Importance of The Holy Mass

RITUALS
Our daily lives have

their rituals also
• greeting people
• eating
• responding to a text
Why we do it
that way?
In the Eucharist, too,
we have many ritual
actions which we
perform without
asking why
The basic “shape” of
the ritual of the Mass
can be described as a
meal
When friends gather for
a meal, they sit and talk:
Eventually they move to
the table, say grace, pass
the food and eat and
drink, and finally take
their leave and go home.
1. Gathering
2. Storytelling
3. Meal sharing
4. Commissioning
Part one: Gathering Rites
• Coming together, assembling, is at the heart of our Sunday worship.
• The reason behind each of the ritual actions of the first part of the Mass
can be found in this word: gathering.
• The purpose of these rites is to bring us together into one body, ready to
listen and to break bread together.
In many churches today there will be
someone at the door to greet you as you
arrive for Sunday Mass: We all like to be
greeted and welcomed when we gather
for a celebration. When friends come for
a meal or a party, we greet them at the
door and welcome them into our home.
Holy Water
One of the first things Catholics do when

they come to church is dip their right
hand in water and make the sign of the
cross. This ritual is a reminder of our
Baptism: We were baptized with water
and signed with the cross. At every Mass
we renew our promises to die to sin.
In the celebration of Mass we
Posture
raise our hearts and minds to
God. We are creatures of body
as well as spirit, so our prayer
is not confined to our minds
and hearts. It is expressed by
our bodies as well. When our
bodies are engaged in our
prayer, we pray with our
.
whole person.
Posture Using our entire being in
prayer helps us to pray with
greater attentiveness. These
postures and gestures are
not merely ceremonial.
They have profound
meaning and, when done
with understanding, can
.
enhance our participation in
the Mass
Three Reasons Why
Catholics Genuflect
1.humility
2.service
3. love
Genuflection
Traditionally, Catholics
genuflect on entering and
leaving church if the Blessed
Sacrament is present in the
sanctuary of the Church. The
priest and deacon genuflect to
the tabernacle on entering and
leaving the sanctuary. The
priest also genuflects in
adoration after he shows the
Body and Blood of Christ to the
people after the consecration
and again before inviting the
people to Holy Communion.
Genuflection
Standing
Standing is a sign of respect and
honor. From the earliest days of the
Church, this posture has been
understood as the stance of those who
have risen with Christ and seek the
things that are above.
When we stand for prayer, we assume our full stature

before God, not in pride but in humble gratitude for the
marvelous things God has done in creating and
redeeming each one of us.
Standing
• We stand for the proclamation of the
Gospel, which recounts the words
and deeds of the Lord.
• The bishops have chosen standing as
the posture to be observed for the
reception of Communion.
• we stand as the celebrant who
represents Christ enters and
leaves the assembly.
Sitting
Sitting is the posture of
listening and meditation, so
the congregation sits for the
pre-Gospel readings and the
homily and may also sit for
the period of meditation
following Communion. All should strive to assume a
seated posture during the Mass
that is attentive rather than
merely at rest.
Kneeling
In the early Church, kneeling
signified penance. So thoroughly
was kneeling identified with
penance that the early Christians
were forbidden to kneel on
Sundays and during the Easter
season, when the prevailing spirit
of the. Liturgy was one of joy and
thanksgiving.
Kneeling
In the Middle Ages kneeling came to

signify homage, and more recently
this posture has come to signify
adoration, especially before the
presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Bowing
•reverence
•respect
• gratitude
Bowing
• In the Creed we bow at the words that commemorate
the Incarnation.
• We also bow as a sign of reverence before we receive
Communion.
• The priest and other ministers bow to the altar, a
symbol of Christ, when entering or leaving the
sanctuary.
• As a sign of respect and reverence even in our speech,
we bow our heads at the name of Jesus, at the mention
of the Three Persons of the Trinity, at the name of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and at the name of the saint
whose particular feast or memorial is being
observed(see GIRM, no. 275).
Prostrating
• A posture of deep humility, it signifies
our willingness to share in Christ's
death so as to share in his
Resurrection (see Romans 6)
• It is used at the beginning of the
Celebration of the Lord's Passion on
Good Friday
• During the Litany of the Saints in the
Rite of Ordination, when those to be
ordained deacons, priests, and bishops
prostrate themselves in humble prayer
and submission to Christ.
Singing
"He who sings prays twice."

How I wept, deeply moved by your
hymns, songs, and the voices that
echoed through your Church! What
emotion I experienced in them! Those
sounds flowed into my ears distilling the
truth in my heart. A feeling of devotion
surged within me, and tears streamed
down my face - tears that did me good.
St. Augustine of Hippo
Every procession in the
Liturgy is a sign of the
pilgrim Church, the body of
those who believe in Christ,
on their way to the Heavenly
Jerusalem.
Oftentimes, at the front of the
procession, one of the servers (a
crucifer) carries a crucifix
symbolizing that Jesus is our
“leader to salvation” (Heb
2:10).
Kissing the Altar
• Every time a priest kisses or
reverences the altar, he does so in
order to honor the altar of
sacrifice (which represents Christ)
where the miracle of the Eucharist
occurs.
Kissing the Altar
• The kiss also signifies

the union of the
Spouse (Christ) and
his Bride
(the Church).
Kissing the Altar
• Another reason, deeply
rooted in ancient Christian
tradition, is to reverence
the relics of the saint or
martyr placed within the
altar itself.
Sign of the Cross
The Mass then officially begins with
the priest and people making the Sign
of the Cross, a gesture that dates back
to the first century of Christianity and
summarizes the Christian belief in a
Trinitarian God who descended from
heaven to earth, who is now seated at
the right hand of the Father, and whose
death on a cross opened heaven’s gates.
Greeting.
The priest may echo St. Paul’s

words in 2 Corinthians 13:13,
“The grace of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the Love of God, and
the Communion of the Holy
Spirit be with you all.”
Greeting. he can simply say, “The
Lord be with you.” Either
way, the people respond,
“And with your Spirit,”
acknowledging that the
priest stands there in the
person of Christ by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Greeting. We find its biblical roots as a blessing for
success, such as when Boaz greets his
harvesters: “The Lord be with you!” (Ruth 2:4)
King David too utters this as a prayer for his son

Solomon while instructing him to build the
temple: “Set to work, therefore, and the Lord
be with you!” (1 Chr 22:16)
“The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Unlike the

previous statements, this announcement is one
of fact; it points to the current reality, rather
than expressing a prayer or wish.
All these biblical expressions flow
Greeting. seamlessly into the liturgy’s
“The Lord be with you.” The priest greets
the congregation with the greeting of
Boaz and blesses them with David’s
blessing for Solomon. Yet the
Annunciation changes everything. We
are to hear the expression “The Lord be
with you” not only as a greeting or a
blessing for success in carrying out the
Lord’s work. Rather, in the liturgy we
relive the encounter between the Word
of God and Mary, the Mother of the
Word.
Penitential Rite
Following the example of
the tax collector in Luke
18:10-14, who Christ
commended for
approaching God by first
crying out, “O Lord, have
mercy on me a sinner,”
Catholics acknowledge our
sinfulness and ask God’s
forgiveness.
Penitential Rite
This can happen through the Kyrie
— “Lord have mercy; Christ have
mercy; Lord have mercy.”
It can also happen through the
Confiteor, Latin for “I confess,”
which calls us to admit we’ve
sinned by our own free will
(“through my fault, through my
fault, through my most grievous
fault”).
Penitential Rite
Both expressions of
contrition also call us to
imitate the tax collector
from Luke in another way,
gently striking our breast in
sorrow, demonstrating with
actions as well as words, our
remorse.
THE GLORIA
Part of the Church’s liturgy
since A.D. 128, the Gloria
is the hymn of praise the
angels sang at Christ’s
birth, and that John heard
in heaven.
(Lk 2:13-14, Rv 15:4).
The hymn is a doxology, literally “word of praise,” a
prayer expressing the Church’s great joy in God
becoming man and revealing himself to us.
Collect/ Opening Prayer
At the close of this first part
of the Mass the priest will
ask us to join our minds in
prayer, and after a few
moments of silence he will
collect our intentions into
one prayer
• In Romans 1:25 and
elsewhere, Paul uses it to
Amen
punctuate worship of our
Creator.
• Saying “amen” assumes you

understand and are aware of
what you are affirming in
worship.
Part Two: Story Telling
• When we gather at a friend’s home
(Liturgy of the Word) for a meal, we always begin with
conversation, telling our stories.
• At Mass, after the rites of gathering,
we sit down and listen as readings
from the Word of God are
proclaimed.
• They are the stories of God’s people.
(Liturgy of the Word)
When the Word of God is proclaimed
from the pulpit, Christ is really and truly
present to his people. This encounter
with Christ in his Scriptures has, since
the days of the apostles, occupied a
central place in the liturgy, with
Catholics seeking to heed St. Paul’s
admonition that “Faith comes from what
is heard” (Rom 10:17).
In the Liturgy of the
Part Two: Story Telling Word, the Church feeds
(Liturgy of the Word) the people of God from
the table of his Word
(cf. Sacrosanctum
Concilium, no. 51).
The Scriptures are the
word of God, written
under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit. In the
Scriptures, God speaks
to us, leading us along
the path to salvation.
First Reading
Psalm
Second Reading
Gospel
Homily
Creed
Prayers of the Faithful
First Reading
the first reading is drawn from the books

of the Old Testament, the Scriptures of
ancient Israel that tell of salvation
history’s beginnings and point forward
to the promised Savior.
Psalm
In ancient Israel, the Psalms were sung
antiphonally, with a cantor singing a series of lines
and the congregation responding with a repeated
line. This is how Jesus and his mother prayed the
Psalms, and this is how Catholics today continue to
pray them.
second Reading
The second reading comes from the books of the
New Testament, which were primarily letters from
the Apostles to the Christian communities of the
ancient world, and which were, from the start,
intended for a liturgical setting.
Alleluia
The second reading is followed by the Alleluia, the Hebrew word
meaning “praise the Lord” used repeatedly in the Book of
Revelation. Whether said or sung, the word calls the congregation
to abandon our posture of sitting (a gesture of receptivity) and stand
out of respect for Christ, who will become even more immediately
present in the Gospel reading.
(Liturgy of the Word) a priest or deacon proclaims the
Gospel,
Gospel, meaning “Good News.”
Taken from one of the four Gospels
in the New Testament, the Gospel
often echoes themes from the
earlier readings, demonstrating the
Church’s ancient understanding that
the New and Old Testaments are
only fully understood in light of
each other.
Gospel,
The high point of the
Liturgy of the Word is
the reading of the
Gospel. Because the
Gospels tell of the life,
ministry, and preaching
of Christ
After the Scripture readings, the
celebrant preaches the homily. In
the homily, the preacher focuses on
the Scripture texts or some other
texts from the liturgy, drawing from
them lessons that may help us to
live better lives, more faithful to
Christ's call to grow in holiness.
In the homily, the priest
follows the example of
Christ on the road to
Emmaus, explaining and
interpreting the Scriptures.
.
Sometimes this
interpretation is biblical,
sometimes theological,
sometimes moral or
catechetical (Lk 24:13-35).
The Credo, literally “I believe,” is a
summation of Catholic belief.
Notably, in the middle of the Credo, at

the words, “and by the power of the Holy
Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,”
the congregations solemnly bows,
acknowledging the pre-eminent
importance of the Incarnation.
In obedience to St. Paul’s request in
1 Timothy 2:1-3, the Church offers
“supplications, prayers, petitions, and
thanksgiving for everyone,” beginning
with petitions for the needs of the
Church, then public authorities and
those oppressed by any need, and
finally the local community.
Part three: Meal Sharing
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
At Mass these ritual actions are called

1. the Preparation of the Gifts
2. the Eucharistic Prayer
3. the Communion Rite
The Offertory
Every sacrifice requires an offering
On Sundays, at the beginning of the

Liturgy of the Eucharist, there is a
collection, with the congregation
placing our individual offerings in a
basket. (Cash or Check)
• In third-century Rome, St.
Hippolytus tells us, they included
grapes, figs, apples, even lilies —
anything that could support the
community.
• Tertullian, writing from second-
century Carthage, likewise said
that the donations went toward
burying the poor, supplying the
wants of orphans, and providing
for the homebound.
The Offertory
What significance do bread and wine receive in
the Exodus?
In the Exodus bread and wine receive the
following significance:
1. the bread remembers the hasty liberation of
Israel from Egypt and the manna in the desert
2. the wine adds joy and an eschatological
dimension.
The Offertory
Bread and wine represent the
fruits of the earth offered by
man, its steward. They also
represent the spiritual
offering of the faithful, the
offering of our lives to Christ.
Preparation of the gifts

The blessing, which begins, “Blessed are
you, Lord of all creation,” echoes the
blessing Jesus pronounced at the Last
Supper, the blessing of the Passover meal,
“Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the
universe, creator of the fruit of the vine.” It
also echoes the blessing of Melchizedek in
Genesis 14: 19-20.
Importantly, before pronouncing the
blessing over the wine, the priest
mixes into it a small amount of water.
He does this in continuation of the
custom of Jesus’ time, where wine
was diluted before it was drunk, and
as a symbol of the blood and water
that gushed forth from Christ’s side on
the cross (Jn 19:34).
Next, the priest washes his
hands, following St. Paul’s
advice in 1 Timothy 2:8, that
when praying, men should
lift up “holy” or “clean”
hands.
Preface
St. Hippolytus’ account of the
Mass in Rome included the
dialogue between priest and
people that enjoins the
congregation to “Lift up your
hearts to the Lord” and “Give
thanks to the Lord our God.”
Preface
His contemporary in North Africa,
St. Cyprian, records the same
dialogue in his description of the
liturgy, a dialogue intended to
remind Christians that “wherever
your treasure is, there will your
heart be also” (Mt 6:21).
Sanctus
With the reminder that we are praying
“with the angels and saints,” the
congregation sings the Sanctus, the
“Holy, Holy, Holy,” taken from Isaiah 6:2-
3 and Revelation 4:8. This hymn, as we
know from a letter from Pope St.
Clement (martyred in A.D. 99), has been
sung in the Mass since at least the first
century of Christianity.
The Eucharistic Prayer
It includes a prayer for the
sending down of the Holy
Spirit, the epiclesis, for
nothing in the Eucharistic
sacrifice happens by man’s
effort alone.
• the sounds of ringing
bells
• proclaiming that a great

miracle has occurred
Bread and wine are no

longer bread and wine.
Christ is now present in the
Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul
and Divinity.
•taking
•giving thanks
•breaking
•giving.
The Mystery of Faith
Christ has died

Christ has risen
Christ will come again
Great
Amen
Lord’s Prayer
It’s there both as a reminder
that our relationship with God is
essentially familial — he is our
Father — and as an act of
supplication for “our daily
bread” — the Holy Eucharist.
The sign of peace

Christ adjured his followers that before
they could approach the altar, they first
needed to be reconciled with their
brother (Mt 5:23-24). Likewise both
Paul and Peter instructed the early
Christians to “Greet one another with a
holy kiss” (Rom 16:16; 1 Pet 5:14).
Lamb of God
In Revelation, the saints and
angels worship the Lamb,
and in John 1:29 we hear
John the Baptist cry, “Behold
the Lamb of God.”
Lamb of God
The priest repeats the words of
John 1 and Revelation 19:9:
“Behold the Lamb of God. Behold
him who takes away the sin of
the world. Blessed are those
called to the Supper of the
Lamb.”
Lamb of God
The congregation answers in turn with
the words of the centurion in Matthew
8:8: “Lord, I am not worthy that you
should enter under my roof, but only say
the word and my soul shall be healed.”
That answer, like the centurion’s, is an act
of faith, a profession of belief that there
are no wounds of mind, body, or soul
which Christ cannot heal.
Holy Communion
Healing comes in holy
Communion, when the
faithful receive the Body
and Blood of Christ.
Part four: Commissioning
Finally we prepare to go back to
that world in which we will live for
the coming week. The burdens we
have laid down at the door of the
church for this Eucharist, we know
we must now bear again—but now
strengthened
by this Eucharist and this
community.
The priest again says, “The

Lord be with you”—the
ritual phrase serves now as
a farewell.
Blessing and Dismissal
• We bow our heads to receive a blessing.
• As the priest names the Trinity—Father, Son
and Holy Spirit—we make the Sign of the
Cross.
• The priest or deacon then dismisses the
assembly: “Go in peace.”
• And we give our liturgical “yes” by saying,
“Thanks be to God.”Living the Eucharist in the
world. We leave the assembly and the
church building—but we carry
something with us.
The Mass is ended.

Your mission begins!
EUCHARIST
FOOD FOR THE
JOURNEY
ANG TAO O BAGAY
AYNAPAPAHALAGAHAN
KUNG ITO SA ATI’Y MAY
KAHULUGAN

Importance of The Holy Mass

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Importance of The Holy Mass

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RITUALS

Our daily lives have

One of the first things Catholics do when

When we stand for prayer, we assume our full stature

In the Middle Ages kneeling came to

"He who sings prays twice."

• The kiss also signifies

The priest may echo St. Paul’s

King David too utters this as a prayer for his son

“The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Unlike the

• Saying “amen” assumes you

the first reading is drawn from the books

Notably, in the middle of the Credo, at

At Mass these ritual actions are called

On Sundays, at the beginning of the

Preparation of the gifts

• proclaiming that a great

Bread and wine are no

Christ has died

The sign of peace

The priest again says, “The

The Mass is ended.

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