So You're New to the Mass

For many, if not most, people who come to a Catholic Mass, it seems odd, bewildering and intimidating. It seems like everyone knows what is going on and you feel like an oddball that everyone is staring at. If this describes some of the feelings you are experiencing, this post is for you.

WELCOME

The first thing I want to make sure you understand is that you ARE welcome! I won’t pretend that every parish is warm and inviting to people who are visiting for the first time. But you ARE welcome by the person who at the Mass who is most important. That person is Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He welcomes you and invites you to stay and to keep coming back. There are plenty of failed and bad people in the Church, but don’t let them keep you away from Jesus. He is present; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity at every Mass. He is the reason to come to Mass!

So thank you for coming to Mass and I hope this post helps you to feel more at ease and comfortable.

AM I GOING TO STAND OUT?

Yeah, probably. But not a bunch. You certainly won’t stick out more than the people who only come to Mass on Christmas and Easter. So while you might get noticed, no one is going to focus on you or anything like that. Just relax and hopefully enjoy the Mass. Take in the sights, sounds, words and actions. Nothing is required from you.

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?

The easiest way to know what to do is to just watch what everyone else is doing. When they stand, you stand. When they sit, you sit. When they kneel, you kneel. You don’t need to know the prayers and responses. It’s okay if you don’t want to sing although you are welcome to. There may or may not be a book or pamphlet in the pew that details out what is happening in the Mass, but I recommend you just watch and take it in for your first few Masses.

You are free as well to say any of the prayers that are said in the Mass and free to add in your “Amen” to any prayer response. You are free and welcome to bless yourself with the holy water and make the Sign of the Cross over yourself. You are even free to take some holy water home with you if you like. (There should be a dispensing container in the back of the main hall or near the entrance.)

The ONE thing that you can NOT do is receive Communion. There are critical and important theological reasons for this and it is not personal to you. I will explain more on this later in the post, but this is the one thing to avoid on your part. When it comes time for Communion, just remain in your pew (if needed you can stand up and let everyone out of the pew so they can get in line for Communion, and then take your seat once they have passed by.)

SO WHAT IS MASS?

The Mass, or Divine Liturgy as it is known in the East, is the New Covenant that Jesus Christ instituted at the Last Supper and Calvary. It is how we are to worship God as He has set up and commanded. The Mass is the participation in the eternal and infinite offering of the Son to the Father through the Holy Spirit. It is an actual participation in the events of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and Easter morning. It is not merely a symbol or fond remembrance of those events, but an actual PARTICIPATION in those events. Our Lord and His New Covenant are outside of time and space. This is why we are able to participate in that New Covenant.

The Mass is very specifically laid out in a detailed manner with reasons for each step of the way. Once you know this pattern, it makes so much more sense to you.

HOW DO WE ARRIVE?

When we arrive at the parish, we want to prepare ourselves to step into God’s Presence in the church. Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Savior and King, is really and truly Present in the Tabernacle in the church. So we are not just stepping into a hall or room. We are stepping into a temple dedicated to God and God is Present there. So we act accordingly.

When we first come in, we touch our right hand fingers into the holy water and bless ourselves with it. We make the Sign of the Cross to signify and remind us of our baptism. It also gives a blessing when used reverently. We then go to a pew and before entering the pew, we take a knee on our right knee to acknowledge our King and our submission to Him (this is known as genuflection). We then sit down in the pew. We should then take our the kneeler and kneel down while saying a prayer that we feel appropriate and ask for God’s mercy and blessing. We then sit down in the pew.

HOW DOES MASS BEGIN?

The Mass begins with the Entrance Procession. It usually involves an altar server carrying a crucifix before the priest as they walk towards the altar. Usually this is accompanied by an entrance song or hymn. As the crucifix passes by us, we make the Sign of the Cross to show our honor for Our Lord’s love for us. As the priest passes by, we make a slight bow in recognition, not of the priest himself, but of the office he occupies.

The entrance is a reminder and more importantly, a participation in Palm Sunday, as Jesus arrived into Jerusalem to begin Holy Week. The New Covenant is not limited to time and space. It is eternal and when we participate in the Mass, we are participating in the actual events with Our Lord and the Apostles.

LET’S GET PREPARED FOR HIM

Now that we have entered in Jerusalem with Our Lord, we must prepare ourselves to make us ready to stand in His Presence. The priest will start the Mass with the Sign of the Cross. All the congregation follows along to remind ourselves of our baptism and to ask God for the grace of this sacrament to fill our souls.

Now we must cleanse ourselves so that our souls are clean before God. We have reached the Penitential Act. The Penitential Act usually consists of either the threefold ask for Christ to have mercy on us, or the Confiteor Prayer. Either way, the point is to ask for God’s forgiveness and mercy before we worship Him. Something to note about this is that it is not merely symbolic. This act of penance before God actually DOES forgive venial sins. (Mortal sins must be forgiven in the sacrament of Confession.)

During the Easter season and a few other times during the year, there will be the Sprinkling Rite where the priest and/or deacon will go through the congregation and sprinkle the crowd with holy water. This also is an act of penance.

WE GOTTEN PREPARED, NOW WHAT?

We have made ourselves ready to worship God, and now begin doing so by exclaiming His glory and majesty through the Gloria hymn, which may be sung or spoken. It speaks of the infinite goodness of Trinity and our love for all three Divine Persons of the Godhead who are all adored and worshipped.

One note on this, is that during the penitential seasons of Lent and Advent, the Gloria is omitted during the Mass.

WE’VE NOW REACHED THE END OF THE BEGINNING

The last part of the introductory rites is the Collect. This is where the priest collects our prayers and presents them to God. He sets forth our intent to worship God through this prayer. We have completed the introduction of the Mass and we are ready to hear His word.

THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

This part of the Mass is where the congregation listens to passages from Holy Scripture, so that we can listen to the inerrant word of God. On Sundays, there will be four readings from the Bible that are set out on a specific schedule through the year for when they are read.

The first reading will usually be a selection from the Old Testament books. The next reading will be a selection from the Psalms which will include a portion that is a responsorial part that the entire congregation participates in. The next reading will be a selection from the New Testament books. The final reading is a selection from one of the Gospel books. Since these readings usually include the direct words of Christ Himself, we will stand in honor and reverence for this reading.

If you pay attention closely, you will notice that all four readings are connected by at least one major theme running through them. They are not selected randomly or without purpose. The readings are selected specifically for teaching some important points about the Christian faith. Each of the readings will be accompanied by a response from the congregation such “Thanks be to God” or “Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ”.

TIME FOR (HOPEFULLY) SOME GOOD TEACHING

We have now reached the part of the Mass for the homily. This is the part where the priest or deacon gives a sermon on the readings for the Mass, or some other topic related to the Christian faith. Usually these run from between ten to twenty minutes depending on the priest. I would like to tell you that the homily will be good for your soul or great teaching on the faith, but I won’t lie to you.

Sadly in the Catholic Church today, most priests give incredibly bland and frankly boring homilies. Few are worth the time and many are downright bad. I don’t want you to be shocked or surprised when you first start attending Mass. This is also one of the reasons I send out a weekly reflection of the readings in Mass that is called Sunday Sermon. Hopefully it can augment or negate any bad homilies you may experience.

One very important fact that you need to understand and remember is the fundamental difference between a Protestant service and the Catholic Mass. In a Protestant service, the focus and central part of the service is the sermon. In the Catholic Mass, the focus and centrality is on the Eucharist/Communion. The reason for this is that the Eucharist is literally God Himself. It is not a symbol, but it is actually and truly His Body and Blood. This difference cannot be overstated in how fundamentally different and important it is.

No matter how bad or boring the priest may be at Mass, he is only a small secondary part of the Mass. The true focus and importance is on God Himself in Communion. I hope and pray your homilies are good ones though.

WE HAVE BEEN TAUGHT, NOW WE WORSHIP

Once the homily is concluded, it is time for us to begin the actual worship of the Mass. We start this by declaring what we believe by reciting the Creed, or also called the Profession of Faith. We will recite either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed. These creeds were crafted in the very early years of the Catholic Church to clearly state what we believe and to differentiate us from any heretical movements. The Apostles Creed comes down from, you guessed it, the Apostles. The Nicene Creed was formulated at the Council of Nicea in 325AD to make clear the difference between Christian beliefs and the major heresy at the time, which was Arianism (which denied the Divinity of Christ). This Nicene Creed was further amended at another Council in Constantinople which further clarified some beliefs about the Holy Spirit and the Church.

We declare our beliefs that were given to us by Our Lord to His Church. We openly declare our adherence and submission to these teachings from Jesus Christ through His Church. The Christian faith is an open book and a package deal. Everyone knows what we believe and we do not hide it. Those who wish to be part of the Church Jesus built and receive salvation must accept everything Our Lord taught us through His Church. We are not allowed to pick and choose what teachings from Christ we believe.

BRINGING OUR PETITIONS TO GOD

After the Creed is recited, we will have our communal prayer requests & intentions said aloud and then the congregation will petition God to hear and answer these intentions. This is a good time to also silently add your own prayer intentions to the Mass, and ask Our Lord to answer these prayers according to the Father’s will.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

After all of this, we are now ready to participate in the New Covenant. This is not some symbolic act or familiar act of liturgy. This is HOW you take part in the New Covenant with God. This is HOW you offer Him the worship He wants. This is an actual participation in the Last Supper and the Cross on Calvary. This is where the Son offers to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, His own Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. This eternal and infinite offering of the Son to the Father is how mankind has been reconciled to God after we were separated through sin.

To really drive home this point, it would be helpful if you would read John chapter 6, and then read the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper. Jesus wasn’t kidding around in John 6. He wasn’t being symbolic or metaphorical. He was being eternally and infinitely serious. In fact, every time He is questioned in John 6 about His teaching, He gets even MORE literal each time He responds. He really and truly does mean it when He says “this is My Body”.

PRESENTING OUR GIFTS TO GOD

As we being the worship liturgy, the congregation begins by bringing to the altar our gifts. This comes in two forms, with the bread & wine for use in Communion, and the financial offering to the parish. You as a newcomer are not expected to offer any money but you are welcome to do so if you choose. You can just hand along the basket to the person next to you, do not worry about it.

THE PRIEST PREPARES THE GIFTS AND HIMSELF

Now in the liturgy, the priest will say some prayers over the gifts before they are offered to God and will mix just a little water with the wine to symbolize the union of Christ with our humanity in the Incarnation and also to symbolize the water and blood that poured out from Our Lord on the Cross. He will then bless the bread and wine to make them holy. Next he will ceremonially wash his hands and ask for forgiveness and cleansing for himself from God before he performs the liturgy of the Eucharist.

NOW BEGINS THE LAST SUPPER

All of the congregation will rise at this point since we are entering the holiest part of the Mass. God Himself will come to us in physical form and as such, it is inappropriate to be seated when Our Lord is with us. We will either stand or kneel before Him until He is reposed in the Tabernacle after Communion.

The priest will say a prayer with some responses from the congregation. Do not worry, you don’t need to participate or say anything, just take everything in. This prayer is called the Preface. Once this prayer is complete, we give honor and glory to God in the Acclamation which begins with the threefold declaration of the angels, “Holy Holy Holy!”. It goes on with other honors and blessing to God’s majesty from both the priest and congregation. Again, do not worry about knowing the words and just experience it all.

KNEEL BEFORE GOD

Now that we have acclaimed God majesty, we are ready for Our Lord to come to us in the Eucharist. This is the highest and holiest portion of the Mass. We kneel here to show our reverence and submission to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The priest then says the Epiclesis prayer which calls down upon the bread and wine the Holy Spirit to make them holy. (Epiclesis means “calling down upon”.) He then recites the prayer of consecration, which is a recital of the words Our Lord used at the Last Supper. While it is the priest mouthing the words, the priest is actually acting in the person of Christ (in persona Christi) at this moment. The priest has no power of his own, but through his ordination, Christ grants him authority to act in His place during the liturgy. (This theological concept can be seen in 2 Cor 2:10, but make sure you read it in the KJV or D-R translations to get the full meaning.) When the priest says the words of consecration, it is actually Christ who is saying “this is My Body” and “this is My Blood of the New Covenant”.

When these words are spoken over the bread and wine, something glorious and incomprehensible happens. The Holy Spirit turns the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity of Our Lord. While you may see, smell, touch and taste what appears to be bread and wine, it is not. Jesus Christ Our Lord is Present there on the altar. This is known as transubstantiation, where the substance, but not appearance of the bread and wine becomes the Body & Blood of Christ. We are now in the direct and physical Presence of God.

OFFERING THE SON TO THE FATHER

The priest will then offer through prayer the gift of the Son to the Father. We are participating in the Last Supper and the Cross on Calvary. As the Son gave up His Body & Blood on the Cross, He was offering it to the Father to reconcile mankind to Him. The priest does this through prayers called the Anamenesis where he gives the Son to the Father.

INTERCESSIONS AND DOXOLOGY

The priest will pray the intercessory prayers that we have as a Church to reconcile us back to Him. The priest will also invoke the intercessory prayers of the saints and angels so they will pray for us as well. (Remember, the prayers of the righteous are powerful, and those in Heaven are perfectly righteous.)

The priest will raise the Eucharist at this point and offer the highest of prayers called the Doxology which is “Through Him, with Him and in Him. Oh God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, forever and ever, Amen”.

PRAYING AS OUR LORD TAUGHT US

We now in the Mass will stand up, to offer the prayer to the Father that was given to us by Our Lord. This is the Our Father. (Some Protestants may know this as The Lord’s Prayer.) While many of the congregation will erroneously hold their hands out like the priest, or hold hands, the correct position for this prayer for the congregation is to place our palms together. We then will recite the Our Father together. Feel free to join if you know it.

“MY PEACE I GIVE YOU”

After the Our Father, the priest gives to the congregation the prayer of the peace of Christ which He gave to the Apostles. This is the eternal peace of Christ we hope to experience in Heaven. Once given by the priest, the congregation gives a very brief communal acknowledgment of peace to each other. (Some in the congregation may go overboard, but this should be brief.)

LAMB OF GOD

Here the congregation will recite a threefold prayer with each one beginning with “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world…”. After this threefold prayer, the congregation kneels once again in reverence.

BREAKING OF THE BREAD

The priest will then break the Eucharist just as Our Lord did at the Last Supper, and he will recite a prayer taken from the words of John the Baptist. “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.”

At this point, the congregation responds with the words of the Centurion who asked for his servant to be healed, but we change it slightly. We will all say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” We truly believe that the word of Christ, who is the Word of God, can heal us. We only have to love and obey Him.

THE BODY OF CHRIST

We have now reached the Communion part of the liturgy. Those Catholics who are in a state of grace are welcome to come up to the priest and receive the Eucharist. As mentioned before, you can just stay in your pew during this procession. Some people will go up to the priest with their arms crossed to receive a blessing, but this is really not the proper thing to do. At the end of Mass, everyone receives a blessing from the priest so there is no need to do so here. Just remain in your pew and this is the perfect time to ask Christ to grant you a spiritual communion with Him. Ask for Him to guide and commune with you as you discern coming into the Catholic Church.

One quick note, Communion is limited to only Catholics who are in a state of grace. This means that they have been to Confession and have not committed a mortal sin since then. A discussion about mortal sin vs venial sin, and the full theological reasons for the Catholic Church limiting who can receive Communion isn’t possible here. A fuller discussion can be had in another substack post.

A second note should also be made to acknowledge the reality of the situation regarding Communion and the reception of it by the congregation. In most parishes, the vast majority of the congregation goes up to receive Communion, and this simply should not happen because most of those people have not been to Confession and are not in a state of grace. They are not properly disposed to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist. Sadly the Catholic Church has suffered from lackluster and pathetic instruction about the Faith for well over five decades. Most of the people in the pews do not know even the basics of the Catholic Faith. Please do not let this failure on the part of people in the Church keep you from God and the truth and beauty of the Christian faith.

WE HAVE REACHED THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Now we come to the Concluding Rite part of the liturgy. After the priest has placed any leftover Communion wafers back into the Tabernacle, the congregation will stop kneeling and return to their seated position. The priest welcomes everyone to pray the final conclusion, at which point everyone rises.

Here the priest will send forth the entire congregation, but before doing so he will confer upon everyone his priestly blessing. He will bless you “in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”. While he is doing this, the congregation will make the Sign of the Cross on themselves.

At this point the priest concludes the liturgy with closing words similar to, “Go forth in the peace of Christ” which is a connection to the final command at the Great Commission to go forth into all the world teaching them the Gospel and baptizing all nations. These words in the Latin begin with “Ite, misse est”, which is where the word “Mass” comes from. The congregation responds with “Thanks be to God”.

The Mass ends with the procession of the priest away from the altar. The altar servers lead the procession out with the crucifix leading the way. The congregation makes the Sign of the Cross as the crucifix passes by. Once the priest has passed by and finished the procession out, it is proper to leave for the congregation. Just as when we entered, we will genuflect as we exit the pew. We will also dip our fingers into the holy water and bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross as we exit the church.

YOU’VE MADE IT!

You have now experienced your first Mass, which hopefully and God-willing, will be the first of an endless string of Masses until your earthly time ends and you join the Heavenly chorus in celebrating the Mass in Heaven. Yes, you read that right, the Mass is ongoing eternally in Heaven! At each Mass, we participate in that one holy and heavenly Divine Liturgy that is happening eternally in Heaven. Hopefully this answers many of your questions about the Mass. If you have any more, please feel free to comment on this post and we’ll get your questions answered. God Bless!