The clergy and parishioners of St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax have taken to writing to reignite the laity’s love of the Mass.
Last April, the parish published a booklet titled, “Why I Go to Mass,” a collection of reflections from individual parishioners. Not long after, Deacon Nick La Duca published his own book on the liturgy of the Mass, titled “Can You Not Spend One Hour with Me?”
A large motivation to publish “Why Do I Go to Mass?” came from disruptions to Mass attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark Roddy, a member of the parish council, said the project embodied an adage of Father James S. Barkett, pastor: “Sometimes people will better receive and pay more attention to an idea about our faith when they hear it from someone other than an immediate family member.”
“I KNOW why I come to Mass,” Father Barkett wrote, “but I began to wonder why others do. I asked our Blessed Mother and Patroness, Our Lady of Sorrows, ‘Why do people come?’ And she told me: why not just ask THEM! So, I did.”
In September 2021, the parish began to ask in the weekly bulletin for answers to the question, “Why do I go to Mass?” The number of responses was astonishing, Roddy said, with more than 170 accounts.
Parishioners’ responses were edited to correct spelling or grammatical mistakes and then published anonymously. The booklet is structured in the following categories to incorporate different walks of life and aspects of the faith: Families, Cradle Catholic, Peace, Eucharist, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Young People, Senior Citizens and Return to Faith. “Although our weekdays are filled with multiple overlapping schedules,” wrote one family, “Mass reminds us of a bigger routine going on in our lives — our journey to heaven.”
Several accounts come from young parishioners who are still growing in their faith. “I’ve realized that in going to Mass and listening to God, I don’t have to be scared and stressed and worried and confused,” wrote one teen. “God will always be with me and he will help me. I do not have to go at it alone.”
While some inputs feature devoted cradle Catholics who regularly attended Mass throughout their lives, other accounts reveal deeper struggles. One such story describes a parishioner who left the church shortly after Vatican II, but returned many years later, falling in love with the Mass and eventually becoming a Secular Carmelite.
“In a culture that increasingly denies God and promotes participation in acts of grave error,” said Susan Lee, parish councilwoman, “frequent regular participation in a great good, participating in worship of the creator of all, recognition and acceptance of his love, gives us the strength to strive to love one another as he has loved us, whatever year it is.”
While “Why I Go to Mass” seeks to evangelize, La Duca’s book, “Can You Not Spend One Hour with Me?” aims to reengage the laity in the liturgy of the Mass. La Duca explained that his book emerged from “a critical need for catechesis on the Mass,” due to low numbers of Catholics regularly attending Mass and believing in the Real Presence, “despite the fact that the Mass is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life.’ ”
“The same Sacrifice of Calvary re-presented — albeit in an unbloody manner,” said La Duca, “causes those who attend to fall into three categories: the ‘passersby’; the ‘distant observers’; and the ‘devoted’, who get ‘up close and personal.’ ”
By introducing the reader to Christ’s plea to his disciples in Gethsemane to spend one hour with him, La Duca posits the question of how the faithful should spend one hour with Christ during Mass. La Duca answers that the laity must not be passive but should actively participate. He writes that to actively participate, the faithful should start by examining multiple parts of the Mass: the Introductory Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Communion Rite and the Concluding Rite.
“The book will not focus on the theological, nor the ecclesiastical underpinning of the Mass,” writes La Duca. “It will look at what I believe Our Lord intended for us when he asked his disciples to spend one hour with him.”
Find out more
Print or download ‘Why Do I Go to Mass?’ from the parish website: stmaryofsorrows.org.
‘Can You Not Spend One Hour With Me’ is available on Amazon.
