice a day as discussed here. However, you can make a Spiritual Communion as whenever and wherever you’d like, using the prayer given above, others like it such as the one below, or your own heartfelt thoughts.
Jul 27 2014, 7:55 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Also: Remember, however, that you can “turn toward the holy tabernacle” and receive Jesus in your heart from anywhere you might happen to be, at any time, day or night!
Jul 27 2014, 7:56 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I think St Margaret Mary used to do that alot
Jul 27 2014, 7:56 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: that makes me happy
Carol Ann: So you can receive twice? I’ve been told different things by different people, all reputable. Some tell me it’s a sin to receive sacramentally twice, others you can do it, but only if you don’t make a habit of it
57 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I am pretty sure you can receive twice, not just for any reason, but say you went to Mass in the AM and then a Nuptial wedding in the PM you could receive again at the wedding or special event,
Mary Roberta Viano: So you’ve talked about Mass as the center of our lives?
Jul 27 2014, 8:03 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Center- we should focus on that word- we did not specifically
Jul 27 2014, 8:03 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s really what brought me into the Church – knowing I would meet Our Lord (Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity) at each and every Mass.
:04 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: Yes Sister and I feel sad for non catholics who do notM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: some have their communion only on special occasions\
Jul 27 2014, 8:05 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: As SFdS says: At the Mass “you may offer the Sacrifice of your Redeemer on behalf of yourself and the whole Church, to God the Father.”
, 8:05 PM
Carol Ann: or they may have Mass on a Sunday, but the rest of the week there are Communion servicesM
Mary Roberta Viano: Growing up a Presbyterian, we had communion four times a year only. , 8:06 PM
Carol Ann: Do you think the rarity of Communion made it more special? 7 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I like the way one theologian reminds us that Christ in the Mass is the way “God made flesh keeps his promise never to leave us orphans.”
Jul 27 2014, 8:08 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: No, the rarity of it really made it just odd.
8 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I know some Carmelites, though, who only celebrate the Eucharist 3 times a week – not every day – for that very reason: to make it more special.
Jul 27 2014, 8:09 PM
Carol Ann: I wonder why frequent reception has not been encouraged until relatively recently, since Eucharist is the center of everything
Jul 27 2014, 8:09 PM
Carol Ann: are these the Carmelites in Brooklyn?
Jul 27 2014, 8:09 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Did it have to do with somehow being “unworthy,” do you think?
10 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: No, they were the Carmelites of the Spiritual Life Institute in Creston, CO.
Jul 27 2014, 8:10 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Crestone
PM
Carol Ann: Maybe, it is a sense of unworthiness
Jul 27 2014, 8:11 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: But that would be like saying, “I’m unworthy to breathe.”
PM
Mary Roberta Viano: If I really NEED it to live, then why not receive it every day? 2 PM
Carol Ann: That is an excellent question. I don’t know that any one has ever said that!
Jul 27 2014, 8:13 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: St.John says in chapter 6 on the Eucharist that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
Jul 27 2014, 8:13 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: so true
4 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: i really dont like the whole unworthy thing
Jul 27 2014, 8:14 PM
Dawn LaBorde: do you think God’s time and our perception of time is different? so if we receive, but not daily, we still have life in us?
Jul 27 2014, 8:14 PM
Sister Susan Marie: JOhn 6 is a beautiful and important chapter on the Eucharist to mediatate
PM
Mary Roberta Viano: and then the Council of Trent said whoever doesn’t recognize Christ in the Eucharist is “anathema.” Strong words
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: i know John 6 is given to protestants as proof of what we believe
Jul 27 2014, 8:16 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: about Christs actual presence
Jul 27 2014, 8:16 PM
Carol Ann: maybe it’s true that we’re not unworthy, but He makes us worthy. When we say the penitential rite at the beginning of Mass, do we say it like we believe it?
Jul 27 2014, 8:16 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: God gave us night and day and wants us to worship Him with that rhythm.
Jul 27 2014, 8:17 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Right, Carol Ann!
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: so would you advice us to attend daily mass Sisters?
Jul 27 2014, 8:17 PM
Dawn LaBorde: thank you Sr Mary. and good reflection Carol Ann….are we really present?!
Jul 27 2014, 8:18 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: We can’t do ANYTHING without Him, so we depend on Him to make us worthy and to help us see Him in the Mass.
Jul 27 2014, 8:18 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes if you can get there, definitely
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: i can get there
Jul 27 2014, 8:19 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Hmm..Alice! For Catholics that’s like asking if we should eat and drink every day!
PM
Carol Ann: I can, but sometimes I don’t feel all that well in the morning
Jul 27 2014, 8:19 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: LOL true Sister!
Jul 27 2014, 8:19 PM
Dawn LaBorde: With Gods grace I can pray to figure out how to get to parish but its over mountains and I have thought about bike until snow comes
Jul 27 2014, 8:19 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Mass is our spiritual food, like bread is our bodily food.
9 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: I guess i meant with work and all
Jul 27 2014, 8:20 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: As Sister said, there the communion of desire, too.
PM
Mary Roberta Viano: There are beautiful Masses on tv – EWTN, esp. One of our sick sisters watches a Mass every day.
Jul 27 2014, 8:21 PM
Dawn LaBorde: I visualize living across the street from a beautiful old parish and just walking there every morning
Jul 27 2014, 8:21 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Your interior life will grow by leaps and bounds when you focus on uniting it with Our Lord, whether sacramentally or spiritually
Jul 27 2014, 8:21 PM
Carol Ann: is watching a Mass the same as actually being there? I see them, and things like televised Adoration, and it just feels odd
Jul 27 2014, 8:21 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s why I love being in the monastery, Dawn – down the steps to our chapel!
Carol Ann: it is really wonderful to have Mass in your home! Jul 27 2014, 8:22 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: No it’s not the same, Carol Ann, but it’s better than nothing. Jul 27 2014, 8:22 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: I feel unless i receive Christ, its not as fulfilling
Dawn LaBorde: you have such a blessing sister! I am happy you can do this. another thing I visualize is all the nuns in the world praying to God and I thank him for all of you and your prayers
Jul 27 2014, 8:24 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I love St.Padre Pio’s saying, “If we only knew how God regards this Sacrifice, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass.”
3 PM
Dawn LaBorde: you have such a blessing sister! I am happy you can do this. another thing I visualize is all the nuns in the world praying to God and I thank him for all of you and your prayers
Jul 27 2014, 8:24 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I love St.Padre Pio’s saying, “If we only knew how God regards this Sacrifice, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass.”
Jul 27 2014, 8:24 PM
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: thats powerful
Jul 27 2014, 8:24 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Some people are and losing their lives probably even as we chat!
Jul 27 2014, 8:24 PM
Carol Ann: it is so hard to get people to feel this way. You can tell them about it, but I wonder if each of us has to directly experience that for ourselves
Jul 27 2014, 8:25 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: And St. Alphonsus says: “One single Mass gives more honor to God than all the penances of the saints, the labors of the Apostles, the sufferings of the martyrs, and even the burning love of the Blessed Mother of God.”
Jul 27 2014, 8:25 PM
Dawn LaBorde: ah! thats beautiful and an inspiration. yes many people are sacrificing for just this
Dawn LaBorde: this makes me consider what I think is to difficult to go to daily Mass…whats a mountain?
PM Mary Roberta Viano: It’s like that story of the one monk saying to another that we need to want to meet Our Lord at Mass like we want air after being underwater for a minute! Jul 27 2014, 8:27 PM
Dawn LaBorde: a safe journey over a mountain at that Jul 27 2014,
Sister Susan Marie: Climb every mountain! From the Sound of Music- remember that?
:28 PM Mary Roberta Viano: You can worship God at the top of the mountain, too, Dawn! Jul 27 2014, 8:28 PM
Dawn LaBorde: hahaha! yes I remember Jul 27 2014, 8:28 PM
Carol Ann: wasn’t that everyone’s favorite musical? Jul 27 2014, 8:29 PM Sister Susan Marie: Yep!
Dawn LaBorde: I am actually working out to be ready to climb a big mountain peak because I want to be at the top and thank God and praise him
Mary Roberta Viano: The saints go over the top when they talk about the Mass. St. Bernard of Clairvaux says: “One merits more by devoutly attending a holy Mass than by distributing all he owns to the poor and traveling all over the world on pilgrimage.”
Mary Roberta Viano: That was what the priest who brought me into the Catholic Church always tried to tell me: I don’t need to hither and yon, he’d say to me. I have Our Lord right here in our parish church at Mass and in the Tabernacle.
Jul 27 2014, 8:32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I understand St Albert the Great was extraordinary in his Eucharisitic writings but I do not have them- just some references to it
4 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: An 8th-century monk said: “Oh fortunate witnesses to whom God has wished to reavel himself…Come, brethren, and marvel at our God, so close to us. Behold the flesh and blood of our most Beloved Christ.” Jul 27 2014, 8:34 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: reveal Jul 27 2014, 8:35 PM
Dawn LaBorde: that is beautiful. do you know name of monk?