Mass (liturgy)

• 1. Introduction

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  Mass ends with two Latin words: Ite, missa est. The phrase means roughly go, the dismissal is made, and it may be the source of the very name Mass. The Catholic Church calls this liturgy "the source and summit of the Christian life," the center that every other sacrament orbits. The same rite carries different names in different churches, from Divine Service in North American Lutheran parishes to Divine Liturgy in the Eastern churches. Where did this word come from? Why do some denominations embrace it while others avoid it entirely? And how did one dismissal formula end up naming traditions from Rome to Sweden to the Anglican world?

• 2. Etymology

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  The Latin term missa was already in use by the 6th century, centuries before it entered English as mæsse through the Vulgar Latin form messa. Old English scribes sometimes glossed the word as sendnes, meaning "a sending, dismission," pointing to the same idea of a closing rite.

  The historian Fortescue, writing in 1910, catalogued older explanations of the word he called "fanciful." One theory latinized the Hebrew word matzah, meaning unleavened bread or oblation, a reading favored in the 16th century by Reuchlin and by Martin Luther. Other writers pointed to the Greek word for initiation, or to a Germanic word, mese, meaning assembly.

  The French historian Du Cange, writing in 1678, surveyed "various opinions on the origin" of the word missa, including a Hebrew theory he attributed to Caesar Baronius. That Hebrew derivation is a product of 16th-century philology rather than genuine medieval tradition.

  Medieval authorities, writing centuries before Du Cange, instead traced missa to the Latin verb mittere, to send. The 9th-century text De divinis officiis explained the word, in its own words, as coming "from sending, because it sends us towards God." Rupert of Deutz, writing in the early 12th century, offered a different image: a dismissal of the enmities that had once stood between God and humanity. Centuries of disagreement over a single word set up an equally layered argument over how the rite itself should be organized.

• 3. The Structure Of The Mass

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  The priest enters accompanied by a deacon, if one is present, and altar servers who may carry a cross, candles, or thurible. He makes the sign of the cross with the congregation and offers a formal greeting. Liturgists prefer an opening sequence that bridges the praise of the entrance hymn directly into the Glory to God. The Kyrie eleison, present since early Christian times, functions as an acclamation of God's mercy. The Penitential Act, instituted by the Council of Trent, remains an option here, though it is meant to unite the congregation rather than turn it inward. A Collect Prayer closes these Introductory Rites.

  Sundays and solemnities bring three Scripture readings; other days offer only two. The first reading comes from the Old Testament, or from the Acts of the Apostles during Eastertide, followed by a psalm recited or sung responsorially. A second reading typically comes from Paul's New Testament epistles. It precedes a sung Gospel acclamation, as the Book of the Gospels is carried to the ambo, sometimes with incense and candles. A deacon or priest then proclaims the Gospel itself, the high point of this portion of the Mass. A homily follows on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, ideally moral and exhortatory in tone. The Nicene Creed is professed on Sundays and solemnities, or the Apostles' Creed between Easter and Pentecost. This is followed by the Prayer of the Faithful. That name recalls an era when catechumens were dismissed before this prayer began.

  Preparation of the altar and gifts opens the Liturgy of the Eucharist, often while a collection is taken. The priest says, "Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father." The people respond with a prayer for the good of the whole Church. A dialogue about the meaning of thanksgiving builds toward an acclamation of praise: "Holy, Holy. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." The Eucharistic Prayer that follows can take several forms. The oldest, fixed since the Council of Trent, is called the Roman Canon, with central elements tracing back to the 4th century. The Second Vatican Council's liturgical reforms added several new Eucharistic Prayers, including four written specifically for Masses with children. At its center sits the Institution Narrative, recalling Jesus' words and actions at the Last Supper. This is followed by the epiclesis, a calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the offering.

  Communion opens with the Lord's Prayer, followed by a priestly prayer called the embolism and a doxology from the people. After an exchange of peace, the priest breaks the host during the "Lamb of God" litany. He places a piece in the chalice, a step known as fraction and commingling. He then displays the elements, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world." The people answer, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." Catholic teaching holds that communicants should be free of mortal sin before receiving. A silent period for reflection follows, and then a final prayer closes the Mass. The priest gives a blessing, the dismissal is pronounced, and a recessional hymn plays while the people respond, "Thanks be to God." That structure belongs specifically to the Roman Rite, and the Catholic Church treats it as meaningfully different from the Mass celebrated in Lutheran or Anglican churches.

• 4. A Question Of Orders

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  Jesuit priest Rune P. Thuringer, writing in 1965, judged Sweden's Lutheran state church liturgy the closest of any Protestant rite to the Roman Mass. Despite that outward resemblance, the Catholic Church draws a firm line between its own Mass and the Lutheran or Anglican equivalent. The distinction rests on what Rome considers the validity of the other churches' clerical orders. As a result, it does not ordinarily permit intercommunion between members of these traditions.

  In 1993, Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, wrote to Bishop Johannes Hanselmann of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. His letter addressed a theology built on the succession of bishops, the kind held by the Catholic and Orthodox churches. He affirmed that this need not deny what he called the "salvation-granting presence of the Lord" in a Lutheran Lord's Supper.

  The Decree on Ecumenism, produced by the Second Vatican Council in 1964, took a similarly generous view of other traditions. It records the Catholic Church's recognition of Lutherans, Anglicans, and Presbyterians who commemorate Christ's death and resurrection in the Lord's Supper. In doing so, it says, they profess "life in communion with Christ" and look forward to his return in glory. That letter reached across a divide dating back more than four centuries. It traced back to Martin Luther's own break from Rome's liturgical tradition.

• 5. Luther's Reformed Mass

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  Article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession, written in 1530, declares plainly: "the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence." Lutheran churches often celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday, a practice aligned with views promulgated by Martin Luther himself. It remains the norm in most Lutheran parishes worldwide. Eucharistic Ministers carry the sacramental elements to the sick in hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons. Daily Mass is offered in some Lutheran churches and monasteries, including Östanbäck Monastery and Saint Augustine's House.

  Traditionally the Lutheran Mass is celebrated ad orientem, "oriented to the East from which the Sun of Righteousness will return." Some parishes now celebrate facing the people instead, but many Lutheran churches still retain the eastward-facing posture.

  Luther rejected part of the Roman Canon of the Mass. He argued it clashed with a New Testament contrast. Old Testament priests needed to offer sacrifices for sin regularly, while Christ offered his body only once. In 1523 he composed a revised Latin rite called the Formula Missae. He followed it in 1526 with a vernacular version, the Deutsche Messe, and both replaced the old Canon.

  The Apology of the Augsburg Confession affirmed the Greek Canon instead. The Pfalz-Neuburg Church Order of 1543, modeled by the Lutheran theologian Philip Melanchthon, included its own Eucharistic Prayer before the Words of Institution. Olavus Petri's reformed Order of the Mass expanded the anaphora found in the Formula Missae. The liturgical scholar Frank Senn credits that expansion with fostering a church life "centered in the Bible's gospel." He notes it still maintained continuity with pre-Reformation tradition. Scandinavian, Finnish, and some English-speaking Lutherans still call the service "Mass," while German- and English-speaking churches often say "Divine Service" or "Holy Communion." Only a few miles across the North Sea, a similar reckoning with the old Latin rite was already underway, led by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

• 6. Cranmer's Prayer Book

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  Thomas Cranmer had already rejected the medieval theology of the Mass by around 1547. His work shaped the 1549 and 1552 editions of the Book of Common Prayer. The 1549 rite kept the Mass's traditional sequence, even as its theology shifted toward Cranmer's own views. That shift became unmistakable during a four-day debate in the House of Lords in December 1548. The 1552 revision restructured the rite's elements while keeping most of its language. Anglo-Catholic historian Arthur Couratin later described the result as "a series of communion devotions; disembarrassed of the Mass with which they were temporarily associated in 1548 and 1549." Some later rites, such as the 1637 Scottish rite and the 1789 rite adopted in the United States, returned to the 1549 model. From the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 onward, these services allowed for real theological variety.

  Today's Anglican rites generally follow the same five-part shape. The Gathering opens with a Trinitarian greeting and moves through the Kyrie and a general confession. On most Sundays it adds the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, then closes with the collect of the day. Proclaiming and Hearing the Word brings two or three Scripture readings, always including one from the Gospels. A sermon follows, and on Sundays and feasts, the Apostles' or Nicene Creed. The Peace follows the Prayers of the People, bridging the readings to the Celebration of the Eucharist. There, the Great Thanksgiving unfolds through the Sursum Corda, the sanctus and benedictus, the Words of Institution, and an epiclesis. The Lord's Prayer, the fraction, and Communion itself follow. A Dismissal, with a Trinitarian blessing, closes the service. The term "Mass" is used most often by Anglo-Catholics; other Anglicans generally prefer "Holy Communion" or "the Lord's Supper."

  Anglo-Catholic parishes often supplement the Book of Common Prayer with Anglican adaptations of the old Tridentine Missal. These include the English Missal, the Anglican Missal, and the American Missal. In the United States, the Episcopal Church has published An Anglican Service Book, a traditional-language adaptation of the 1979 Prayer Book. English parishes draw on further supplementary texts, including Common Worship: Times and Seasons from 2013 and Common Worship: Holy Week and Easter from 2011. Ceremonial handbooks guide parishes through the details of ritual action, among them Dennis G. Michno's A Priest's Handbook, Howard E. Galley's Ceremonies of the Eucharist, and Percy Dearmer's The Parson's Handbook. That same Tridentine Missal had, by then, already found its way into an entirely different tradition: Eastern Orthodoxy's Western Rite parishes.

• 7. Eastern Adaptations

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  Most Eastern Orthodox Christians follow the Byzantine Rite and call their Eucharistic service the Divine Liturgy. A smaller number of parishes within the Eastern Orthodox Church instead use an edited version of Latin liturgical rites. Most of these use the Divine Liturgy of St. Tikhon, a revision of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Others use the Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory, drawn from the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite Mass.

  The filioque clause has been removed from these rubrics to match Eastern Orthodox doctrine. A fuller epiclesis has been added, and leavened bread has replaced the unleavened bread used in the West. The Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory still traces roughly the same outline as the Tridentine Mass it descends from, opening with a Confiteor and closing with a Last Gospel. John Wesley would later draw on a different corner of that same Anglican prayer tradition to shape his own Communion service, calling it something other than a Mass.

• 8. Beyond The Altar

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  John Wesley authorized The Sunday Service in 1784, a revision of the liturgy in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Methodists still base what they call the Service of the Table on it today. The term "Mass" is very rare in Methodism. "Holy Communion" and "Lord's Supper" are far more typical, with "Eucharist" used somewhat less often. Any Methodist celebrant must be an ordained or licensed minister.

  The Free Methodist Church's Book of Discipline lays out its own order for the Eucharist. It opens with an Invitation to those who "truly and earnestly repent" of their sins. The order moves through a General Confession, the Lord's Prayer, an Affirmation of Faith, the Sanctus, the Gloria Patri, and a Prayer of Consecration, before ending with the Benediction. Since 1992, Methodist worship has reflected the wider ecumenical and Liturgical Movement. That approach is associated largely with the theologian Donald C. Lacy and what has been called the Methodist Mass.

  The English suffix behind the modern word "Mass" also survives in the names of feast days tied to the traditional liturgical year. These include Candlemas, Childermas, Christmas, Roodmas, Hallowmas, Johnmas, Lammas, Martinmas, and Michelmas. That suffix survives independently of any single reformer, still marking Candlemas, Christmas, and Michelmas on the calendar each year.