Do We Celebrate the Same Mass as the Early Church?
The Mass is our most important prayer. It is the representation of Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice on the Cross. The high point of the Mass is the Eucharist—the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. We go to Mass to honor, love, and serve God.
But is the Mass we attend today the same as the one the early church celebrated? This is the focus of this month’s Full of Grace Youth Journal.
Although it may look a little different, the Mass that Jesus instituted at the Last Supper remains the same today as it was in the early church.
Faith’s Source and Summit
To answer these questions, first we should understand that the two main concerns of Leviticus are holiness of life and worship. God is almighty and all holy, and so is inaccessible to man. But despite this, He dwells in the midst of His people. The story of the Old Testament is God not only requiring love and worship, but also training His people to live in holiness as His children—something foreign to all other religions of the ancient world.
Center of the Church’s Life
Although it may look a little different, the Mass that Jesus instituted at the Last Supper remains the same today as it was in the early church.
From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord’s command. Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.”
It was above all on ‘the first day of the week,’ Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, that the Christians met ‘to break bread.’ From that time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental structure. It remains the center of the Church’s life.
—Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1342-1343
Two-part Liturgy
The Mass we celebrate today has the same two-part structure as the Mass of the early Church: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It contains the same prayers. And most importantly, it is the same representation of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross and culminates with the same Eucharist as the Apostles themselves celebrated.
The Youth of the Church
If you know a youth who would benefit from receiving monthly editions of Full of Grace, where they’ll dive into the liturgy and other aspects of their faith, sign them up today! Enroll them in The Youth Guild of Saint José Sánchez del Río at YouthGuild.org.
Full of Grace
Full of Grace is a monthly journal for those enrolled in The Youth Guild of Saint José Sánchez del Río. Each journal includes a feature on a young saint or blessed, a daily consecration to Our Lady of Fatima, prayer cards and memory verses, Q&A, and art submitted by members of the guild!
Any youth is welcome to enroll. At their enrollment, youths will receive four special benefits:
- On the Feast Day of Saint José Sánchez del Río, February 10, the Shrine will host a special Mass for the youth guild, at the conclusion of which the celebrant will bless guild members with a first-class relic of Saint José Sánchez del Río.
2. The youths enrolled in the Guild are remembered in the Prayers of the Faithful daily during Holy Mass.
3. As members are commended to the special intercession of Saint José Sánchez del Río, each guild member receives a medal of the young saint.
4. Members receive monthly editions of Full of Grace.
