by Father Walter Ray Williams

Part III

            As was mentioned in last week’s bulletin, this week we begin to take a look at Chapter II, “The Structure of the Mass, Its Elements and Its Parts.”  Since this is a rather dense section of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, I am thinking that the best way to present it for our consideration is to do so in a kind of bullet fashion, hitting upon the things that the Instruction itself is emphasizing from previous documents, new emphases, as well as some alterations.

• This chapter begins with the reminder that “in the celebration of Mass, in which the Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated, Christ is really present in the very liturgical assembly gathered in his name, in the person of the minister, in His word, and indeed substantially and continuously under the Eucharistic species.”  Christ’s “substantial” presence in the Eucharist is unique.  “The Church,” as Pope John Paul II put it in his recent encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “draws her life from the Eucharist,” and then goes on to quote the Second Vatican Council where it proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life….For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men” (V.II., Lumen Gentium, 11; and Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5).
• There are two major parts to the Mass:  the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but they “are so closely interconnected that they form but one single act of worship.”
• The faithful should listen with reverence to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, for it is God Himself speaking to his people, and “Christ, present in his own word, proclaims the Gospel.”
• The homily (or sermon), for the sake of a “fuller understanding and a greater effectiveness,” is a kind of “living commentary on the word” and is a part of the liturgical action.
• The Instruction lists out the prayers of the Mass that are reserved to the priest celebrant:  the Eucharistic Prayer (“the high point of the entire celebration”), the opening prayer, the prayer over the offerings, and the post-Communion prayer.  “These prayers are addressed to God in the name of the entire holy people and all present, by the priest who presides over the assembly in the person of Christ.”
• Certain prayers, however, the priest prays only in his own name, and these are to be said quietly.
• The celebration of the Mass is by its nature of a “communitarian character,” and so the dialogues between priest and the faithful, as well as the acclamations, “are of great significance,” and “bring about communion between priest and people.”
• Other parts of the Mass that foster the full participation of the faithful in the act of worship of God are the Act of Penitence, the Profession of Faith, the Prayers of the Faithful (General Intercessions) and the Our Father.
• Much importance is attached to singing and music at Mass, and “every care should be taken that singing by the ministers and the people is not absent in celebrations that occur on Sundays and on holy days of obligation.” 
• “All other things being equal, Gregorian chant holds pride of place because it is proper to the Roman Liturgy” – a reiteration of Vatican II and an instruction that may surprise many.  We need to work on this one, not forgetting that chant has shown itself to be extremely popular among the young, that it is not that difficult to do, and that it can be done in any language, not just Latin!  And all the faithful are exhorted to know at least some parts of the Ordinary of the Mass (the unchanging parts) in Latin, “especially the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer….”
• More next week….