Masses

Mass is the central act of worship of the Catholic Church.  It is the Sacrifice of Eucharist.  The term mass is derived from the Latin formula for the dismissal of the congregation: Ite, missa ets.  (Go – it is the sending).  Thus, the Latin term missa means “sending.”   Jesus Christ made it clear to the apostles that what he was enacting at the Last Supper would be completed at Calvary – a sacrifice.  He wanted them to continue that sacrifice in his memory.  Bread and wine, being familiar sacrificial elements in Judaism, have deep sacrificial implications.  The words Jesus used in the institution of his body that would be given up and of his blood that would be pour out, was an institution of the New Covenant to be done in his memory.   The Council of Trent defines the Mass: “The same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner on the alter.”