James P. Moroney - The Mass Explained-Revised And Expanded Edition

The
Mass
Explained

The
Mass
Explained

An Introduction to the New Roman Missal

Monsignor James P. Moroney

CATHOLIC BOOK PUBLISHING CORP.

New Jersey

IMPRIMATUR: Most Reverend Robert J. McManus

Bishop of Worcester

September 21, 2011

In accord with canon 824, of the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant my permission to publish The Mass Explained by Rev. Msgr. James P. Moroney.

Photo credits: pp. , Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/Art Resource, NY.

(T-104)

ISBN 978-0-89942-104-9

2011, 2008 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp., N.J.
www.catholicbookpublishing.com

BOG Book of the Gospels for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America (USCCB), Catholic Book Publishing, 2000.

BLS Built of Living Stones: USCCB Guidelines on Art, Architecture, and Worship, USCCB Publications, 2000.

CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church (Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith), USCCB Publications, 2000.

CE Ceremoniale Episcoporum (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1964.

DV Dei Verbum: Constitution on Divine Revelation (Second Vatican Council).

EE Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Pope John Paul II), USCCB Publications, 2003.

GIRM General Instruction of the Roman Missal (USCCB), USCCB Publications, 2003.

GS Gaudium et Spes (Second Vatican Council).

IOM Introduction to the Order of Mass: A Pastoral Resource of the Committee on the Liturgy, USCCB Publications, 2002.

LFM Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America (USCCB), Catholic Book Publishing, 2003.

LG Lumen Gentium (Second Vatican Council).

MD Mediator Dei (Pope Pius XI), www.vatican.va, 1947.

SC Sacrosanctum Concilium (Second Vatican Council).

SCT Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Caritatis (Pope Benedict XVI), USCCB, 2007.

STL Sing to the Lord.

S OON we will have a new Roman Missal, although its not really new at all. While some of the prayers and rubrics have been fine-tuned and the book reflects a bit more maturity than its predecessors on such questions as inculturation and the role of the Priest, it describes the same Mass we have been celebrating since the Lord first commanded us to do this in memory of me.

Priests will find more accurate translations of the prayers to be a challenge, especially after having prayed from the Sacramentary for a half century, but even the newness of the words will soon pass. What, I pray, will not pass is the great excitement that drives the Church in her celebrations of this holy and living Sacrifice.

God chose us, and God gathers us to the Cross of his Son at every Mass. Us! Of all the people in the world the ones so much brighter than us, so much better looking than us, so much more powerful than we will ever behe chose us before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight(Eph 1:4). It was not we who chose him, but he who chose us. It is not our Mass which, like a town meeting or a political party we choose to form in our own image and likeness. It is his Mass, his Sacrifice to which he calls us to join our lives.

The Mass is for us poor little ones who have been Baptized into his paschal death and rising. For we have washed our robes in the Blood of the Lamb and have become whiter than snow (cf. Rev 7:14).Thus we have, in Holy Baptism, been consecrated as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people claimed by God as his own(1 Pet 2:9) to join the sacrifices of our lives to the one perfect Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross.

In a world paralyzed by fear that too often violently rejects the gentle sacrifice of the one who opened his arms on a Cross for love of them, his disciples are often ridiculed or snidely dismissed as foolish old romantics, deluding themselves with quaint but meaningless folk tales. Sometimes, we recall the Lords own words, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you(Jn 15:20).

But how wrong the world is! For God has chosen us to be his Priestly People. And this Mass is for us. It is the place to which we bring our joys and sorrows, our victories and our humiliations, our hopes and our fears. It is the source and the summit of everything that truly matters in life, our hope and our salvation, the place where we discover who we are and what we are meant to be. The Mass is for us.

The Mass is for Priests. Over the past two decades I have been privileged to speak to more than 20,000 Priests and Deacons in more than one hundred dioceses. Priests, I have learned, are among the most wonderful of human beings. They suffer from the same pains and stresses as any other group, but they are constantly fed by a burning desire to do the right thing, to give their lives to Christ and to his Church.They are in love with their people and with the faith that Christ sends them to bring to the young and the old, the bright and the not so bright, the cheerful and the depressed, the rich and the poor, and all the people in between.

But Priests are also sometimes in sad spiritual straights. The older ones grew up in a time when the Priest was the most admired man in the community. That all changed when some of their brothers were accused of terrible crimes. Priests ordained in the decades after the Second Vatican Council sometimes feel disappointed that the utopian visions of their youth were never fully realized. Meanwhile, the younger ones often suffered under a pastoral ministry that seemed to be more intent on balloons and flowers than on faith and practice. Many of them labor under the burden of skepticism and a search for authentic authority.

Many Priests are weighed down by the bureaucracy and a media voracious for a fresh scandal. They struggle to establish meaningful priorities amidst people suffering in a world of ever-new challenges to a Christian way of life.

Its not all bad, certainly. The great majority of parishioners love their Priest more than he deserves. I will never forget the outpouring of affection upon the death of my first pastor. As their only remaining Priest, the parishioners practically anointed me with the tears they shed for this good man. The love that people hold for their parish Priest is extraordinarily durable, as recent studies on the impact of the sexual abuse scandal have shown.

But as consoling as the support of the people can be, it is from the Sacred Liturgy that Priest and People drink deeply of the particular charism of their respective callings and find meaning in their respective roles.

For the Catholic priest or parishioner, the Mass is the center of the day, the source and the summit of all activity, and the principal time when the Church is made manifest to them and to the world.