Masses

Eucharist

The Mass is the complex of prayers and ceremonies that make up the service of the Eucharist in the Latin rites. The Latin name Missa, used at first in a vaguer sense, is the technical and almost exclusive name for this service. People attending a Mass for the first time can be amazed at how complicated the service seems. Even more perplexing is how the community knows when to sit, stand or kneel. Even those of us who are “Cradle Catholics” don’t always know why we do what we do. These are signs and actions that we learned by heart since Sunday school and now can do Mass in our sleep, as some of us do.