The Way to Mass is Thru Your Heart

 A Biblical Way of Praying the Mass by Father Tim Gallagher explains how to get more out of the Mass.  I was listening to the first part this morning.  Father Tim suggests we take a favorite saint and imagine how that saint prepared himself for Mass.

I imagined St. Dominic Guzman.  He would pray and study.  How would I approach the Mass this way?  It's a good idea to imagine St. Dominic because he wouldn't just "go" like some people do and then wonder what was going on. I once brought someone to Mass and sat them in front of the Tabernacle hoping Jesus would lead them.  The man took out paper and pen and started taking notes; he expected a long preaching service.  Another person, after attending a Catholic wedding said she was glad she wasn't Catholic because her knees hurt and just got comfortable sitting when she had to stand up again.

You can't just walk into Mass and love it.   St. Dominic would say "study" it.  There are many books written about the Mass: its connection to Jewish traditions, its Biblical origins, and its historical development from the Last Supper.  There are missals to follow the Mass in the pews.  There are even books for children.  You need to understand what you are looking at.

There is a part of the Mass that really needs weekly study, and that's the Liturgy of the Word.  You can prepare yourself to listen to the Readings before you attend Mass.  I myself belong to a weekly Scripture Sharing group that does just this.  It is a great help to appreciate the Liturgy of the Word.

But you want to love the Mass.  Understanding it is the first and most necessary step.  St. Dominic would also pray.  He would probably sing, "Come Holy Spirit".  He would pray to be worthy to receive the Eucharist, pray for focus, pray for appreciation, thanksgiving, and worthiness.  

All this is done before Mass.  The readings for sure are prepared.  The praying could start while we are dressing for Mass, or driving, and/or definitely kneeling in our pew prior to Mass.

It's the preparation that turns the heart towards the right disposition to focus on the Mass.

Jordi's Witness

Here's a witness (re)conversion story from my favorite Lay Dominican Postulant about St. John of the Cross. 

"Con la autoridad del Sumo Pontífice Gregorio XIII..."
With these words San Juan de la Cruz hears his prison sentence pronounced. Around him, Tostado, Maldonado and other unkind faces glare at him with no sign of Christ in their rotten hearts. The only loving face he sees when he closes his eyes is the image of Jesus and his last visit with Teresa de Cepeda, that wonderful woman who sang so beautifully, even when she was feeling ill, who understood him and could hold intelligent conversations with him better than any man, about real things, not material things.

Saint John of the Cross was the first saint I reached out to in my first dark night of the soul in Denver, Colorado. The elders at the Denver Church of Christ, a Fundamentalist Born-Again non-denominational church that I had served for months, deemed my views heretical and when they found me with my friend Leete, also a Born-Again Christian, but from a different Fundamentalist Church that allowed musical instruments in worship, they condemned me to house imprisonment and corrective instruction under the tutelage of a kind man who explained how worried he was for my soul.

It was the day I found Sanctuary at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Erin, who was going through her own dark night herself. We felt like St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, and we found sanctuary at the Altar of Peace and answers from a Priest who never made an appearance in the news for all his good deeds, and never will. The news doesn't care for such priests, for the news and the false Christians all serve the same false god of nationalism, pharisaical rules devoid of spirit, and hate.

I returned to my Catholic faith that day, and gained a female friend who wanted nothing more from me than my friendship, and that can be just as beautiful as any other road.

A Challenge for All Peoples

The following post is from Jordi Perez, my favorite Lay Dominican postulant.

It isn't merely our literacy that separates us from animals, for plenty of unforgivable crimes by bankers, business people, presidents and self-proclaimed religious have been committed by superior minds. It is our morality that gives value to our intelligence, and our trust and love. God is not so fragile as to fear other faiths. Some religions oblige one to live according to Godly mandates, and some add the obligation to preach and convert. Can we can love enough to accept the rejection of our Truth and our Way? If we can realize that conversion may only happen after 30 years of marriage, or 10 years of friendship, or in the split second that one extends a loving hand, then we can also realize that at no point is intolerance ever acceptable, for we would fail in our call to preach.

Why can't we share our faith along with the faith of others and enjoy a banquet of beliefs and ideas that can enrich us... even if we choose to oblige by our Ten Commandments, 613 Mitzvot, Five Pillars, Five Buddhist Precepts or just Dharma?

We have reached an Age where our Faith should have matured enough to take the next step up the Stairway to Heaven. We cannot expect God to use Elementary School lesson plans on College-Level Students. God knows that better than we do. Read, and pray, for they are the only things that make us human, then read and pray together, for our infinite and communal faiths are greater than our finite and solitary needs.

We need not erase religion, because we are religious animals, and we are human, capable of far more than gibbons. As fun as it is to measure ourselves by how hard we hit or how fast we run, those awards will always go to gorillas and gazelles, not humans.

Our measure is one that no animal can surpass. Our measure is in the Image of God.

The God that allowed us to take and eat, even after He warned us not to. That is the experience of every loving parent with their child, and our response must be equally sacrificial and loving.

We live in a violent and difficult age, but it is us who make it violent and difficult. Only us. And it is us who can make it less violent and less difficult. God is waiting.

Christians, you have studied for 2,000 years. Graduate already. Muslims, you are not far behind. Submit to Peace. Jews, find where we can fit in your Sabbath, since we love and respect the same Prophets. Buddhists, Hindus, we too can find common ground under the orange sun. And none of us need change a single color of our convictions.

Surprise God with love. See what it brings.

You shall not kill.

"...from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life." --Bereshit (Genesis) 9:5

If anyone has killed one person it is as if he had killed all mankind --Quran 5:32

Ahimsa.

--My thoughts after Pittsburgh

*Ptttsburgh is reference for the senseless attack on worshippers in a synagogue by a bigotted madman on October 27, 2018. It was a mass shooting that occurred at Tree of Life -- or L'Simcha Congregation, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania while Shabbat morning services were being held.