Mass services as an inspiration for greater concentration during Mass (Part 1)

P. Gorazd Cetkovský, O.Carm.

I have been repeatedly – sometimes more, sometimes less – engaged in the thought of how to experience the Holy Mass well. The "Year of Eucharist," proclaimed by our bishops, has intensified this reflection. Thus, among other things, when I occasionally come across old prayer books or even an old catechism, I try to look up what is written about it. I want to share a few discoveries that I have recently found.

The relevant chapters are often titled Prayers for the Holy Mass or Mass Devotion, and we can find them in almost every Catholic prayer book. Mass Devotion (in German Messandacht) was a technical term for the prayers offered in prayer books for the faithful to pray during the Holy Mass – while the priest celebrated it.

For the younger among us, this may seem nonsensical because we have been accustomed for fifty years to the idea that the Mass:

• is a communal prayer of all – of the priest as well as the rest of us,
• even though something is recited only by the priest himself during the Mass, he usually prays it aloud and says it on our behalf or for us or even to us (in which case we then respond),
• takes place in a language we understand.

Thus, piety, but also ordinary social decency requires that we focus on the course of the Mass and engage appropriately in it. It would not even occur to us that all of this, which I mentioned in a few points, could be different. Therefore, we are surprised and, when looking into old church “books”¹, we do not understand how one could pray one's own prayers, some Mass Devotion, during the Mass. Moreover, that one was encouraged to do so if one wished to participate in the Mass devoutly! To understand this, it is necessary to at least briefly look back at the history of liturgy and the transformations the celebration of the Mass has undergone.²

How it was at the beginning of the Eucharist

At the very beginning, the Lord Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples – in the manner customary among the Jews, but he infused it with new meaning. Then Christians gathered – especially on Sundays – in private homes for prayer, during which, after the reading from Scripture, the bishop would pronounce the thanksgiving (in Greek eucharistia) and break "one bread, the food of eternal life" (St. Ignatius of Antioch). Only later did real churches arise, the liturgy became richer in prayers, gestures, liturgical vestments, customs, etc. Historians confirm that the church's liturgy, both in the West and in countries of the Christian East, has been a prayer of the entire gathered community since its inception.

And this was evident in it. The celebrant's exhortations such as: "The Lord be with you," or: "Lift up your hearts," each person present would relate to himself and would respond aloud. The priest prayed in the plural, saying them on behalf of all present. St. Jerome (died around A.D. 420) writes that the response: "Amen," thundered in the Roman basilicas like thunder from heaven... Another form of the congregation's participation was the responses to the litanies and intercessions (subsequently, both disappeared from the Roman liturgy,³ not from the Eastern liturgies). So no one was an indifferent observer. The faithful brought their offerings in procession, everyone received the Eucharist. The biblical readings and the homily were understood by all and were effective catechesis. The readings were done by lectors, and the response of the psalm was pronounced by all present. Likewise, the chants, referred to as the Mass ordinary: Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei. Later, even the Credo was added.

From the 6th or 7th century, the Eucharist was enriched with another threefold chant (usually of a psalm) and prayer. Namely, during the entrance of the celebrant with the assistance, during the offering of bread and wine, and during Holy Communion. All three parts of the service were connected with the movement of the participants through the liturgical space and lasted for some time, therefore, songs (easily adaptable in length) were inserted into these places of the ceremony, followed by an invitation to prayer, then a moment of silence, and finally a short prayer from the celebrant. This moment of silence was often associated with kneeling on both knees, during which everyone quietly presented their personal prayer to God. Throughout all of this, all present were thus actively involved.

How the “thick glass” was created

In the early Middle Ages, however, besides the celebration of the Eucharist by the entire church community, the Eucharist was also increasingly celebrated privately, for example, in a home chapel. The reasons for this were various: the personal piety of the bishop or priest, the growing number of monks with priestly ordination in monasteries (and co-celebration as we know it today did not exist), the push for each priest to celebrate the Mass daily (related to the introduction of celibacy), but especially: to perceive the Mass as a prayer of petition, offered for a particular intention of an individual or family or for specific departed souls. Initially, such private Eucharists were attended at least by a narrow circle of the faithful, from the 6th century often only by the priest with the altar server or even completely alone. Side altars began to be built in churches for the celebration of such private masses. Thus celebrated, the Eucharist was called “silent Mass” (missa lecta), as it took place without singing, in contrast to the celebration with a community of believers, which had two forms: “sung Mass” (missa cantata) or – often pontifical – “solemn Mass” (missa solemnis). Around the year 800, the altar was pushed closer to the wall of the church, and the priest or bishop began to celebrate the Mass with his back to the people. And when the Mass was now also considered a private devotion, while previously the priest listened to those parts of the Mass that were proclaimed by someone else (lector, singers), he now read everything entirely for himself in parallel. Both in the private and the public Mass. Consequently, a new type of liturgical book, the so-called Missal, emerged, containing all the texts needed for the liturgy. Thus, the priest could manage on his own.

At the same time, from the early Middle Ages, the people's acclamations ceased to be pronounced by the entire assembly. They were sung, and their melodies became increasingly demanding (choral melodies, later polyphony), so only the schola or later the choir would sing them. The rest of the laity could not keep up and fell silent. Moreover, the word choir comes from the word choral (sanctuary), which clearly shows that these were songs sung by those in the choir of the church and formed a choir of singers. Furthermore, everything remained in the Latin language. Such liturgy was beautiful, but demanding and increasingly inaccessible to everyone.

Often, however, it seems that it was challenging to prepare it so that it truly reached the beauty. And it was long; it indeed had a tiring effect and, due to its incomprehensibility, remained a "sealed book" for most of the faithful. Even the allegorical interpretations of the Mass (which we will mention shortly) did not save much here. They were merely a substitute and gradually lost popularity.

And so it remained for a long time

For completeness, let us briefly add: neither the reforming currents in the church at the beginning of the modern age, namely in the 16th century (among which was also the Teresian reform of the Carmelites), removed the rift that arose between the clergy and the rest of the people during the Holy Mass. Nor could they; that was already in the power of only the highest authority in the church – the popes. They went a different path. New religious orders simplified and shortened the liturgy as much as possible (of the Jesuits, it was said at that time: “The Jesuit does not sing”), prioritizing that the priest should pray the Holy Mass “silently” (from the outside, it appeared to be somewhat for himself) while the people prayed in the meantime – as best as they were able.

The following centuries did not fundamentally change anything in the Roman Mass liturgy. Thus, until the 20th century, the Holy Mass looked as follows:

• the liturgy was in Latin, even though by that time everyone in Europe spoke in national languages;
• the celebrant read everything himself, only the altar server responded to him; and this was excused apologetically, for example, Schaller's missal⁴ explains that after the priest's exhortation: Dominus vobiscum (The Lord be with you), "The people respond with the mouths of the servers: Et cum...,” or elsewhere: "the altar server translates the response of the present people...";
• the sacrificial liturgy was celebrated by the priest with his back to the people;
• the Eucharistic prayer (the so-called Eucharistic Canon) was read silently, including the words during the consecration.

Thus, only the priest could really follow the Mass well; the others remained somewhat isolated from it: they saw and heard little, did not understand... Between the priest and the other faithful, a “thick glass” was gradually formed (borrowing a metaphor and term we used in childhood).

What we can be proud of: Cyril and Methodius were of the opposite kind

Note that just at a time when in Western Europe the development of liturgy paralyzed the active participation of the faithful in the Mass and reserved it for priests, Saints Cyril and Methodius on Great Moravia translated liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic so that the Mass could be understood by all present and they could participate by following the liturgy and understanding it.

However, since the Carolingian liturgy was subsequently implemented in the West (and the remnants of the Old Church Slavonic liturgy were gradually suppressed among us), lay believers faced a dilemma when they came to Mass, about how and what to pray during it. The priest managed with his Missal, while the faithful had to search for what they would “do”...

What then to do during the Mass?

This question weighed on the believers in church not only during the sacrificial liturgy, which the priest recited silently, but also (when they did not understand Latin) during the readings from Scripture and other prayers and songs.

P. Čala describes this predicament in 1941 with a touch of preaching pathos; however, undeniably aptly:

“Anyone who notices the behavior of the believers during the Holy Mass on Sundays, whether in the city or in the countryside, will see that many of them are bored; they do not know what to occupy themselves with for that half hour, impatiently waiting for it to end. Others go to church to listen to some beautiful song. Others paginate through their prayer books or recite, for instance, a litany to St. Joseph or prayers for the harvest, etc.”⁵

There were thus several practiced ways to pray during the Mass:

1. listening to liturgical music and perceiving the environment of the church,
2. praying the rosary, litanies, or any other prayers;
3. preparing for Holy Communion (if the person intended to approach it)
4. praying prayers that tried, despite the “thick glass,” to maintain some continuity during the Mass – these were precisely labeled Mass Devotion.

If the authors of Mass Devotions aimed to honor the content of the Holy Mass, it was essential how they understood it. Let us admit that it might have caused us hot moments if someone were to ask us: “What is the Mass about, actually?” And if we knew that the answer must be succinct yet as clear as possible... At the same time, however, such a hot moment would bring us a lot. Even if only in the way that we would remember our unsatisfactory answer all too well and subsequently look for more thorough information...

In church “books,” there was usually a short explanation at the beginning about what the Holy Mass is, followed by various Mass Devotions. I would like to present some of these and thus various ways that people previously tried to pray during the Holy Mass, even when they could not adequately follow and understand it.

First way: to see in the Holy Mass an allegory of salvation history

One attempt to bridge the alienation between the events at the altar and the believers in the church was the effort to provide an allegorical interpretation of what the faithful saw and heard from the Holy Mass. The pioneer in this regard was Bishop Amalar of Metz († around A.D. 850), whose interpretation went something like this:

The song that the choir sings upon the arrival of the priest at the altar signifies the voice of the prophets who proclaimed the coming of the Redeemer. The song Glory to God in the highest means the song of angels at the birth of the Savior. The following prayer of the priest (introduced by the invitation: Let us pray) refers to Jesus’ first public appearance – at the Jerusalem temple at the age of twelve. The epistle (reading from Scripture) represents the preaching of John the Baptist, while during the reading of the gospel, Jesus himself speaks. The presentation of the offerings by the faithful signifies the welcome of the Lord by joyful crowds during his entry into Jerusalem. The subsequent silent prayers of the priest and the Eucharistic prayer signify the passion and death of the Lord. The elevation of the Body and Blood of the Lord and their repositioning on the altar represent the removal of Jesus’ body from the cross. When the priest places part of the consecrated host into the chalice, this union of the Body and Blood of the Lord symbolizes his resurrection. Holy Communion represents the meeting of the Risen Lord with the disciples and their shared meal with Him. The blessing prayer signifies the Lord’s farewell to them before his ascension – his departure to the Father.

This allegorical interpretation remained alive among pious believers for centuries. For example, an excellent hymnbook from the Brno diocese from 1911 The Path to Eternal Salvation states above song no. 287 the title: The Holy Mass is a concise biography of Jesus Christ. And about the text of the song, it states: according to the interpretation of Bellarmine,⁶ however, here we recognize Amalar’s interpretation: the verse for Kyrie mentions the expectations of the patriarchs and the prophets in the Old Testament, the verse for Gloria refers to the Nativity of Christ, the verse for the epistle and gradual then to John the Baptist and his preaching at the Jordan, etc.

The extensive prayer book In the Footsteps of the Immaculate One,⁷ which was compiled by the Jesuit P. Konrád Maria Kubeš, presents as the first Mass devotion a very thorough allegorical interpretation of the Mass, which coincides in many ways with Amalar’s interpretation. Interesting is the title of this Mass devotion: “The Eucharist as a Substitute for the Lost Paradise.”
In this way, the believers were to contemplate, during individual parts of the Holy Mass (without it mattering too much that they hardly understood), chronologically the events from the history of salvation.

Second way: to meditate on the Passion of the Lord Jesus

I found this Mass Devotion in an old prayer book Missionary Book (more precisely, in its 11th edition from 1925) which actually prompted me to ponder this whole topic and to write this article. It was published at that time (as you can see, gradually in a series of editions) by Czech Redemptorists, a religious order focusing on spiritual renewals – so-called popular missions. This Mass devotion is introduced in the book with the words:

Christ the Lord established the most holy sacrifice of the Holy Mass as a constant memorial of the love which He showed us through His bitter suffering and His death on the cross. Let us, therefore, remember during the Holy Mass the pains and death of the Lord, as St. Paul urges us, saying: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26.)

And following are seven brief reflections on the Passion of the Lord, selected from the writings of the founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787). They are meant to help the faithful to pray progressively during individual parts of the Mass. Each of the seven parts consists of a short text for reflection (sometimes an excerpt from Scripture) and then a prayer, which is addressed directly to God or Jesus. No reflections are provided for the three climactic moments during the Holy Mass, but only the prayer itself.

The overall scheme is as follows:

Focusing attention on Christ's suffering was related to the view of the Holy Mass emphasized by the teaching of the Council of Trent: “it is the same sacrifice that was offered on Calvary, for there is the same priest and the same sacrificial gift, Jesus Christ.”⁸ In the same spirit, for example, the catechism by Dr. Tomášek (later Cardinal) speaks in his concise and exhortative style: “When you go to the Holy Mass, it is just like going to Calvary under the cross on which the Lord Jesus is dying for you. (...) Never let your behavior during the Holy Mass resemble that of the soldiers and Jews under the cross. Have the same reverence, piety, and love during the Holy Mass that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Apostle St. John, St. Mary Magdalene, and the other pious women had under the cross.”⁹

We can imagine that such a prayer was close and dear to our ancestors, who knew the burdens of life’s troubles and physical pain from their experience and who lovingly revered the Lord Jesus. Without a doubt, it was a pious and impactful prayer. However, there is little understanding of the individual parts of the Mass within it, just as there is no connection with them.