Marvels of Mass

Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week’s question is ‘what is a mass intention’?  For the answer to this question, I am quoting Philip Kosloski from an article he wrote in 2017.  He explains it all very well!

One part of Catholic culture that is sometimes hard to understand and very often misunderstood is the custom of offering Mass intentions. When a priest celebrates Mass each day, he offers each celebration of the Eucharist for a particular person, or intention. By doing so he applies special graces from God upon that person or intention.

Reflection on the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 7th

This summer I will be answering some liturgical questions that I’ve been asked throughout the year:
 
Why do we bow or genuflect during the Creed at the words: “and by the Holy Spirit as incarnate of the Virgin Mary”? or during the Angelus at “And the Word was made flesh.”?
 
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (often referred to as the GIRM) says the following:
 

Reflection for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 30, 2019

What exactly is the First Friday Devotion that is celebrated here at Prince of Peace on the first Friday of each month at 6pm?
 
The First Friday devotion is a celebration of Exposition and Benediction of the Body of Christ. It is similar to having an hour of adoration in the adoration chapel, but with more people, and with Benediction.
 
So what happens at this service?
 

Reflection on the Feast of Corpus Christi

Juliana of Liège, a 13th century canoness from Liège, Belgium, had a vision of the Church under a full moon with one dark spot on it, signifying the absence of a feast dedicated to the Body and Blood of Christ. After having visions of Christ for over 20 years, she finally told her Bishop about it, upon which he instituted the celebration of Corpus Christi to be held in the diocese each year thereafter on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.
 

Reflection for Holy Trinity

The following excerpts are taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the Church’s teaching on the Most Holy Trinity:
 
The formation of the Trinitarian dogma
249: From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the
Church’s living faith, principally by means of Baptism.  It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching,

Reflection on the Feast of Pentecost

Happy Birthday! The Church celebrates its beginning today on Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit filled the hearts of the
faithful, sending them out to spread the Gospel, and the Church was born. In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of how
the Holy Spirit came to rest on all of the gathered disciples, and people from across the nations could hear and understand all that
was being proclaimed in their native tongue – even though all the speakers were from Galilee. Today at some of the masses, the

Reflection for the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord

In many liturgical scholars’ thoughts, this feast of the Epiphany of the Lord should begin perhaps its own liturgical season, separate from Christmas and encompassing the next three Sundays.  The word ‘Epiphany’ is often referred to as a manifestation, or an experience of striking and sudden realization; its actual etymology comes from Greek and means ‘to appear’.   This weekend, with the Three Kings, we have the first of these ‘epiphanies’.  The Three Kings symbolize people gathered from the non-Jewish parts of the world at the time to proclaim the importance of the birth of this Holy Chil

Reflection on the Feast of Pentecost

Happy Birthday!  The Church celebrates its beginning today on Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit filled the hearts of the faithful, sending them out to spread the Gospel, and the Church was born.  In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of how the Holy Spirit came to rest on all of the gathered disciples, and people from across the nations could hear and understand all that was being proclaimed in their native tongue – even though all the speakers were from Galilee.  Today at some of the masses, the readings or prayers may be proclaimed in other languages – a celebra

Reflection on the Feast of the Ascension

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.  For some of the older members of the Church, you may remember that this Feast used to be celebrated on a Thursday and was a Holy Day of Obligation.  This Feast of the Ascension falls 40 days after Easter (when counting both the day of Easter and the Thursday of Ascension), but has in more modern times been transferred to the following Sunday as it is no longer a Holy day of Obligation.  It was possibly done so to make the solemnity of this feast celebrated more fully in churches and more fully by more people.  From the USCCB website: “Th

Reflection on the 6th Sunday of Easter

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus telling us that He will be sending the Holy Spirit to be with us, and the ideal to love one another comes up again.  We begin our masses singing, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” which speaks of the basis of Easter – we know that our Redeemer lives and that we want to be with Him.  One day, we shall rise again.  At the presentation of the gifts, we sing of how through Christ’s passion and His giving of Himself to us, we give Him glory as we follow Him in love.  Our communion song “We Have Been Told” quotes Christ’s teachings: “Live in my love, with all your he

Subscribe to Marvels of Mass