THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

The introductory rites, the parts preceding the Liturgy of the Word, namely, the Entrance Procession, greeting by the priest, Penitential Rite for our sins, Kyrie or “Lord have Mercy,” Gloria or “Glory to God” and Opening Prayer, also called the “Collect,” have the character of introduction and preparation. The purpose of these rites is to help the assembled people become a worshipping community and to prepare them for listening to God’s Word and celebrating the Holy Eucharist.

The Mass joins Heaven and Earth. It gathers the whole Family of God as we participate with the Angels, who fall down in worship before God. All of our brothers and sisters, everyone in the world, even the souls in Purgatory benefit from our prayers at Mass.

ENTRANCE PROCESSION- The mass INTROIT or Entrance Antiphon from the Roman Missal is chanted or sung. The Entrance song begins the “summit of the Christian life” that follows tradition. People were already singing at the first Mass. Telling about the Paschal meal, Matt 26:30 and Mark 14:26 note that Jesus sang hymns with his apostles. They were singing songs of the Hallel, that is, Psalms 113 to 118 which concluded the Paschal meal.

Singing is an element of solemnization , it clothes the celebration with beauty, it expresses the unity of the celebrating community. It is principally this function of unification that the Entrance Song fulfills. When the priest, representing Christ, joins the celebrating community, the Church, the Body of the risen Lord, with its head and its members, is signified in its totality. Let us be filled with joy as we consider that the Lord is truly with us

GREETING – The Mass joins Heaven and earth. It gathers the whole family of God. In Mass, we participate with Heaven as the Angels fall down in worship before God. Even the souls in Purgatory are aware of the blessings and graces we send them from praying for them at Mass. All of our brothers and sisters, everyone in the world, benefits from our prayers at Mass.

The first gesture of the priest is the veneration of the altar: he bows before the altar and kisses it. The altar is not only the “center of thanksgiving” (GIRM, 259), the table where the “Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor 1120) is celebrated, but at the same time the sign of Jesus Christ in the midst of the community. Tradition affirms “the altar is Christ.”

Kissing the altar is a gesture of veneration and tender respect. At the same time it expresses an attitude of adoration toward Christ. The priest is going to direct the celebration, but first before the entire community he manifests his love and his adoration toward Christ the Lord.

The church’s altar is anointed (liberally) with Sacred Chrism when the altar is dedicated. We too, with the priest, must prepare the altar of our souls so that Christ may come to us.

Among the early Christians, the Sign of the Cross was probably the most universal expression of faith. It appears often in the documents of the period. It most places, the custom was simply to trace the cross upon the forehead. The Sign of the Cross is the most profound gesture we make. It is the mystery of the Gospel in a moment. It is the Christian faith summarized in a single gesture. When we cross ourselves, we renew the covenant that began with our Baptism and proclaim the Trinitarian faith into which we were baptized.

Every Mass begins, as it ends, with the invocation of the Trinity. After blessing ourselves in the name of the Trinity, the priest greets the people, a custom that is found also in the ancient Church. While the form of the greeting may vary, the Missal suggests certain phrases with which Paul greeted his people in the letters he wrote to them. The simplest of these is the familiar, “The Lord be with you.”

THE PENITENTIAL RITE - KYRIE – The entire Church, down to its most sinful members, is holy, “pure and immaculate” (Eph 5:27). She is holy with the very holiness of Jesus. She is without sin, but not without sinners. Her holiness consists precisely in recognizing herself a sinner in order to be able to welcome the forgiveness of Jesus.

The priest leads us in orienting ourselves more closely to God so that we can worthily participate in the rest of the Mass. This involves seeking reconciliation with God and with one another, so that there is nothing keeping us from loving and being loved. We want to be in the proper state of mind and soul to participate in the sacrifice and to receive Christ in Holy Communion.

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.” [Mk 2:17]. Jesus, whose name means “God saves”, came to call a fallen world back to God. This is what he does at every Mass.

We express our penitence to God and to each other, praying together: “I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters . . .”  We say we are sorry to God together, and we apologize to our brothers and sisters in Christ for sometimes not giving the best example or for sinning against them. We promise to pray for each other, because we should always have our hearts open to reconcile with each other.

We are never closer to Heaven than when at Mass. We enter into communion with God and are in fellowship with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints and angels.

When we ask God for forgiveness, we are asking Him for mercy. If one word captures the meaning of the Mass, it’s “mercy.” There are several forms for penitential preparation. The most common is the Kyrie eleison, which is Greek. We ask for The Lord to have Mercy three times, showing sorrow for our sins, and symbolizes that we are praying to God as father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In a mysterious act of love, God forgives us and accepts the debt to be paid by His Son, Who died on the Cross for us. What joy we feel that our debt has been paid! God loves us unconditionally. All He wants is for us to be in a relationship of friendship with Him, so, no matter what we have done, he wants us to go to Him. If we are aware of having committed a serious sin since our last Confession, we must first go to the Sacrament of Penance.

Our confidence does not come from ourselves; instead it comes from how great God is.

GLORIA – We pray for peace, and within seconds we proclaim our prayer’s fulfillment: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth.”  From humble petition to joyful praise, the congregation takes up the song of the angels over the manger. (Luke 2:14) The hymn is one of the most beautiful in Christian tradition. Its beauty is resplendent not so much in its literary composition, but rather in its praise of God.

By singing the Glory to God at the beginning of Mass , by praising His Glory, we unite with the angels to proclaim this glory: “We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we give you thanks for your immense glory!” The Gloria is a hymn. It should never be “recited” any more than anyone would recite the song “Happy Birthday to you.” 

The Gloria is omitted in Advent and Lent, as a sign of penance. That is why on Christmas and Easter it returns often accompanied with joy and great celebration. The Gloria is meant to externally express what our hearts are experiencing at this point in the Mass, and it leads our hearts to further joy.

We are humbled by the greatness of God, and in the middle of this prayer, “Glory to God,” we once again acknowledge that Jesus is the Source of mercy. As the Gloria ends, we are reminded of the reason of our joy and confidence: “For you alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ.” What joy to know that our Redeemer lives and He has restored us to life!

God has truly come to us. Christ is the proof of that. There is no brokenness we can ever experience that He cannot make whole.

And Christ comes to us, “the only Son of the Father” as a baby. He comes to us in the most humble, most accessible way. Who is threatened by a baby? Who isn’t drawn to a newborn, and to wonder at the miracle of life? At this point in the Mass, we too bow down, as the shepherds did entering the stable cave, to adore Jesus, praying aloud: “We worship You, we give You thanks, we praise You for your glory!”

COLLECT or OPENING PRAYER – From the Roman Missal that for Sundays and most solemnities there are two options to choose from. The name ‘collect’ comes from the ancient Church of Gaul, indicating that this prayer is meant to collect into one all the desires and petitions that the faithful bring to every Mass. This helps explain the rather general character of the prayer.

Essentially it is a universal prayer, one that everyone can identify with, and so it is the first of what is called the ‘presidential prayers’ of the Mass, namely those which the celebrant prays as a representative of the entire people of God. That is why free composition is not appropriate at this point of the Mass.

It is a prayer through Christ to the Father. The Kyrie prayer is remarkable in being an ancient prayer to Christ, even though it has been realized from early times that the dominant movement of liturgy is prayer through Christ to the Father.

In the “Collect” the priest voices all our hopes and prayers for the Mass. It is one of the parts of the Mass that change each day and often reflects the Scripture readings for that day. As such, it helps us unite our prayers and sentiments to the Church calendar as we relive the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ.

Think of all the Catholics throughout the world today. We all pray the same thing each day at Mass. It is a wonderful expression of how universal our Faith is, beyond all boundaries of language, race and border. Christ came to unite us in one family under the one Father. So we pray together as His family, to the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

The congregation ratifies the presidential prayer with the acclamation Amen. Amen is the transcription of a Hebrew word whose root evokes that which is solid, stable, true, and faithful. The Hebrew word can be used as an adjective or as an adverb.

Isaiah 65:16 speaks about God-amen (the Greek translates: the true God), that is, the God on whom one can rely in all confidence, the God for ever faithful. As an adverb, amen means either It is so , or May it be so. The liturgy uses the adverb Amen in these two meanings. When we affirm: “God is the Creator of heaven and earth” (as in the Creed), the response is not: “May it be so.” Because it is that way whether we recognize it or not. We can simply respond: Truly, it is so. But when we implore God: “Have mercy on us and forgive us our sins,” we humbly add: “Amen, may it be so!”

These initial acts of the congregation are not to be dwelled upon excessively, for instance, the celebrant’s opening greeting or the rite of penance, because the people are not yet ready for great exhortations. There is surely a deep wisdom in the traditional rhythm of these opening rites, as the Church leads us gradually up to the first major act of the liturgy, which is not a human word at all, but the Word of God himself.

CELEBRATING THE WORD

As prayer characterizes the Introductory Rites, so now listening distinguishes the first of the two main parts of the Mass. The word “liturgy” means a public service, a public duty. As citizens of god’s Kingdom, we have the privilege of listening to His Word, which is proclaimed at every Mass. If we are not careful, the liturgy of the Word can appear as simply someone reading from a book at you, but in context of the Mass it has to be much more than that.

Already in this part of the Mass there is a Eucharistic quality in so far as the reading and preaching of God’s Word make God himself present to us. Usually words are for the communication of ideas; they give information. This is true of the liturgy also, but there is more. The Word of God is not just information but formation. It not only communicates an idea; it communicates something of the reality spoken about.

The word of God is a word of power. (1 Thes 2:13). In it God Himself is at work to change us, so that in listening to His Word we must not only think of applying its ideas at some future date but of accepting the presence of God within His Word here and now. By truly listening to what is being read, we are letting that word of power enter into us to change us by the grace of which it speaks.

This sacramental quality of the Word of God reaches its peak in the Gospel. Here we evoke the presence of Christ, but Christ present in a way that once again he reaches out to his people with the message first heard along the roads of Galilee. It must not just be a matter of hearing but of listening. Hearing is passive, listening is active. It is not enough just to let the word of God sound in our ears. We must approach it with attention and eagerness, anxious to profit and to let it change us.

Our worship of God is not something that begins from below. It is something that begins with God and his revelation, and that invitation of the calling God, asking us to return to Him, can be seen in the sub-text of the entire celebration of the Word.

Readings from Holy Scripture are the heart of the Liturgy of the Word. The homily, responsorial psalms, profession of faith, and general intercessions develop and complete it. In the readings, god speaks to his people and nourishes their spirit; Christ is present through His Word. The homily explains the readings. The chants and the profession of faith comprise the people’s acceptance of God’s Word. It is of primary importance that the people hear God’s message of love, digest it with the aid of psalms, silence, and the homily, and respond, involving themselves in the great covenant of love and redemption.
Prior to the revisions of the liturgy in 1969 there was only one cycle of readings for Mass. The readings were fixed – the same for each observance from year to year. When the liturgy was reformed, the selection of readings from holy scripture increased. The rotation of readings moved from a one-year cycle to a three-year cycle for Sundays, solemnities, and feasts of the Lord (Year A, B, C) and a two-year cycle for weekday Masses (Year I and II). One evangelist was selected as the primary Gospel for each Sunday for a particular year: A - Matthew, B - Mark, C – Luke. The gospel according to John is heard on various Sundays during all three years.

GRADUAL- the introduction to the readings.

FIRST READING – In the Lectionary, as directed by the Roman Missal, the proclamation of the Gospel is truly the anchor of all three readings. The First Readings for Masses on Sundays were chosen, in fact, to connect in some way the theme of the Gospel that is proclaimed or to fit the season or observance celebrated. Because of this, the first reading rarely comes from the same book of the Bible two weeks in a row. For all liturgies, except throughout the Easter season, the First Readings are from the Old Testament.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM AND ANTIPHON– the psalms and responses were chosen, for the most part, to follow the story, narrative, theme or theology of the First Reading. However, sometimes the psalm corresponds to the season or to the observance of the saint. The response may also be from the ld or New Testament canticle rather than a psalm. (Canticles are songs of praise – some rather ancient – that found their way into the writings of the Old and New Testament.

SECOND READING – During the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, the Second Readings were chosen according to the same rationale with which the First Reading was chosen – to connect to the seasonal theme that is emphasized in the Gospel. During Ordinary Time the second Readings are semi-continuous proclamations from various epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, or Revelation over several Sundays.

During Ordinary Time: Winter – from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians; Summer and Fall – from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (June until September), and for the remainder of the year, from the letter to the Philippians and the first letter to the Thessalonians.

ACCLAMATION – ALLELUIA (and Sequence) – Alleluia is the transcription of the Hebrew Halelu-Yah, which means Praise-Yah (=Yahweh). Therefore it is a matter of an invitation to praise. On certain feasts, like Easter and Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ), a special poem is read (or sung) called the sequence, before the Alleluia verse, which prepares us to read the Gospel of the solemnity with greater emotion and depth.

The GOSPEL – the Book of the Gospels is actually a very ancient tradition. It is a specially designated and decorated book that contains all the Gospel readings for the Sundays and special liturgical observances throughout the year. The Book of the Gospels is reverenced in a unique way since it contains the very words of Christ.

“The reading of the Gospel is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word. The Liturgy itself teaches that great reverence is to be shown to it by setting it off from the other readings with special marks of honor: whether the minister appointed to proclaim it prepares himself by a blessing or a prayer; or the faithful, standing as they listen to it being read, through their acclamations acknowledge and confess Christ present and speaking to them; or the very marks of reverence are given to the Book of the Gospels”. (GIRM - General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 60)

From ancient times the book of the Gospels has been greeted as though it were a person.  During the other readings the people sit down, as was the custom in the synagogue, but for the Gospel we stand up, as a way of marking the special presence of the Risen Christ; and then the reading is reserved to one of the ordained as the privilege of those who have dedicated their whole lives to the service of the word.

As we stand for the gospel, we make three signs of the Cross with our thumb, one each on our head, our lips, and our heart, saying to ourselves: Lord, be on my mind, on my lips, and on my heart, forever. This act helps us to remember that we want to understand God’s word, the Gospel, with our mind, share it with our lips, and love it with our hearts. We tell the Lord that we are there to listen and that we want Him to speak to our heart. We desire this not out of duty but for love. We ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with grace and understanding of the Gospel. “Faith comes by hearing,” St. Paul said (Rom 10:17). Notice that he did not say, “Faith comes by reading.”  In the early centuries of the Church, there were no printing presses. Most people could not afford to have the Gospels copied out by hand, and many people couldn’t read anyway. So where did the Christians receive the Gospel? In the Mass – and then, as now, they got the full Gospel. We can’t be too attentive during the readings.

“In times past, God spoke to in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through [His] Son.” (Heb 1:1) The Letter to the Hebrews show us how important the Gospel is for us, both in Mass and in our lives. This is the divine Word of God, the same Word that created us, the Word that saved us, and the Word that will set us free. We accept christ as our savior and our Lord, and what His Word teaches, with joyful worship when we say: “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!”

PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL – Intercessions for the needs of the Church, for the salvation of the world, for those burdened, and for the local community. (Bidding prayers) All the members of the Church intercede for all the members of the world. These are the universal prayers of the priestly people for the universe. The prayer of the Faithful is the mystery of love that places each Christian community, however humble and small, between God and the nations of the world and the pain of humanity. It joins in this way the mystery of the Eucharist, interceding  for all of humanity.