Must mass be entertaining?

 

One of the great challenges facing adults and young people today is the struggle to pay attention. Never has so much been said about “mindfulness,” even as our minds seem more scattered than ever. I am not speaking of the ordinary distractedness that has always accompanied daily life, long before social media and smartphones. Future research may well show long‑term changes in our ability to focus on a story or a single subject for any length of time without constant visual or auditory stimulation.

The most important part of the mass

 

I want to make what may sound like a controversial claim: the most important moment of the Mass is the very end. After the final blessing, the priest proclaims, “The Mass is ended, go forth in peace to love and serve the Lord,” and we respond, “Thanks be to God.” That response is not meant to be a sigh of relief but an expression of gratitude for what we have received and excitement for what now begins.

Why do I say this?

Divisions over the sacrament of unity

 

The terms Mass, Eucharist, Divine Liturgy, Lord’s Supper and Holy Communion are used across Christian traditions to describe the sacrament instituted by the Lord Jesus on the night of his betrayal and entrusted to those he called to celebrate it in memory of his death and resurrection.

Christians differ in how they understand the Eucharist and in the place it holds within their liturgical life. I hold to the catholic understanding of the Eucharist as a threefold gift of sacrifice, communion and presence; remove one and the others collapse.