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"Come to Mass in the Lord's house on the Lord's day."
This is the special invitation that Archbishop Timothy Dolan and his advisory councils are giving to everyone as we begin 2011.
Of course, "Come to Mass" is not a new invitation, or limited to just one year. Coming to Mass is what we Catholics are supposed to do each Sunday.
Why? Because the Mass is the source and summit of our Catholic lives. Participating in this prayer is our baptismal obligation. Mass—formally called "The Eucharist"—assists our faith, hope and charity, helps us towards peace and purpose, and improves our chances for eternal happiness in heaven.
In case some of us never think of all that, we now renew the invitation: come to Mass in the Lord's house on the Lord's day.
A church building is a house for God, and a home for us. Many people have strong feelings for their own church, because great things happen there. Baptisms, Communions, Confirmations, weddings, funerals—these all happen in the Lord’s house. But we do not keep our churches just for rare events. We gather in church every Sunday, so that we are not strangers to God or one another. Come to the Lord's house on the Lord's day!
You know that Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Therefore early Christians called it "the Lord's day." The obligation to worship God each week will not go away, even if we are busy with work, sports, family obligations or pleasures. Giving God time is a basic duty expressed in the Second Commandment, which says that we should keep the Sabbath day holy.
This general obligation is specified for Christians. From the beginning, Christians have met on the day of Jesus' Resurrection to hear the Word of God and share Holy Communion. This is our communal response to the command of Jesus at his Last Supper: "Do this in memory of me."
You know that we grow apart from our families and friends when we do not visit or call; the same dynamic happens with Christ and his Church. You may have read that Mass attendance has been slipping. We need to try to reverse that.
Besides wanting to remind one another why we come to the Eucharist on Sundays (and in our religious life Sunday begins with sundown the night before), there is another reason to make 2011 our Year for Mass. It is this: we want to get ready to give a warm welcome next November to some changes in the words that priests and people say at Mass.
The Roman Missal is the ritual text containing prayers and instructions for the celebration of the Mass. A new edition has been approved by the Pope and our first use of the new text will be on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011.
This revised edition of the Missale Romanum contains additional prayers and revised instructions for the celebration of the Mass. It will also include updated translations of existing prayers, including some of the responses and acclamations of the people.
Other languages such as Spanish have already been using these changes, but it took much longer for the many countries that use English to agree.
These are four goals that the Presbyteral Council (made up of representative priests), the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council (two lay people from each of the 19 vicariates) and the Diaconate Council recommended to Archbishop Dolan for us to work on in 2011:
• to stress the centrality of the Eucharist for our lives as Catholics
• to offer an invitation to everyone to come to Mass more often
• to provide information about the elements and the meaning of the Mass
• to inspire worshippers to welcome and learn the changes in our prayer
During the new year, we are planning to offer presentations and resources to help both clergy and laity to become more familiar with the great ideas of the Mass, and with the changes that will be introduced in November. Anyone who wants to can already go to the Web site of the Catholic Bishops to read the texts themselves and see explanatory articles and videos about this. The Bishops' Web site is: www.usccb.org/romanmissal.
We ask you who read this article to add a special intention to your prayers for the new year: that our goals may be achieved, that the Holy Spirit will touch many hearts and call people to church, and that we may get better at what we do best—offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Msgr. William Belford is Vicar for Clergy and serves on the Roman Missal Resource Committee with Sister Janet Baxendale, S.C.; Father Matthew Ernest; and Father Dennis McManus.
