The Holy Mass - Take - Bless - Break - Share

Music owned by the Harry Fox Company, Inc. No infringement is intended. About the year 150, St. Justin, a syrian by birth and a professor of philosophy in Rome, describes the sunday assembly thus:" And the day that is called after the Sun, there is held a meeting in one spot of all those who live in the city or in the countryside. And the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the profets are read out in public as far as time allows. When the reader stops, the president, by way of a sermon, admonishes the congregation and exhorts them to imitate the fine things they have heard. Then we all stand up and pray together in a loud voice After that, as we have already said, when the prayer is finished, bread, wine and water are brought forward. He who presides, in so far as he can, makes the prayers and thanksgivings rise up to heaven, and all the people reply with the acclamation: Amen. Then the distribution and the sharing of the consecrated food and drink takes place, and they are carried to the absent by the deacons".
In this discription of the Sunday liturgy of the christian communities towards the middle of the second century, we find the framework of our Mass: the liturgy of the Word and the Eucharistic liturgy.
The Word which instructs us and sets us free.
In the Eucharistic liturgy we remember Christ dead and risen again and offer him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.
We must offer the spotless victim, but also learn to offer ourselves.