Introductory Rites

Story:

Going on pilgrimage to Rome for this year of Jubilee with some of the seminarians. It was very spiritually uplifting, but it came with its own difficulties. Since we didn’t have a priest coming with us, we found it difficult to find a mass in English most of the time. So we would go to which ever mass we could find, and they would be in Italian, Spanish, French, Croatian, and we didn’t understand any of those. But at the same time, we would still be able to enter into mass because we knew what happens in mass, and what each section of the mass means. I was very grateful for that, and I also realized that most Catholics are not taught the meaning of the whole mass, and each of its parts.

The Church documents say that each of us are called to participate in the mass fully, consciously and actively. And to do that we need to know what is happening in the mass and why it is that way.

So throughout this week, I’ll be explaining briefly the different parts of the mass, starting with the Introductory Rite.

Explanation:

This part of the mass emphasizes one big theme: unity.

First, we all sing a hymn together. The many voices come together to make one beautiful. This is an analogy of what happens here at mass. All of us, coming from different backgrounds, different walks of life, different vocations. All of us coming together as one to worship God just as the saints and angels are in heaven.

This unity is brought again to mind in this section of the mass when we recall our sins. These sins are the occasions when we broke our unity with God, and our unity with one another. This is what sin does, it separates us from God and others. So before we go any further in the mass, we have fix that. If we want to come to God together as one, we have ask for forgiveness for all the ways we have separated ourselves from each other. In the gospel Jesus, before coming to the altar, if you have any grievance with you neighbor, go reconcile with him first.

And that is what we are doing here. We are asking for forgiveness, and at the same time we are forgiving one another. This is also why it is recommended that we go to confession regularly. Many saints like Padre Pio would encourage going to confession every week. And that’s why confession in most churches are made available on Saturday, the day before we come together on Sunday. So if you are not in the habit of going to confession, I would highly recommend it.

Coming back to the mass, after we have asked for forgiveness from God and from each other, and forgiving each other, we come together and pray. And this prayer is said by the priest, and it is called the “Collect”. And it’s called the “collect” because it collects all our prayers, which is meant to be one, just as all of us are united as one. The priest collects these prayers and gives it to God the Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

For example, today’s collect for the mass was this, and I’m paraphrasing a bit:

For most of my life, I did not pay attention to the collect at all. I thought, oh, it’s just another prayer that the priest says and I just say “amen” after that. But I know now, that this is a very important prayer, and when we say “amen”, we are saying to God, “Yes, this is in fact my prayer to you God, not just the priest’s. And in fact, we are all united in wanting this one things that we are praying for in this mass.” That’s what we are saying. So if you didn’t get a chance to mean this prayer from your heart, I invite you to take a few moments now, close your eyes, and offer this prayer from the silence of your hearts. I’ll repeat the collect now.