Daily Mass

I did it!  I went to mass every day this week.  Now I'm not doing this to be prideful or try to say that I'm holier than you who don't go to mass every day.  This is probably like the first time ever that I managed to go every day.  And it feels so good.  Especially since I just read about the mass in Rediscovering Catholicism.  So I've really been trying to incorporate some things that Matthew Kelly mentioned as I attended mass this week.

In particular I have been trying to use the offertory or preparation time to really get myself in the right mindset for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  Because Kelly is right, this does seem to be the unofficial look around and see who else is at mass time or whisper something to the person next to you time.  But he says "this time is actually designed for a very important spiritual practice...While the priest is offering the gifts, the appropriate disposition of heart, mind, and spirit would be to unite ourselves with the gifts on the altar.  Place yourself on the altar.  Unite yourself with the offering of the bread and wine about to be transformed in the body and blood of Christ.  Perhaps then, a transformation similar to that, which is brought upon you and your life.  The mass is supposed to unite us with and transform us  in Christ...Whatever you are not able to place on the altar is what is holding you back."

I love this.  It really gave me something to think about.  What is happening on the altar during mass is a real transformation and we are all invited to be a part of it.  Not just to witness the transformation of the bread and wine but to take part in the transformation ourselves, to allow ourselves to be transformed by the graces that come with receiving the Eucharist.  But in order to really let experience this transformation we have to put ourselves out there and make sure our minds and hearts our open to the transformation.  My spanish professor, who is one of the best people I know, said in one of our classes that God's love is unconditional, but His grace is not.  If we are going to mass and just going through the motions and not really praying and fully entering into the sacrament then we aren't really getting all of the graces that we can, all the graces that God wants to give us.  We just have to want to receive them, and be of a disposition that allows us to receive them.

Another thing I really liked from this chapter was when Kelly said he makes a request of God each Sunday when he walks into church.  He says "Lord, show me one way I can become a better person this week."  I like that.  It is making small and simple resolutions that really allow us to change our habits in the long run.  Kelly says that God answers this request for him throughout the mass, either in scripture or a song or maybe in the people sitting around him.  And then he writes down what he is going to do in a journal and in his quiet prayer time each day he uses that thought as a starting points and asks God to help him apply it to his life.  I think that is a great and simple thing to do that will really make you take a closer look at your actions and thoughts and the things you say.

There's so much I want to say about things I want to change in my life and how I want to create new and better habits and how I want to conform my will to God's.  And a lot of it has to do with my spanish mystics class and especially my professor in that class.  But I think that might require another post where I can really think about what it is I want to say.

I've go some more quotes about mass though.  Some of the stuff that really made me thing about what my attitude is going into mass and throughout the mass.  Things that called attention to what is really going on in the mass.

"God rested on the seventh day because he foresaw our need for rest."

"For many modern Catholics Mass has become more of a habit and a social gathering than an expression of genuine conviction."

"As Catholics, we are so unaware of the mystery and the privilege that we can hardly wait to get out of church."

"We have lost the quintessential quality of childhood - wonder."

"If we do believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, then the power unleashed within us by the consumption of the Eucharist is unfathomable."

"There is great power in the Eucharist."

"We go to Mass to be fed and nourished by the Word of God - both in Scripture and in Sacrament.  Open your heart, open your mind, and open your spirit."

And especially for me, "Life is not about what college you went to, what college may or may not accept you...Life is about who you love and who you hurt.  Life is about how you love yourself and how you hurt yourself.  It's about how you can love and hurt the people in your life.  You can't see these things, but they are powerful and real."

"Mass is about receiving the body and blood of Christ, not just physically, but spiritually."

"Rediscover the wonder."

"Our lives change when our habits change.  They don't have to be enormous new habits.  Small, simple, practical resolutions will suffice."

"The prayers of the Mass remind us of the Journey of the Soul and orient us toward the great Spiritual North Star."

"The only way for the Church to become more spiritual is for the people to become more spiritual.  We become more spiritual when we pursue spiritual habits.  This is one real and practical way to unearth the riches of Catholicism in our day-to-day lives."

A message a friend of his has on her answering machine "Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of its suffering, it empties today of its strength."

"Imagine how much you and I could accomplish if we didn't waste so much time and energy on sin!"

"If only we could understand and grasp the fact that we are all children of God.  only then will we related to each other as we should."

"The mass is filled with riches.  It is an unfathomable gift.  Embrace the gift."

Pretty cool, huh?  Makes you want to go to mass with a whole new outlook on the experience, right?  That's what it did for me.  This chapter and the anticipation of reading Dr. Sri's book about how the prayers of the mass come from scripture.  Even just going to his talk made me think about what was actually going on at mass, I can't wait to learn even more from the book.  And I'm hoping that my mom enjoys it since I gave it to her to read while I finish Rediscovering Catholicism and The Story of a Soul.  Which supposedly is going to frustrate me because of the unfathomable holiness of St. Therese.  Well, I need something to strive for I guess.