Catholic Massterclass: All About Holy Mass

Big news, everyone: I think this will be our final Catholic Massterclass! I never thought it would last this long, and yet I think it could go even longer. Holy Mass is so rich! We’re going out with a mystery, which is fitting for our mysterious worship. Today we’re talking about Eucharistic miracles. A Eucharistic miracle is an extraordinary event in which God makes visible what is normally hidde...

This week we’re going to talk about deacons. Although we don’t have any deacons in our parishes, you may attend Mass where a deacon is assisting the priest or bishop. It’s worthwhile to know what that role is all about.   We have to go back to the Old Testament. In the Temple of Jerusalem, God established a clear distinction among His people. Only the priests—descendants of Aaron—could offer sacri...

Today’s Catholic Massterclass will focus on the use of bells during the Eucharistic Prayer. The GIRM provides this instruction: A little before the consecration, when appropriate, a server rings a bell as a signal to the faithful. According to local custom, the server also rings the bell as the priest shows the host and then the chalice (GIRM, no. 150).   Two simple points about this: first, it is...

Now that we’ve completed our walk through the Mass, we’ll spend a few weeks talking about some unique topics surrounding and included in the Mass. This week’s topic is focused on the practice of bowing at the mention of sacred names and during the Creed. Bowing at the mention of sacred names is something that has largely fallen out of practice, although it is still the expected gesture (i.e. the n...

We will finally reach the conclusion of Mass in this week’s Catholic Massterclass! What an incredible journey! Our final three actions to explore are the Prayer After Communion, the Blessing, and the Dismissal. All three are fairly brief, so we should be able to cover them all today.   After a moment of silence, the priest offers the Prayer After Communion, which is provided in the Roman Missal. T...

After the distribution of Holy Communion has finished, the priest takes a moment to purify the sacred vessels, making sure to clean and consume every crumb and every drop, rinsing them with water and making sure nothing is wasted. The principle comes from John 6 after the multiplication of the loaves, John tells us that Jesus instructed the disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothi...

This next part of Holy Mass goes beyond what words can describe. Our Lord Jesus gives Himself to us in Holy Communion. Most of this session will actually be very practical, but we first need to start with a simple reminder.   We really believe the bread and wine have been changed into the living Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus crucified and risen from the dead. We believe it is the same J...

After singing the Lamb of God and executing the accompanying actions and prayers, everyone kneels down again while the priest genuflects. The priest holds up the Eucharistic host and says, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb,” and everyone responds, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, b...

For this week’s Catholic Massterclass, we’re not going to move forward just yet. Instead, I want to focus on something that most people don’t notice during this part of the Mass. Even though it often goes unnoticed, it is a critical moment — not only for the priest, but for each member of the congregation. I hope it opens your eyes in a new way to your preparation for receiving Holy Communion.   L...

The next part of Holy Mass combines three different actions into one movement: the Fraction Rite, the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), and the commingling of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Each of them reveals something distinct about what is taking place on the altar, but together they show one single mystery. Let’s take a closer look.   While the Lamb of God is sung or recited, the priest picks up the...

Following the Lord’s Prayer during Mass comes the Sign of Peace or the Rite of Peace. There are two places where instructions are given in the Roman Missal, once right in the Order of Mass and, before that, in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, paragraph 82. It’s probably better to start with the paragraph from the GIRM.   Paragraph 82 mentions three things about the Sign of Peace: first...

There is much more that could be said about the Eucharistic Prayers in the Roman Missal and in general, but we’ll move on to the next part of Holy Mass, which is the Lord’s Prayer. There are a few interesting points to make about the Lord’s Prayer and the surrounding text, including a surprise statement that many believe to have Protestant origins but really comes from the prayers of the early Chu...

The final of the primary Eucharistic Prayers, Eucharistic Prayer IV (EPIV) is easily the least used of them all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if none of you had ever been at a Mass when EPIV was used. It’s a little strange to me why it isn’t used often, but it could be that it sounds a little different from the others and is a bit on the longer end of the spectrum. Here are some unique feature...

For many priests and laypeople alike, Eucharistic Prayer III settles as a nice middle ground between the Roman Canon and Eucharistic Prayer II. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) suggests that Eucharistic Prayer III is most appropriately used on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation and many priests follow that suggestion. Here are some unique features of this Eucharistic Prayer:   T...

Last week we looked at the longest Eucharistic Prayer (The Roman Canon) and this week we will look at the shortest Eucharistic Prayer (Eucharistic Prayer II). As I have mentioned the past couple of sessions of our Catholic Massterclass, there is controversy over the reality of options for the Eucharistic Prayer. Nonetheless, we have a variety and each of them has unique characteristics and often r...

We’ll spend the next four weeks looking at each of the primary Eucharistic Prayers provided by the Church in the Roman Missal. The first one - Eucharistic Prayer I or the Roman Canon - is the longest and most connected to history. Many of us are aware that the look and sound of Mass was changed in the 1960s, going from Latin to the vernacular language of any given place. In the Traditional Latin M...

After the Holy, Holy, Holy (the Sanctus), the Mass enters its most sacred moment: the Eucharistic Prayer. Everything we have done so far has been leading to this prayer, and everything that follows flows from it. This is the prayer in which Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is made present to us sacramentally. Although there are several Eucharistic Prayers, they all share the same essential structur...

The Holy, Holy, Holy—the Sanctus—comes directly from Sacred Scripture. In Isaiah 6, the prophet hears the seraphim crying out “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts,” and in Revelation the same hymn resounds in the worship of heaven. This is the song of heaven itself. When we sing it at Mass, we are not merely recalling a biblical moment—we are entering into heavenly worship. The liturgy lifts us...

Once the gifts are prepared, the priest prays the Prayer over the Offerings. This prayer does not consecrate the gifts; rather, it formally offers them to God and asks Him to receive and sanctify what has been placed on the altar. This reflects a basic rule of biblical worship: offerings are never simply placed before God—they are named, offered, and prayed over.   In the Temple worship, the pries...

Every Sunday, after the General Intercessions, something quiet but deeply meaningful happens: the Offertory. Bread and wine are brought forward either by the people or by the servers, a song is sung, and the priest begins a series of prayers at the altar. As usual, there is a nice connection with Old Testament worship that has been brought up through Christian history.   In the Temple, God command...

After the homily each Sunday, we stand and offer the Prayers of the Faithful, sometimes called the Universal Prayer or General Intercessions. Many people wonder: Why do we do this? Is this a recent addition to the Mass?   While the form we use today was restored after the Second Vatican Council, the practice itself goes back to the earliest Christian communities. Around the year 155, St. Justin Ma...

Each Sunday, after listening to God’s Word, the Church stands and professes the Creed. It can be easy to treat this moment as routine, something said simply because it is “what Catholics do.” But in reality, the Creed is an important moment in the liturgy. It expresses who God is, what He has done, and what we believe as His people—so that we may worship Him rightly.   Throughout Scripture, God co...

One of the most familiar moments of the Mass is the homily. After the readings, everyone instinctively leans forward and waits to hear something that will encourage them, teach them, or challenge them. This instinct is ancient. We can see its roots in the Scriptures themselves. In the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4), Jesus stands to read from the prophet Isaiah, and then He sits down—taking the pos...

For our Catholic Massterclass today we’ll talk about the readings proclaimed during Mass. The proclamation of the Word of God has always been part of Christian worship. St. Justin Martyr, who lived in the 2nd century, mentions that something is always read from what we would call the Old Testament and also from the “memoirs of the apostles”, which is the New Testament. The exact structure of the B...

After the Sign of the Cross and the greeting, the priest says, “Let us pray.” Then there’s a pause — a quiet moment easily overlooked. But in that silence, something profound happens: the whole congregation is invited to pray silently, offering up their personal intentions, gratitude, and needs to God. When the priest then prays the Collect (pronounced KAH-lekt), he “collects” all those individual...