The Missal and the Mass



© Copyright 2002 Catholic Exchange

(Fr Augustine H.T. Tran attended seminary at the North American College in Rome, Italy and was ordained to the priesthood in 1998. He serves in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, and is currently in residence at St. John Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, while he completes a Canon Law Degree at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].)


The first typical edition was published in 1970, just after the Second Vatican Council. That was when we saw for the first time the Novus ordo Missae, the New order of the Mass, as opposed to the Old order, which was the Traditional Latin Mass, which had been celebrated throughout the Western Church until that time.

That Missal was revised in 1975 with the second typical edition. That second typical edition is what has been in use for nearly three decades now. The third typical edition has some minor changes in the way the Mass is actually celebrated, changes that most of you will probably not notice; however, there have been some new prayers added and some new Saints added to the calendar. There will also be a new &#0151 and we pray improved &#0151 English translation of the Mass that will be coming out very soon. That will probably be the most notable change for those of you sitting in the pews. When I say “soon,” I mean soon in Vatican time, not in American time. As they say, the Vatican counts time with a calendar, not a clock.

At the beginning of the Missal is a section called The General Instruction and simply, it describes how the Mass is to be celebrated and restates the theology of the Mass that is envisioned in the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, reminding us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life (cf. SC 10, 14). St Thomas Aquinas taught that all the sacraments have the Eucharist as their end, so, all the other sacraments are ordered toward getting us to the Eucharist. This is the centrality of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist for the Christian faithful.

And ever since the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord and Savior, there is no such thing as Sunday without Mass. Of course, Holy Mass is not just that hour interruption into our day. It is not that thing we squeeze into the midst of everything else we have to do on Sunday. It is not, “Let's see, this appointment won't end until 12:30,but I can be a little late for Mass. And then if I leave right after Communion, I should be able to tee off by two o'clock.” When spouses talk about their Wedding Day, they do not refer to the wedding as that thing that happened between 11 and 12 amidst all the other appointments they had that day. Everything else that happened that day centered on the wedding. In fact, all of the festivities probably started the night before.

In the same way, Sundays, for Catholics, are centered on the Holy Mass; and the night before would be a good time to start the festivities by reading the scriptures for Sunday. In fact, I always encourage families to discuss the readings together on Saturday night. Then the children and the parents will be prepared for what they hear on Sunday. Do we not do as much when we read the libretto prior to attending an opera? Should we not do at least as much prior to the sacred as to the profane?



Anyone who knows nothing about baseball will find it boring to watch and will never understand how a grown man can sit and watch it for three hours a day, a couple of times a week, for some eight months of the year. But those who watch baseball love it because they understand its intricacies. The same is true about everything, including the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Unless we study it, unless we learn what all the symbols and gestures mean, unless we prepare for Mass internally as well as externally every time we go, it will have no meaning for us and it will be an intrusion and a bore every time. Our conscience will never be bothered by coming in late, by leaving early, or even by leaving in the middle to answer a cell phone call. We could all learn a lesson from St Thomas More, who, when he was summoned out of Mass by the King of England, said to the messenger, “I shall have an audience with my earthly king after I have finished my audience with my heavenly King.”

In the beginning of the Book of Revelation, St John is given a vision of Heaven. Recall that it is on a Sunday that he has this vision on the island of Patmos (cf. Rev 1:9-10). The whole Book of Revelation is a description of what he sees in Heaven using a literary form called apocalyptic writing. We see references to incense and candles, to priests and liturgical vesture, to chalices and hosts, to the Lamb of God and to angels praying, “Holy, holy, holy,” to the intercession of the Saints and angels and to the reading of the Sacred Scriptures. What John sees is the Mass going on for all of eternity. What the Book of Revelation describes is the Mass that we celebrate every day on this altar. This is our taste of Heaven on earth.

In the heavenly liturgy, we shall be called to be active participants with the angels and Saints. So, we are called not just to be passive spectators, but active participants in our earthly celebration, also &#0151 internally and externally active. The council fathers used an expression that goes back to Pope St Pius X to describe this type of participation, participatio actuosa. It is commonly translated as “active participation,” however, it might be better translated as an actualized participation. It is not just externally singing and doing all the actions that everyone else is doing, but also an internal disposition. When an opera brings one to tears or intense joy, then one has truly participated in that opera. That does not mean that one was on the stage performing, but rather that one experienced the opera as the composer intended it. That is an actualized participation that does not require any external action on the part of the listener. It is a real, true, active participation by the listener according to his proper role.

On the other hand, one could be, for example, a non-Catholic at the Mass who follows along in the missal, says all the responses, sings all the songs, and sits, stands, and kneels when everyone else does. However, he does not actually participate in the Mass; because he does not believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic species, or in prayer to the angels and Saints, or in praying for the dead, or in the authority of the pope, or maybe he does not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, all of those things that we celebrate and commemorate during the Mass. He is going through the external actions, but he does not have the internal disposition that is required to fully, actively participate in the Mass. Hence, our participation must have both an external and an internal manifestation.

The new edition of the Roman Missal and the new English translation of that missal, are intended to help us manifest more fully that active participation &#0151 that actualized participation in the Holy Mass. The Mass that weekly, and even daily, gives us a glimpse into the heavenly joy that awaits us in the life to come.

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