Father
has placed this notice in the extended Bulletin he is preparing piece by piece for
Christmas. I thought it might be useful for parents to print off for their pre-teen
children who might ask, “Why should we come to Mass? Is it really important and
does it do us any good?”. I hope you find it useful.
When we are at Mass we hear God speaking to us in the readings,
and meet Him in His Mystical Body, His
people.
When
we are at Mass we are truly
standing with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross as Our Blessed Lord, Jesus
Christ, offers the Sacrifice of His life for our Salvation: “This is My Body,
given up for you...This is My Blood, which is shed for you....” (Matt 26v26-28).
When
we are at Mass we are present
at the tomb of the Resurrection,
because Our Crucified and Risen Lord is Truly
Present in the Blessed Sacrament: “I
am the Living Bread come down from heaven. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My
Blood lives in Me, and I in Him...whoever eats Me will draw life from Me”
(John 6v51-57). It is because He is truly Present in the Blessed Sacrament that
in accord with scripture, which says “every knee shall bow before Him”
(Rom.14v11; Phil.2v10); and which calls “let us kneel before the God who made
us” (Ps.95v6) that we receive Holy Communion kneeling. Pagans refused to kneel
because they saw it as beneath them; we kneel to show we are willing to humble
ourselves before God.
When
we are at Mass we are literally
in heaven, because wherever God is, heaven is, and Jesus our Lord and God
is Truly Present in the Blessed Sacrament,
surrounded by His angels and saints -thus it is “with all the angels and saints we sing Holy, Holy, Holy (Sanctus,
Sanctus, Sanctus” Rev.4v8).
Indeed, the reason we have statues of angels and saints in Church is to remind
us that when we step into a Catholic Church
for Mass we step into heaven. Truly, we don’t need to die to go to heaven; we
only need to come to Mass! In fact we
come to Mass to show God we want to go to heaven, which is why missing Mass is
a grave sin and why we cannot receive Holy Communion again if we miss Mass until
we have been to Confession. We value Mass and never omit to come to Mass
not because the Church commands us to come, but because by choosing to come to Mass we are choosing to come to
heaven, and by choosing not to come
to Mass we are choosing not to come
to heaven...and who wants to miss out on heaven?
Is
there a way of being sure we will go to heaven when we die? Yes, there is; we
can know that if we are good enough to go
to Holy Communion we are good enough to go to heaven, because Holy Mass and Holy
Communion are heaven on earth. Does that mean those who cannot receive Holy
Communion cannot go to heaven? No; but it does mean their salvation is in
jeopardy, since they are excluded from receiving the Holy Eucharist, the source
of all grace. And being in a state of grace is the one guarantee of going to
heaven. Those who cannot receive Holy Communion should still come to Mass so as
to enact their desire to come to heaven.
I don't think this will convince any young people to go to mass. You're basically trying to frighten them with eternal damnation disguised with fluffy language.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Georgina.
DeleteThe 'young people' we are talking about are pre-teen when we can get them to value the wonders of the Mass, only a few of which are explained here. If we can get them to value the Mass early on there is much less chance that they will abandon it in their teens. Neither I nor any of my peers knew any of this when we were at school; it was just a community get-together with trite songs and odd antics meant to enthral us, but which held no real mystery. Young people are into 'mystery' -many of them turn to the occult, even if only in seeking out their favourite TV shows about witches, vampires etc, in order to get it.
I don't think father or I are trying to frighten anyone, we are just seeking give pre-teen youngsters the truth of the Faith. In any case, since we warn of the danger of fire in this world to protect children from fire is it wrong to remind them of "where the worm never died and the fire never goes out", as Our Lord described it? And wouldn't you want your children saved by fear than lost by fluffiness? I would.
well it sounds very much like the old put the fear of good up em to make them come to mass strategy fluffed up as we're doing this for your own good excuses. you'' need to talk with young people on a much more meaningful level if you want them to engage with the church over the long term. I've got 5 children who all come to church because they want and they're involved so I know what I'm talking about. sounds like you're using a man's approach thinking everyone will simply do as they're told
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Georgina
DeleteIn that Andrew and I are both male, you might expect to find a male understanding of the issue from us. That said, fear of hell is too easily forgotten today. Our Lord speaks more of hell in the Gospel than he does about heaven, so we dismiss it at our peril. I would say again what Andrew said above: we would surely rather have our loved ones saved by fear of hell than lost to hell by a woolly notion of God.