Why Go To Mass?

Hello - Have you ever said this: Why do I have to go to mass?

I wonder what your answer was. Well here comes mine. There are many reasons a person could want to go to mass, here are a few: To worship Jesus, so their folks won’t yell at them, to show off their new clothes, because they like to sing, to pray, to feel holy, to do their “duty”, to take a nap, to see their friends and many others. When you do go to mass why do you go? Do you ever pay attention? To you ever sing? Do you ever think about God? If you receive this newsletter you are old enough to pay attention and participate in mass. It is my hope that you will soon find this easier to do.

To make it easier the Youth Ministry at St. Bart’s is putting on a Youth Mass this spring. We are doing this because I think that the reason so many teens have a hard time with mass is that they don’t understand it. And the Youth Mass is a step in the direction to explain it. For instance do you know what the word mass means? Well if you don’t, keep reading and you will find out. The word mass comes from the Latin word missa which means dismissal. It might sound strange that the word for our worship service means dismissal but there is a method to our Catholic madness.

Here’s how it goes. At the end of mass when we are “dismissed” the priest prays a blessing on us. Thus the dismissal of mass is a time for a blessing. And if you think about it the whole mass is a blessing. For at mass we get to worship Jesus the Son of God, we get to pray to God, we get to see our friends, we get to be a part of the body of Christ and we get to receive The Body of Christ in the Eucharist. All of these things are blessings. They are blessings because we are blessed by them. Back to the word mass. So mass means dismissal and the dismissal part of mass is a time for blessing and the whole mass is a blessing. Because the long sentence above is true the Church started to refer to the liturgy as the mass, of the dismissal... the time for a blessing. So you can think of mass as “the time for a blessing.” Next time you go, expect one!!!!