The Mass in movements – Conversion Consecration Communion

The background is the beautiful Cathedral in Savannah GA.

I’ve written a new book in e-Book format, for the Nook and the Kindle, on the Holy Mass.  The title is the title of this Post: The Mass in movements – Conversion Consecration Communion.  Here’s the “back story” –

I’ve been pondering and reflecting on the Holy Mass for a while – led in doing so most recently by a commitment to give presentations on the Mass to groups of Returning Catholics in our parish.  Our Returning Catholics program is a simple one – in six sessions – that we (the team) hope can be a helpful bridge to those who are considering coming home to the Church.  We have presently in the six sessions, two on the Mass.  The first of the two is on the “externals” of the Mass (the sacred vessels, the vestments and so on, with a “tour” of the church, the altar area and the sacristy).  This presentation is led by one of our deacons, and consistently is greatly appreciated by the returning Catholics.

The second of the two sessions on the Mass concerns the “internals” of the Mass: the spiritual meanings and intentions (and the interior participation from us that is being called for) that flow through the liturgy.  This has been my “assignment” – to present this aspect of the Mass to the returning Catholics, to help them enter interiorly into the Mass more fully.  After giving this presentation several times over the months, I found myself growing in understanding this most beautiful and supernatural work of God!  I found myself growing in appreciation of the “movements” in the Mass, seeing in them a consistent “directing” in our souls to Christ, deeper and more complete as the Mass progresses.

Thanks be to God, who shows and teaches one so that he can show and teach others!  After a little encouragement from the team, to offer the insights to a wider audience, I thought I would try to do so in e-Book form.  (I did not plan it this way, but it turned out that I finished the book during Holy Week – the first draft on Good Friday – and uploaded on Easter Sunday.)

Here’s the “brief description” that I wrote for Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

The Mass brings Christ to us! This book can help the reader bring himself to Christ in the Mass, and therefore find Him there, and receive Him.

The Holy Mass is the liturgy at the very center of a Catholic Christian life. In the Mass we encounter Christ both in His Word, and in the Holy Eucharist – and in those two encounters, two liturgies, we find three distinct but related movements. In those three movements in the Mass we the Christian people are called first to Conversion, then to Consecration, and then to Communion. Each of the three is an encounter with Christ! All three are preparing us for the final Sending at the close of the Mass. We are a sent people: sent by Christ by His power, in His name, to finish the work that He began.

The Church teaches that the Eucharist is “the Source and Summit” of the Christian life! (Catechism 1324) To personally receive this Source fruitfully – to truly attain the Summit which is present to us – requires of us that we are actually personally present to the reality of the Mass.

This book takes the reader through the Mass, interiorly. In each of the major parts of the Mass, the reader is helped to understand and to enter the sacred liturgy with the “full, conscious and active participation” (Catechism 1141) that is necessary for the Mass to do its work in us.

If anyone decides to try the book, please let me know what you think.  I think that many Catholics don’t see the full invitation into Christ that the Mass offers!  I think that many do not hear Him calling, waiting!  Thus the book.  I think there is a need.

Blessings, Thomas