St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Madison. Photo courtesy of Karri Roling-Wilson.
By Jake Geis
“Pay attention!” your mother probably whispered to you at Mass when you were a child. Though you had the attention span of a chicken, your parents expected you to be a part of what was going on at the altar. And as you looked at the adults around you, you assumed it must be easier to stay focused when you got older.
Unfortunately, adulthood brought its own challenges to actively participate in Mass. It may come from your own children attempting to bounce off the pews like ping-pong balls, or the anxieties of the world may distract you, taking your mind to another place. Or you may want to be a part of the service, but it feels like you’re just going through the motions rather than having an encounter with God. In all three cases, are you taking part in the Mass?
Unite our sacrifice to Christ’s
Father Andrew Dickinson, pastor of the St. Francis of Assisi Pastorate in west Sioux Falls, Tea, Lennox and Parker, contends that despite these challenges, we can actively participate in the Mass, though it may require a bit of work on our part.
“A well-celebrated Mass should allow people at different places in their life to all celebrate,” Father Dickinson believes. “In one pew is a person who had the worst week of his life, and another that had the best week of his life. Both should be able to bring these experiences to God.”
Father Dickinson says the key is to present whatever happened that week to the altar as a sacrifice to be united with Jesus’ one true sacrifice on the cross. “The heart of participation in Mass is when (the priest) says, ‘Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father,’ and the people respond, ‘May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.’ What the priest says is on behalf of Christ, and the priest’s sacrifice is what he brings to the altar and unites to Christ.”
This action is not for the priest alone but for the entire congregation. “Your sacrifice is what you bring, the sacrifice of your daily life,” Father Dickinson explains. “All the things that happen in life—sick kids, extra work on the job, etc.—bring them to the Mass and ask Jesus to present them to the Father. This makes my and your own imperfect offerings perfect.”
It is in this action that we move from observer to participant in the Mass. “The purpose of Mass is not that you got a lesson, which is a good thing, but not necessary,” Father Dickinson says. “The purpose is that I brought the reality of my life—the good, the bad and the ugly—and joined it to the one sacrifice of Christ.”
A perfect time to bring this forward is during the offertory. “During the offertory,” Father Dickinson says, “call to mind the sacrifice you are bringing.”
This could be something wonderful, like a promotion at work or finding
out you are going to have a baby,
or it could be what is troubling your heart—the anxieties or tragedies weighing on your soul. It could even be the stress of kids interrupting your focus every 3.7 seconds.
“Then when Father says the words, ‘May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands …’ you can offer that, praying in your heart, ‘Jesus, I’m giving this to you to give to the Father.’ This is what the Church means by ‘the priesthood of the baptized.’”
Listen for God’s voice
Some may question if they are offering their personal sacrifices well. To this, Father Dickinson says, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”
It may take several Masses to bring your mind into focus.
Father Dickinson suggests people jump-start this process by remote preparation before Mass. This can be a personal reflection on what has happened this past week that you would like to bring, or something you do with a group.
“Talk with your kids,” he recommends, “and ask them ‘what sacrifice am I bringing to Mass this week?’ This can be with your kids, spouse or friends—any fellow Catholic.”
With a prepared heart and a sacrifice at hand, Catholics can become more capable of listening for what God is speaking to them through the Mass. “Christ is speaking during Mass in so many ways,” Father Dickinson points out. “Listen for what he is saying in the hymns and the prayers, which themselves come from Scripture.”
A common frustration is that a person may not hear God speaking to them during Mass. Father Dickinson explains this is normal and does not signify God isn’t reaching out to you.
“When you are holding your sleeping child, the child is not aware of you,” he says. “But you are still giving them something and parenting them. The same thing happens with God. You might not sense him giving something to you, but he is.”
This is why we must actively participate in the Mass and listen intently. Father Dickinson gives an analogy as to the importance of being present during Mass, even if we don’t feel anything special.
“The wide receiver in football will run his route the same way every time that play is called, because he never knows when a pass might come his way,” he says. “He may not even receive a pass during that game. Yet, he keeps running his routes with an internal posture of readiness so that he is prepared when the pass is thrown to him.
“In the same way,” Father Dickinson continues, “we might not feel anything at Mass, yet we are still in the game. The team is moving forward.”
He encourages that we continue to be present, listening for that moment when God’s word is perceptible to us. With preparation and an intention brought to the altar, we can be more capable of hearing that word.
The role of the laity during Mass
This emphasis on bringing our sacrifice to join to Christ’s and listening closely to the words of the Mass is not about the individual, as some sort of a “me and Jesus” activity occurring individually throughout the sanctuary. Instead, our individual participation in the Mass is more akin to adding our voice to the heavenly host, praising God and glorifying him.
The document from the Second Vatican Council entitled Sarcosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) expounds on the importance of the laity in the Mass in paragraph 14. There, the council fathers stated that active participation by all the faithful (laity and clergy) in liturgical celebrations is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy.
The Second Vatican Council emphasized the role of the laity during Mass because the laity is baptized. All the baptized are called to holiness, each to live out their role to govern, teach and sanctify. Being an active participant in Mass allows us to sanctify our daily lives.
For parents, it may not seem that our lives are very sanctified by the Mass when we have to leave every five minutes to take another child to the restroom, nor when one of the kids feels the need to belt out “Old MacDonald’s Farm” during the words of institution. Yet, Father Dickinson offers parents some solace.
“Parents get self-conscious,” he notes. “They think their children are louder than they are.”
Instead, it is important to recognize that we are laity, called to a different way of living the Gospel than many of the saints we venerate who were celibate religious. As St. Francis de Sales notes in his “Introduction to the Devout Life,” our devotedness should be according to our state in life.
Rather than compare our experience of the Mass to St. Faustina, we may be better to look to Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, shepherding five daughters at Mass. In that hour, our children (or grandchildren) are still kids, doing the things that kids often do. But they are basking in the presence of the Eucharist. Though they may not sense it at that time, being so close to Christ will impact them, and our active participation, though often scuttled by their antics, will make an impression on them as well. Through the chaos, they may emerge as another St. Therese of Lisieux.
“How much would you give to be at the foot of the Cross of Christ?” Father Dickinson asks. At the Mass, we are there. “Christ’s sacrifice makes our sacrifices fruitful. The more conscious we are of his sacrifice at the Mass and of joining our efforts to his, yields fruit in our lives.”
Therefore, leave your joys at the foot of the Cross. Leave your worries and tragedies at the foot of the Cross. And if you’ve grown up to become the mom whispering “Pay attention!” two dozen times through the Mass, leave it at the foot of the Cross. There, Christ will elevate your life with his glory.
Jake Geis is a freelance writer and parishioner at Holy Spirit in Mitchell. He is a husband and father who has taught religious education and led youth groups over the years.
