Daily Mass Event

There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us. ~ Saint Jean Vianney

One morning after a weekday mass, I saw someone I knew walking from the church. I offered a lift to this person since it was cold. “No thanks,” was the response and not because they preferred the cold, but this person needed to get to work on time and needed to make the ten-minute walk alone giving thanks to the Lord for receiving the Eucharist. Rarely would you hear someone say this to anyone.

My Experience

I try to go to daily mass. I don’t go simply out of obligation, but it really does help me make sense of my day. There are many churches in my city and there is a mass available somewhere throughout the day. I try to go in the morning before work but sometimes I will go later in the day depending on my schedule. Lately, I started to grow weary of the church I had been going to regularly. I had my useless objections, but I started looking around for a new place to attend mass. My local parish has mass at noon on a weekday and that is totally inconvenient. I found a parish in the Italian area of the city and not too far from work. Mass was available every morning in Italian and once a week in English. I started going there around Christmas so I could bring my parents too when they are in town. There were few people there at 8 a.m. on a weekday and less is better to social distance. I didn’t know the priest, but he seemed so humble and simple. I started going regularly.

After a few weeks, I noticed that no one was reading the epistle and psalm during the mass, and I wasn’t sure why that was. I called the office and said that I am fluent in various languages – including Italian and I would be available to read. I was told to ask the priest before mass one day. I did just that. He gave me a ‘trial run’ that day in his words. In any case, I started to read for him almost every day. It has been great.

Beauty of The Mass

“When the Eucharist is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the divine victim immolated on the altar,” said St. John Chrysostom. Beautiful quote but have we reduced mass attendance to a chore sometimes. Maybe even an obligation. Where I live, the pandemic has restricted attendance and even closed the churches for a period. This was difficult and it still is for me. I need to be at mass. I like going early to sit quietly in front of the tabernacle to be with the Lord. The Carmelites nuns I visit, with their sage advice and constant prayers for me, told me when I was feeling distraught to do some Adoration. Just be with the Lord.

The daily readings offer so much. They are not just stories from some ancient world, but relevant for us today. At Christmas one year, friends came to visit to make their annual Christmas visit to our home. It came up that we had gone to mass Christmas morning. The question put to us was, “Why go and hear the same Christmas story every year?” I was surprised by the comment, but it made me think. St. Teresa was overwhelmed with God’s Goodness and asked Our Lord “How can I thank you?” Our Lord replied, “ATTEND ONE MASS.”

Thoughts

 I read the book, A Song for Nagasaki, by Paul Glynn. The Japanese Catholics survived for so long without priests and the Church survived. But, with the arrival of missionaries, the Eucharist came back. “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass,” said St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) During the pandemic, attendance at mass plummeted. It was sad to see. At the beginning of the pandemic, Good Friday, 2020, Pope Francis led a beautiful Via Crucis alone in St. Peter’s Square. Still, we had lost our mass during that time. It was very difficult. I remember the first day that the churches reopened in June of 2020. It was a great event. 

I read about Cardinal Van Thuan and his experience celebrating mass in prison. In the article, “Gathering the Fragments, Gathering Humanity,” by the Venerable Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan he wrote, “The faithful sent a little bottle of wine for Mass, which they labelled ‘stomach medicine,’ as well as some hosts sealed in a flashlight…. I will never be able to express my immense joy: every day, with three drops of wine and one drop of water in the palm of my hand, I celebrated my Mass.” What beauty!

Conclusion

Many people have suffered over the centuries to have mass at their local parish. People in some countries endure such hardship and barriers to attend mass. We take it for granted. I do not want to be one of those people. The Carmelites nuns recounted a story to me. The priest at a local parish knew that his mom went to exercise and do yoga every morning at around 6.30 a.m. with her friends. He asked his mom how many people were there. She told him about 10 to 15. He grinned and quickly announced at his parish that he would have mass in the morning at 6.45 a.m. daily. It was not long before the mother and her friends started making it a point to go to mass at that time. What a beautiful opportunity to lead souls to Christ. In the words of the great St. Jean Vianney, “Put all the good works in the world against one Holy Mass; they will be as a grain of sand beside a mountain.”