....faith and life....life and faces

The Mass

Praying together

takes us out of loneliness, but also out of impoverishment and one-sidedness in prayer. There is the danger that we circle too much around our own interests when praying individually. Participation in a common  church  service exposes us to the concerns of the Church and our times. And we are guided to give thanks and praise, not only ask for favors.

In addition, through common worship, the community of  the faithful and the unity of the Church become visible.  The employee and the boss, peasants and people from the city, the poor and the rich,  blacks and whites are in the same pew.  In this way,  our worship is a  sign of a new society where we live among brothers and sisters. In many parishes this goal has not yet been reached. During crowded Sunday services especially, participants often do not know each other, are indifferent and remain anonymous. Our youth is more attracted to small group celebrations.

Expressing  our faith  together with others who believe  increases the joy and strength of everyone's faith.  We all need  an  environment that carries us along.  Experience  shows  that  most  people easily lose contact with God when there is no  religious community.  It is more difficult to believe  when we are alone.

The Mass

This is the name for the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the Catholic Church. It comes from the Latin „Ite, missa est", (go, you are dismissed) which also contains the idea of  "sending into the world", of mission. Two services are always embraced by the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word, which preserves the heritage of  the  Jewish celebration  (with the priest at the pulpit), and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, going back to the Last Supper with Jesus.

The first Christians initially continued to go to the synagogue service on the  Sabbath,  but came together on the first day of the week  to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Later, when they completely separated from the Jewish community, they did not want to abandon  the  Jewish  tradition of worship and combined it with the celebration of the Last Supper.  These two parts have an  opening rite (the sign of the Cross, the greeting, the penitential rite, the opening prayer) and the conclusion (Prayer of thanks, Blessing, Dismissal).

The Liturgy of the Word

In the center of the Jewish service  were readings from the Old Testament Law, the prophets and their interpretations. The first Christians continued the Jewish custom, but no longer took the texts exclusively from the Old Testament.  Later they began to  include  the  words and deeds of  Jesus, which began to be written down. At Mass today, there is a reading from the  Old Testament and one from the Acts of the Apostles or the New Testament Letters (only one is usually chosen). Then follows a section from the Gospels.

The Mass

This is a fact:

The number of people going to Mass in the  Catholic Church is declining,  despite the reformed Liturgy,  use of the vernacular at Mass and all efforts to adapt worship more to modern times.

The  reasons  for  this  are many and cannot be  discussed on these pages. But the arguments  against worship of God are largely the same as those against prayer  ("It is better to act than to pray"). Now we hear:  "Serving this world and humanity is more  important than venerating and adoring God". This is again a false alternative; it cannot be "either - or" but only "as well as". The  two  belong together.

Although  for a Christian, all of life is service for God  (Romans 12,1; 1 Cor 10,31),  our gratitude and praise  must  also be expressed in the relationship with God. It would simply be inhuman to work all the time without ever reflecting on the purpose of our work,  or  for  spouses  to take care of each other, without showing their love and affection in words, gifts and expressions of tenderness. When feelings are not displayed and communicated, they slowly die.

Service to the world is not curtailed through worship of God. The opposite is true:  dedication to God makes us enter "worldly divine service". A true  Christian does not  shed his skin  at the door of the church; he does not leave the world outside but takes it inside with him.  At Mass, our daily actions are critically tested and stimulated by the norm of the Word of God.

A  South American  bishop writes in his pastoral letter:  "The rich attend Mass every day,  but overlook the biblical command of charity". Some Christians calm their  conscience  with  worship  and occasional  almsgiving  and feel they are no longer responsible for social justice in the world.  We can understand that modern man is skeptical about this type of "pious idling".

I can pray better when I am all alone ...

Man  needs  community.  There  cannot be  good  family life without common meals,  conversations,  celebrations.  This  also  applies  to religious life.  Private prayer  is necessary and important.  But Christ said about  praying in community: "Where  two  or  three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them".

The official worship of the Church is called Liturgy (Greek: action of the people).  Common  worship  needs  a  certain  order  and  unlike individual prayer, is more inductive  to  distraction;  especially so,  when private concerns are not cited in the common prayer.  So it is understandable that some people say: when I am alone, I can pray better.  But a Christian cannot exclude participating in common worship since Christian belief is never a private matter.

Prayer

Prayer on the spur of the moment

Many will probably say:  to be able to pray as described above, a lot of conditions have to be right.  But what do I do if I am preoccupied with something so intensely that I am unable to free myself of it, despite all my efforts; as for silence and concentration, these are impossible. Should I then completely forgo prayer until circumstances are again more favorable?

This could take very long. But in these circumstances, another form of prayer is available. It does not make sense to immediately switch from human anger to praise of God. In this situation, silence and listening are often impossible and can be replaced by spontaneity. I can begin to discuss with God the joy or grief, anger or fear which keep me from concentrating. "O God - this is my problem right now, - what do You think? Perhaps it is wrong that I cannot get away from it. But I am like this. So I would like to talk with You about this trouble, this joy ...." And already this is a prayer from the prayer-book of my own heart. For this type of prayer, almost no preparation is required.

This is the prayer of the hurried and rushed human being.  God comes between the irritation and myself and helps me get away from it. From this distance, I begin to see things differently. What was eminently important to me begins to lose its significance. I calm down and a change takes place within me.

 Children have  infuriated  their  mother.  She  is irritated and reacts unfairly.. But she finds the strength to withdraw for a few minutes and think: "God, I have lost control of myself. Help me to regain my composure and not to respond unfairly again." Lost time? After two minutes, Johnny has mother back and knows, she understands.

Prayer book

Should we not succeed with a prayer "on the spur of the moment" because we are so empty, we can always resort to a prayer book. Others have prayed in this way, so let us see  if  it can help us also. Fortunately, we have a  prayer that Christ Himself taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Sometimes we hear people say: "I have prayed, but it did not help." Behind this objection is the wrong expectation that our  reward  for  praying  comes immediately like at a slot-machine.  As if we always knew what is good for us! - Jesus prayed: "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done". - When we pray, we see God's superior understanding and love eventually changing our own ideas and wishes, but countless people have experienced that steadfast, faithful prayers are granted.