See our Mass Times page for our current schedule.
 

Being welcomed to the table of the Eucharist is also a joyous step in the journey into our Catholic faith and the community of believers. Contact Mary Ann Kozak at [email protected] or Andra Benson at [email protected] for more information about preparing to receive First Holy Eucharist.
 

Broken we gather, nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, we are sent forth.

To learn more about the Eucharist, read the two articles below:

Have you ever thought of the beautiful wisdom in the structure and flow of the Mass?

We begin our celebration by the Penitential Act. The Penitential Act calls for a change of heart as we reflect on the way we live as a Christian community, become aware of our sins and remember God’s loving forgiveness. The priest asks God to forgive us all. In thanksgiving for God’s forgiveness, we sing the Gloria. The Liturgy of the Word follows. We listen to God’s Word for us in three readings from Sacred Scripture, and we all sing a psalm. What is God saying to me in these readings? The priest or deacon tries to help us see how these readings apply to our lives through the homily. Aware of the work of God in our lives, we all proclaim our faith together in the Creed. We present our needs, the needs of the universal Church and of the world to God in the Prayers of the Faithful. Then, the Liturgy of the Eucharist begins with the Offertory. In the gifts of bread, wine and the collection for the needs of the Church and the poor, we present our lives to God. These gifts are received by the deacon and presented to God by the priest, who then will say the Eucharistic Prayer for all the people. In the preface, the priest recounts the wonders of God’s love and then calls upon the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ and the community into the Body of Christ. Once Jesus is present in the Most Holy Eucharist, the priest prays to him for the Church, the living, the dead and all those gathered. These prayers are followed by the doxology in which the bread, wine and community now consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ are offered to God through Him, with Him and in Him. Then three explanatory signs of the reality of the Eucharist and the unity it brings about between us and God and among us, follow: we pray the Our Father together, we offer each other the Sign of Peace and we become one with Christ in participation in Most Holy Communion. Finally transformed, renewed and nourished, we are sent forth to give glory to God by the way we live and reveal Christ to others.
 

The Mass is our encounter with the Risen Christ on the journey of life

If we  reflect on the beautiful Gospel passage of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and their encounter with the Risen Christ, we will notice that our celebration of the Mass follows the same process we find in this Gospel. The celebration of the Mass is our intimate encounter with the Risen Christ.

God meets us on the way, comes near to our confusion, despair, and brokenness:

After the crucifixion, a couple of the disciples leave Jerusalem sad and confused. Jesus tenderly joins them on the way and patiently listens to them. In life, we face many challenges; we struggle with our brokenness and that of others and sometimes we feel confused; we cannot figure out what God is doing. It might even seem like God has failed. In the celebration of the Mass, Jesus comes tenderly to meet us as we begin our celebration and we are asked to bring to our minds and hearts our brokenness, our sinfulness, the things that are hurting us. Jesus listens patiently, and we ask for his help: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy. We are reassured of his love and forgiveness through the words of the priest: May Almighty God forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life. Jesus says: I hear you. I see your pain. Do not worry, I forgive you. I will heal you. I will give you life.

God takes the time to help us understand how God is working in our lives:

The disciples cannot understand why the messiah had to die. Was he even the Messiah? Jesus takes the time to explain to them the Scriptures and to help them see the events of their lives in the light of the Scriptures—to see what God is doing in their lives. In our celebration of the Mass, once we have been reassured that Jesus is with us in our brokenness and will heal us, he then patiently helps us to see the events of our lives in the light of Scripture and God’s everlasting life. This process happens through the Liturgy of the Word: the readings and the homily.

Once invited, God enters our life even more intimately and shares a meal with us:

The disciples still do not know that this man walking with them is the Risen Christ, but they feel a desire to spend more time with him, and they invite him to spend the night with them. As they share the intimate moment of the meal and he breaks the bread, they finally see him as the Risen Christ. Everything falls into place; their minds and hearts are open. In our celebration of the Mass, after the homily, maybe not everything makes perfect sense to us. Maybe we are still not at the point of being able to see our lives in God’s eyes and to truly see the Risen One at work with us and in us, but we are at least intrigued; we want more of Jesus. God takes that invitation. Jesus lays down his life for us, breaks the bread of his Body and Blood with us as we are seated around the table as friends. We come forth for communion and we receive God; we become one with the Risen Christ. It is clear we are not alone; we are beloved by God to the point that he is one with us. We can trust again.

Nourished, we are sent forth to share with others the good news of the Resurrection:

After their meal with the Risen Christ, the disciples run back to Jerusalem to tell the others that Jesus is risen. Like Jesus did with them, they help the others understand the Scriptures and how God was at work in the events of their lives—how they are not alone and Jesus is truly with them and truly the Messiah working out their salvation. In our celebration of the Mass, after communion, we are sent forth in peace: the peace of knowing that Jesus is risen and victorious, that he is with us, that in him, our lives make sense and all shall be well. We are sent forth to glorify the Lord by our lives, to show others by our words and deeds that God is with us, that Christ is risen!