A Thought About Sunday Mass to Start the Week Off Right

It's The 20th Sunday after Pentecost in the Traditional Liturgical Calendar, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time in the newfangled calendar. Whichever you follow, if you're Catholic you're attending Sunday Mass. 

As opposed to Mass on other days of the week Sunday Mass is an obligation. Okay, maybe in your Diocese the Bishop continues to excuse you from Sunday Mass because of the C-Virus Mess that's causing the Church to unravel. But let's not spend any time with that today. There will be plenty of time to talk about the unraveling of our Holy Catholic Church at the hands of our "leaders" as we have from time to time in the past. For now, let's make believe it's pre-Mess.

Pre-Mess, we all attended Mass, right? Wrong. Actually, post-Vatican II and the introduction of the so-called "Novus Ordo" Mass (The Mass of Pope Paul VI)), Mass attendance collapsed. You remember that, right?

Okay, let's pretend that never happened. After all, a lot of us don't even remember a time when a lot more Catholics - a lot more as in a solid majority - attended Mass. So Pre-Mess is what many if not most of us might consider a "baseline" of Mass attendance by Catholics. 

So if we pretend that post-Vatican II never happened and ignore the dwindling attendance during this Mess, we're back to all Catholics attend Mass on Sunday. Fair enough? (It's not asking too much, is it?)

And with that, given how important Sunday Mass is, the thought occurs that maybe some of us could use a boost to our attention to what's going on at Mass every Sunday. Of course, there's nothing new in this. Distraction has always been cited by spiritual guides as a basic, we might even say "normal" phenomenon whenever we pray. And the Mass is the "ultimate" prayer. So if we're distracted, no surprise.

(If you're never distracted when you pray, you can skip the rest of this.)

Keeping the reality of distraction during prayer in mind, let's turn to one specific part of the Mass that is relatively unique on Sunday: the Creed. Traditional Mass or Novus Ordo we pray it every Sunday, and not much, if ever, during other weekday Masses. So Sunday would be our one chance to publicly profess our Catholic Faith in union with our Catholic brothers and sisters not only in our particular parish church, but around the world. That makes it a big deal, no?

I don't know about you, but I've prayed the Creed sometimes without paying the slightest attention to the actual words. Like anything that's familiar, the words just spill out without much thought behind them. It may not be a case of "familiarity breeds contempt," but it's still not good.

So with all that in mind, here's something to smack us upside our heads, shake out the cobwebs, and get us to focus on the very first words of the Creed: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth": 

I believe with certainty, and without a shadow of doubt profess my belief in God the Father, the First Person of the Trinity, who by His omnipotence created from nothing and preserves and governs the Heavens and the earth and all things which they contain; and not only do I believe in Him from my heart and profess this belief with my lips, but with the greatest ardor and piety I tend towards Him, as the supreme and most perfect good.

These words come straight from the Catechism. Not our current CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church), but the Catechism that helped direct the efforts of our bishops and priests from the 16th century until well into the 20th: The Catechism of the Council of Trent.

To be sure, we're not saying there's anything wrong with the current Catechism. Indeed, it follows in outline that which was first laid out in the Trent Catechism. But I thought this clear, succinct explanation of those first words capture their meaning in a manner any of us can easily grasp. And having so grasped their full meaning, we can ideally penetrate through our sometimes cursory recital of the words we say every Sunday and give those words a chance to shape our minds and move our hearts.

There's a lot more in the The Catechism of the Council of Trent about the Creed - and other subjects as well. I know because I, by God's grace, took up the suggestion to read through this venerable document. Since first reading, I do return from time to time to give various sections more attention and deeper study. It's all been quite beneficial.

Sunday gives us the perfect time to spend on such matters, especially if we're not already taking the time to study our Catholic Religion on a regular basis all week. If you're not taking that time now, at least take some time today. Better still, make time every day for a little study. Fifteen minutes or so will do the trick.

Happy Sunday!