Do you ever wish that you could hear directly from God a little more often? That perhaps he would chime in every once in a while with what he wants you to hear on any given day?
A few weeks ago, in the fabulous prayer class I am taking, I learned a new little Catholic factoid I had not heard previously. It is this:
In every Mass, God has something specific to speak. To me, to you, to everyone. He has a specific, unique, individual message for every person participating in that Mass.
Really? God has a message specifically for me every time I attend Mass? How am I just now discovering this? How have I missed all of these messages?
They aren’t delivered to us on little slips of paper as we walk through the door. They are spoken to us in the silence of our hearts as we participate — deeply participate — in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Previously, I wrote about the Mass in general terms — the fact that it is a spiritual reality, that it is the ultimate form of worship that has existed since the days of the apostles, that we believe that the “veil is thin” and the souls in heaven and purgatory participate in the Mass with us.
I want to get more specific here. Specifically, to talk about the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word.
Non-Catholics frequently accuse the church of not being adequately rooted in Scripture. They have clearly never seen a Catholic Mass. I have heard story after story of Bible-believing Protestants attending Mass for the first time and being completely blown away. Virtually the entire Mass is based in Scripture. The prayers, the chants, the readings — it’s all really an hour of wallowing in the word of God. That realization has been the tipping point for many a conversion to the Catholic faith.
The Liturgy of the Word is directly oriented to the proclamation of God’s word in Scripture. But we don’t just walk in and start reading. We work up to it. In order to really soak in the word of God, we need to be prepared.
How do we do that? First, we have the Penitential Rite, where we repent and ask forgiveness for the sin that clings to us. Why? Because in worship, our spiritual state really does matter. Sin — even minor or “venial” sin — distances us from God. And when we are separated from him, we can’t hear his voice. So, what better way to prepare for what is about to happen in the Mass, than to get right with God?
Immediately after that, we praise and thank him in the Gloria. Do we praise God because he has an ego, and needs to hear from us how great he is? No. Praise isn’t for his sake. It is for ours. The deepest truth of life is that God is all-powerful and all good, and that everything we have and know and live comes from him. When we praise and thank him, we acknowledge creation as it is, and we place everything in right order in our hearts.
While I have never walked into Mass with a stopwatch, I realize that on your average Sunday, the Penitential Rite and the Gloria take mere seconds each. Maybe a couple of minutes tops. Is that really enough time to get into a headspace of personal encounter with God, to feel and express true contrition for our sins, and to adequately thank him? Probably not. Which is why some particularly devoted Catholics (a category to which I aspire, largely unsuccessfully) often make an effort to arrive at Mass early, so that they can spend some quiet quality time preparing for the Mass, and get a head start on the repenting and praising and thanking. It’s a good habit to get into. I’m trying.
One of the most important things we can do during that time of preparation prayer is to ask Jesus to speak to us through this Mass — to send his Holy Spirit to open our hearts to the message he has for us, uniquely, during this time.
So now let’s talk about the Liturgy of the Word. On every Sunday, everywhere in the world, the same Scripture passages are read in every Catholic Church.
It is important to note that the congregation does not read those Scripture readings silently, to themselves. The readings are proclaimed, out loud. This is important. We all hear God’s word together. And it is not just the lector who delivers it to us. It is Christ Himself. We all hear it, and we all assent to it. (“Thanks be to God.”)
But even though we are all hearing the same words together, as a corporate body, God is speaking through it to each of us individually in the silence of our hearts. This is the grace we asked for before the Mass even began. Scripture says that “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Is 55:11)
So how does this happen? We listen. You know how sometimes a specific part of the readings, or the Gospel, or the homily, just catches your attention? One word or phrase or even paragraph stands out? Maybe it speaks to something in your life, something that you’re going through. Maybe it’s just a sentiment that you find appealing. However, it strikes you, it’s God, speaking to you, saying “This! There is something in this that I want you to know, that I want you to hear more deeply and to apply to your life and to your relationship with me!”
The problem is that we usually stop there. “Oh, that was nice.” But what God wants us to do is to take that word or that phrase back to him in prayer — to ask him for the next steps. “OK, so this caught my attention, Lord. Why? What are you trying to tell me through this? How can you and I go deeper into this message together?”
This is a message we can carry throughout the rest of the Mass, and beyond. We can spend time in prayer after Mass contemplating it. We can bring it home with us and take it to our personal prayer later that day and beyond, for as long as it is fruitful. And then we can carry it into our everyday lives and see where he intends us to apply it.
And then we can attend Mass again — the following Sunday, or even on a random Tuesday morning — and see what else he has to say to us.
And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons why people love to attend Mass.
Bonacci is a syndicated columnist based in Denver.
