Tag Archives: Mass

A Rant…

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Two Sundays ago my Parish had our Confirmation Mass, where young adults came before the Church and announced their desire to take the final step, of three, of becoming a Catholic by choice instead of by their parent’s decision.  They came before the Church and accepted Jesus as their Savior and the Catholic Church as their home.

Last Sunday we had First Holy Communion for our young children that were taking the second step in coming into full communion with the Church and to start receiving the Eucharist at Mass.

In both cases the Mass was attended by friends and family of those coming into the Church by their choice, and those receiving Communion with the Church.  This is good!

What is bad is what I heard the weeks before these two weekends.  Many Parishioners stated that everyone should go to the Sunday Vigil or the 1200 hours Mass because the 9AM Mass would be too long and crowded.

We, as Christians, should be HAPPY to be at this Mass and watch our newest members come closer to God!  We should be there to show our support and to welcome them into the Church!

Sunday should be a day dedicated to Christ and His Church.  Spending a bit of extra time IN the Church should not be a problem.  If you have to stand to be present should not be a problem.  If you are unable to stand that long, come a bit earlier and ensure you get a seat.  EVERYONE in the Parish should have been at those two Masses, and the other Masses of the weekend should have been empty or near empty (occupied by those that had to work Sunday morning).

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Communion – Holy Eucharist – Part Two

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In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for Worship (or to bow down) was hishtakhavah.  In each occasion of the use of this word (Gen 22:5 is the first use) worship consisted of a sacrifice (or in some rarer cases bowing down).  In the New Testament Greek was used, but the same meaning was attributed to that word.  In each case, the sacrifice dealt with a food (meat in most cases, unleavened bread in others) and blood.  This was as decreed by God as a reminder of the Covenant with God and His people.

In the New Testament, Jesus ends that Covenant, and creates a new Covenant with the People of God through His Death and Resurrection.  The new Sacrifice He requires is the Sacrifice of the Eucharist, which also becomes the Sacrament of the Eucharist in our consuming of His Body and Blood.

Justin Martyr wrote between 150-155 the “First Apology” to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius a large book in which he outlines the liturgy of the times from the times of the Apostles until that time:  “Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president (priest) in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings … and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.”

Martin Luther, the leading “Founder” of the Protestant religions, was VERY adamant on the fact that the Eucharist WAS the body and blood of Christ.  He fought for this being the 15th of was finally 14 agreed upon “foundations” for Protestantism.  Zwingli being the leading force in NOT allowing it as a foundation, by stating that Jesus could not be everywhere.  The Lutheran Church continued to believe in the Eucharist as being the living Body and Blood of Christ for many years.  (Some “sects” of the Lutheran Church no longer accept it, some still do.)

In today’s Mass of the Catholic Church, we recreate that Sacrifice of Jesus to God on our behalf, and the accept his Body and Blood as He requires of us though the Bible.

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The Bible.

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There are many, many translations of Bibles out on the streets to pick from.  Even within the Catholic Church there are many approved and acceptable Bible translations to pick from.

Should you be able to read and understand Latin, the recommend Bible is the Catholic Latin version, as it is the closest translation to the Greek books that would have been read by Jesus and used by those people of Jesus’ time and for several years after that.

But, if you are an English speaking person, as of November 27, 2011, you will want to have at least one copy of the New American Bible, Revised Edition, as it is the translation that is used in, now, ALL English speaking Masses as of the 27th of November, 2011.

Now, if you are into scholarly studies of the Bible, a SECOND (you should still have a copy of the NAB/RE Bible on your book shelf so that you can go along with the Mass!) Bible to have would be the New Jerusalem Bible, which is a very good translation, and in most cases has a lot of great “side bar” information.

Be sure you have a Bible that has ALL of the Canonical books in them!  Martin Luther, in his Reformation, decided to take out seven books from the Old Testament to match what the Jewish were now using, based on Hebrew written text (although he translated from the Vulgate, which was the Latin translation from Greek text).  At the time of Jesus, most of the written word, even by the Jewish was in Greek.  Jesus would have been reading text from Greek books, and not Hebrew.

With the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient text, we are finding that the text used to create the Greek text of that time are pretty much dead on to the older Hebrew text, so the translation differences are not what many people thought in the early years of the Reformation and Protestant Schisms.

Prior to the late 90s or early 100s, the Jewish Faith accepted those seven books as inspired and used them as well.  (Those books are:  Tobit, Judith, 1&2 Maccabees, Baruch, Daniel (although this is still in the Jewish Ketuvim), Wisdom and Sirach)  It was not until this time that a SMALL few of the leaders of the Jewish Synagogues decided to remove them from their Nevi’im and Ketuvim as they were not written in Hebrew first, and before a certain time.  UNTIL that time, they were considered inspired by the faithful though!

There are other Bibles that are accepted by the Catholic Church, but unless  you are really wanting to get into deep research and in depth studies of the Bible, the only one needed is the New American Bible, Revised Edition that just recently came out.  A good “second” Bible to have is the New Jerusalem Bible.

In Christ!

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