The "Annotated" Mass, continued

II. Liturgy of the Word

A. First Reading--We sit to hear the Word of God from the Old Testament.  For those of you who are not Catholic you are beginning to get a hint about why Catholics stand, sit, kneel, stand, sit, kneel. The Church year is divided into various seasons of the year. It begins in Advent(usually around the 1st of December) and ends the Sunday before Advent of the next year. The Word of God is proclaimed in three year cycles; i.e., A, B, C. That means that for the "A" year we read one set of scripture from the bible. The "B" year is another set of scriptures etc...  In the course of three years we will have read almost the entire bible from cover to cover.  Notice: almost is not all. The Holy Fathers arranged the three scripture readings on Sundays to support or enhance the gospel reading whenever possible. It makes it much easier for those of us who have to preach if there is some sort of continuity. They are so smart.

B. Responsorial Psalm--the cantor sings or recites the psalm and we sing or say the responsorial psalm. The Psalms for Sunday masses are selected to coordinate with either the first reading or the gospel and it is the cantor's choice as to which one to sing. Since Psalm means song, it is most appropriate that this is sung and not said though it can be said.

C. Second Reading--is usually taken from either Paul's epistles or the letters from the other New Testament writers. The First and Second reading should always be done by "lectors"; i.e., lay people trained to proclaim the Word of God.

D. Gospel Acclamation--this is the joyful announcement of the Gospel. It is always sung and never said.  Most of the time this is the joyful alleluia, but during lent, another refrain concerning Christ is used.

E. Gospel--everyone stands.  The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the words of Jesus Christ.  The deacon always proclaims the Gospel when he is assisting the priest at the mass.   At the beginning the Gospel Acclamation he walks over to the priest and asks for a blessing("Father may I have your blessing?"  The priest then blesses him with these words; "May the Lord be in your heart and on your lips that you may worthily proclaim the Gospel of the Lord." At the ambo the deacon proclaims this two thousand year old invocation: "The Lord be with you."  And you respond as you have for two thousand years; "And also with you." And he says " A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, depending on which cycle the church is in at the time. Then he makes the sign of the cross on the book and then on his forehead, his lips and then his heart saying: "May the Lord open my mind to place on my lips, what you have sealed within my heart." Or words similar to that.

After the Gospel is proclaimed the deacon kisses the book and says quietly to himself: "May the words of the Gospel wipe away our sins."

F. Homily--everyone sits.  The homily(sermon) is designed to make the words of Holy Scripture come alive for today's living.  It is to reflect the fact that the living words of scripture are indeed alive for us today.  It shall be given on Sundays and is only recommended on weekdays.  The homily should not last longer than ten minutes, but should at least be seven or eight minutes in order to make the point.

G. Profession of Faith--this is the Nicene Creed as developed at the Council of Nicea.  It is always prayed on Sundays following the homily and it contains the entire Catholic faith wrapped up into one prayer.  This prayer took four hundred years to develop after the resurrection of the Lord.  That's where our tradition plays a very important part in our religion.   At the line "...he came down from heaven..."  We all bow out of respect for the incarnation(birth of our Lord) until the line "...and He became man."

This prayer begins with God, moves to Jesus Christ describing what he has done for us and then moves to the Holy Spirit, the Church, the apostolic line and finally our hope for the resurrection.

H. General Intercessions--are prayers we offer to God on behalf of the many we hold in our hearts.   The priest introduces and closes the prayers.  They are always arranged in a very particular order; i.e.,
(1) prayers for the Holy Father, bishops, priests and deacons; (2) prayers for civil leaders either local or world; (3) prayers for our community of believers; (4) prayers for those who are sick or have died (communion of saints); (5) prayers for special intentions of the faithful.

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