How important is it to attend Mass?

[MrPolo]

Okay, now I see just a little better where you are coming from ...

The Scriptures + Catholic transmitted teachings = the Word.

Sorry, but I don't quite buy into your reasoning. There's the matter of 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 4:11a, and James 1:21-25, for starters.

However, it does explain about the Mass and why I can't find anything about it in the New Testament. It's one of those Catholic transmitted teachings, right? Sometime after the first century, right? Outside of the written word of God, of course I'm referring to the "inspired" writings - the ones confirmed by the Lord and His apostles, right?

In essence, this discussion isn't really about the Mass per se, but about discerning the difference between the traditions of those who faithfully followed God versus those who followed the traditions of men as foretold in 1 Timothy 4:1-3, right?

Scripture and Tradition contain divine revelation, which is the Word, Jesus Christ Himself. No Tradition can contradict a teaching of Scripture, nor vice versa. If you recognize that we are to follow traditions from God, I do not understand why, de facto, you would then dismiss the mass )which you said you did not see in Scripture about breaking of the bread or the prophesies of the Old Testament I cited). Again, the Didache is a 1st century doc and includes forms of the mass. But even if a doctrine developed in the 2nd century or beyond, that assumes that doctrines cannot develop. But Jesus can show us part of a truth first and another part later (e.g. Mk 8:22-25).

If you wish to learn more, it indeed sounds like it is not the mass that is at issue but the scope of revelation. Is revelation in written form only? I'd find a book explaining Scripture & Tradition.

 

[mshupe1959]

You've been given some good answers by Mr Polo to your questions. By your first question there should be no "personal attitude" involved. You seem to have alot of your own "personal attitude" . Instead of spouting off anti-catholic propaganda, do some studies of the early church fathers on your own instead of chick tracts. Catholics go to mass because of our beliefs and the Eucharist. Our belief is based on Jesus being in the Eucharist. Your "occasional eating of the Bread" is our Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and includes the meaning of the Cross.

Joh 6:51 I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. And indeed the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Joh 6:52 Then the Jews argued with one another, saying, How can this One give us his flesh to eat?
Joh 6:53 Then Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.
Joh 6:54 The one partaking of My flesh and drinking of My blood has everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:55 For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink.
Joh 6:56 The one partaking of My flesh and drinking of My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
Joh 6:57 Even as the living Father sent Me, and I live through the Father; also the one partaking Me, even that one will live through Me.
Joh 6:58 This is the Bread which came down out of Heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and died; the one partaking of this Bread will live forever.
Joh 6:59 He said these things teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.
Joh 6:60 Then many of His disciples having heard, they said, This Word is hard; who is able to hear it?
Joh 6:61 But knowing in Himself that His disciples were murmuring about this, Jesus said to them, Does this offend you?
Joh 6:62 Then what if you see the Son of Man going up where He was at first?
Joh 6:63 It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh does not profit, nothing! The Words which I speak to you are spirit and are life.
Joh 6:64 But there are some of you who are not believing. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, the ones not believing, and who was the one betraying Him.
Joh 6:65 And He said, Because of this, I have told you that no one is able to come to Me except it is given to him from My Father.
Joh 6:66 From this time many of His disciples went away into the things behind, and no longer walked with Him.
Joh 6:67 Therefore, Jesus said to the Twelve, Do you also wish to go?
Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of everlasting life.
Joh 6:69 And we have believed and have known that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus did not say "Oh wait, come back, it was just a parable", He let those that did not believe, leave. He meant what He said. John, whom He loved, said He has the words of eternal life.

 

[SpiritDriven]

Well the ....Good News.... about partaking in Communion people, is that...

1 you do not have to do it in Church
2 you do not have to have a preist bless anything
3 you can do it anywhere you like...

The only stipulation Paul made, was wait until everybody who is comming has arrived, also and most importantly....examine yourself before hand, be sure that you are partaking in memory of Jesus, and for no other reason.

If you seek to partake to attain maintain or not lose your right standing with God, then all you have done is turn a chalice into a graven image unto yourself..Idoltary!

One must only partake in memory of Jesus.....you must not partake for any other reason.....or you will be eating and drinking unworthily.

Peace

 

[MamaZ]

The reason we are to not forsake the assembing of ourselves together is because an amber by itself will loose its fire unless gathered together with other embers to keep the fire bright and shiny for all the world to see..

 

[mshupe1959]

The difference is, communion is bread and wine/grape juice done symbolically in remembrance of Him.
Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ according to the Catholic Church. That is what the mass is centered around, and the OP question.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

We must attend Mass so that we can receive the Body and Blood of our Lord. (the Eucharist)

 

[boswd]

Those of you questioning why and where in scripture do you go to Mass? The same can be said why do you attend your weekly service? the word Mass may not be in scripture, but where in scripture does it say Rapture, Holy Trinity as another poster has pointed out. Please cite scripture for the word "Rapture", I could be wrong.

To the ones who are questioning why a Priest oversee's the service, why does your Pastor oversee your service?
You call on the Catholic Faith about man made traditions, well my wife belongs to AOG and EVERY Sunday the church folk band plays for about an hour and half, every single service, without fail. That is a man made tradition. Where in scripture does it say you have to have a band playing for the service?
Looks to me like a lot of the typical double standards used to provoke another Prostentant Catholic debate.
And as far as not believing in body and blood of Christ, well that is of course everyone's own opinion, but to think that it can't happen would be against scripture,"With God anything is poosible", so I would be carefull as far as speaking on behalf of God and saying it doesn't exist.
We choose Holy Communion as a rememberance, once a month. Catholics choose to believe of actually body and and blood. Well it is in scriputure. If you are claiming to be sola scriptura, then it is word for word for what it is. So is this just more westenized prost. beliefs run amuk in order to be as far from the Catholic Church as possible? Just as some congrations have decided upon themselves to demote Mary to nothing more than a mere vessel and nothing more or nothing less, like God just chucked her to the curb when he was done with her sevice of nine months. Insane.

I do believe it was man who decided that it wasn't the actual blood and body which then is contradictory to Sola Scriptura.

 

[Rhamiel]

We go to Mass every week because it is good for us, it is good for the soul to be around other believers, to hear the Word of God preached, to recieve the Eucharist

 

[boswd]

We go to Mass every week because it is good for us, it is good for the soul to be around other believers, to hear the Word of God preached, to recieve the Eucharist

You know what, I don't even know why someone would ask that question or that it even deserve's a response.

Why do you go to Mass?

Why does anyone go to their Church service, it's such a demeaning question that is nothing but an attempt to draw out Catholics and go on a rant on how they disagree with some of the doctrine.

I would like to offer up some advice to my fellow Protestant's and other non Catholics. If you have any questions or misunderstandings or just a plain old curiosity of what Catholics believe, then I would recommend reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, talk to a Priest.

Find out what they believe and understand why they believe what they believe. IOW get your information from the horse's mouth. Not information that has been distorted and passed down through generations from centuries ago or from distorted and even outright lies passed down from Snake handling preachers from the 1800's.

Such as they worship statues. Nonsense
They put Mary ahead of Christ -- Nonsense
They think Saints and Mary can answer prayers in place of Jesus - Again Nonsense.

do some basic research with an open mind. I'm not saying you have to agree with everything. I mean the same thing can be said about all our denominations, we don't agree on everything. but what you may find is that we agree on alot more than you think and may find yourself thinking " Oh OK, I understand, don't fully agree with that interpretation but I understand where you coming from".

All us Protestant's can learn alot from what Billy Graham did. He studied the Catholic Church, went to their services and found friendships in Christ with Catholics, He never compromised his beliefs nor did he fully agrree with some of Catholic Doctrine but he understood theirs and came to know them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes we could all take a page from Billy Grahm.


At least get the right information and not some nonsense passed down from generation to generation that has been purposely distorted.

I can't even begin to imagine what Jesus is thinking with all this idiotic bickering of " How we worship Jesus better than you do"!!!!

 

[Ramon96]

You know what, I don't even know why someone would ask that question or that it even deserve's a response.

Why do you go to Mass?

Why does anyone go to their Church service, it's such a demeaning question that is nothing but an attempt to draw out Catholics and go on a rant on how they disagree with some of the doctrine.

I would like to offer up some advice to my fellow Protestant's and other non Catholics. If you have any questions or misunderstandings or just a plain old curiosity of what Catholics believe, then I would recommend reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, talk to a Priest.

Find out what they believe and understand why they believe what they believe. IOW get your information from the horse's mouth. Not information that has been distorted and passed down through generations from centuries ago or from distorted and even outright lies passed down from Snake handling preachers from the 1800's.

Such as they worship statues. Nonsense
They put Mary ahead of Christ -- Nonsense
They think Saints and Mary can answer prayers in place of Jesus - Again Nonsense.

do some basic research with an open mind. I'm not saying you have to agree with everything. I mean the same thing can be said about all our denominations, we don't agree on everything. but what you may find is that we agree on alot more than you think and may find yourself thinking " Oh OK, I understand, don't fully agree with that interpretation but I understand where you coming from".

All us Protestant's can learn alot from what Billy Graham did. He studied the Catholic Church, went to their services and found friendships in Christ with Catholics, He never compromised his beliefs nor did he fully agrree with some of Catholic Doctrine but he understood theirs and came to know them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes we could all take a page from Billy Grahm.


At least get the right information and not some nonsense passed down from generation to generation that has been purposely distorted.

I can't even begin to imagine what Jesus is thinking with all this idiotic bickering of " How we worship Jesus better than you do"!!!!

What wisdom!

The only ones who passed along distorted information concerning the Roman Catholic Church are anti-Catholics, who got there information from other anti-Catholics. It is shame that questions like "Why do you go to Mass? It is because the Pope said so?" is flowing around here.

We may not all agree with each other, but let us understand every one's position . It is shame that same old anti-Catholic remarks (i.e,"You Catholic worship Mary" or "You think Saints can answers prayers better than Jesus" etc) is still being publicize. But what I can say. This is the world we are living in.

Personally, Why do I go to Divine Liturgy ["Mass" for Westerners here. The Ancient Christian Worship; which was liturgical] weekly?

1) In it the most Holy Mystery of Communion is celebrated, as established by our Lord Jesus Christ on Holy Thursday evening, the eve of His Passion (Matt. 26:26-28, Lk. 22:19; I Cor. 11:24). Following the Tradition of the Holy Apostles, the Early Christians will gather on the first day of the week [Sunday] to fellowship, worship, and the partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ [the Divine Eucharist] (all with a Priest or Bishop presiding the Divine Liturgy). The first record of at least a liturgical service can be found in the Holy Scriptures (Acts 2:42-47), but more clearly in the Didache (a late 1st century or early 2nd century Christian document) and in Saint Justin Martyr "1st Apology" (Chapters LXV-LXVII) (which is the most clearly description of the Divine Liturgy of the Early Church) which was written around 150-160AD. The Divine Liturgy is indeed the center of the Orthodox Christian life.
2) We are commanded in Scriptures "[Do] Not forsake[..] the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Heb 10:25)
3) It is when I come closer to the Triune God and the Church.
4) “Growth in Christ” happens when we meet to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24) or “sharpen” each other (Proverbs 27:17).
5) Is in where I can learn more of my Eastern Faith (i.e., through the reading of the Scriptures, homilies, the Holy Icons, etc)
6) It gives me inspiration and direction for my week.
7) It is where I come closer to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all that He has done for us: the cross, the tomb, the resurrection of the third day, the Ascension into heaven, the sitting on the right hand of God the father, and anticipating the second and glorious coming again.

In essence, we do so to worship God, to enter into union with Him and His people through the Eucharist and other Mysteries, or sacraments, and to receive strength as we continue on the road of salvation and "the life of the world to come."

I can go on and on, but I totally agree with previous poster that this question was started has a attempt to draw out Catholics and go on a rant on how they disagree with some of there doctrines. Why ask specifically Catholics why they go to "Mass"? Why not Baptists? Why not Pentecostals? Why do anyone go to there weekly Church service?

The answers will mostly be the same (a disagreement on the Eucharist will arise, but in essence we all go to our weekly Church service for the same reasons)!

In IC.XC NIKA,
Ramon

 

[HandmaidenOfGod]

It sounds as if by precept of the Catholic Church specific requirements not found in God's word (i.e., the Bible) are required of its members. Okay, say I'm not really interested in being a Catholic, but just a plain ole disciple, believer, follower of Christ - as in a Christian. You know, the kind you read about in the pages of the New Testament after the Lord's will went into effect per Hebrews 9:16-17. Per His will, I don't find any examples or authority for His church (the one He built and purchased - Acts 2:47, Acts 20:28) observing something called a Mass. Therefore, I'm inclined to think such a practice evolved over time from the teachings/practices of men after the first century. But, however, maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps there is a basis for the Mass in the Scriptures. Is there?

While the word "Mass" is nowhere to be found in the Bible, Liturgical worship goes back to the the times of the Old Testament. The book of Exodus speaks of how God commanded how the Temple was to be built, how the priests were to dress, etc. We see proof of this Liturgical worship carrying to the New Testament in the book of Acts, chapter 4 verses 24-30. This prayer follows a traditional liturgical formula of praise, and it would not have been possible for those being released from the prison to lift thier voices "with one accord" if they were not already familiar with the prayer being spoken. In regards to the use of clergymen, this is a tradition that also was carried from the Old Testament to the new. While the Bible may specifically speak of Deacons and Bishops in the New Testament, as the Church grew, so did the ranks of the clergy to address the growing numbers of believers.

If one were to study the liturgy of the Old Testament in comparison with the modern liturgy of St. John Chrysostem (the liturgy used by the Orthodox Church, and the liturgy that the Novus Ordo Mass of the Catholic Church is based on) you would see the similarities between the two. You would see that the modern liturgy is merely the Christian expression of the ancient faith.

In your original statement, you quote Acts 2:47. However, this is just half of a sentence. If you read the full sentence, which includes verse 46 it says:

"So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:46-47

So even in this statement we see that the new Christians were following the Liturgical and Temple worship that was originally given to them in the Judaic faith.

In Acts 20:28, Paul is speaking to the elders of the Church. (Acts 20:17) Elders who would go on to be Deacons, Bishops, and later on priests.

If you truly examine the worship of the Orthodox and the Catholics, you will see that it is all biblical. The use of candles, incense, vestments, all comes from the Bible. If you examine each line of the Liturgy of St. John Chrsysostem, you can find that it is either taken straight out of the Bible, or is biblically based.

You seem to seperate being Catholic from being a Christian. Catholics are Christians. They believe in Christ. They believe in the Trinity. They believe in the Virgin birth. Just as I do, as an Orthodox Christian.

While you may see the Liturgical style of worship with vestments and incense as the makings of man, they are merely the carrying out of the Liturgical tradition that was given to us by God in the Old Testament. It is a worship that trancends space and time, as it remembers our past, honors the present, and celebrates the future.

Hope this helps,

Maureen

 

[ChrisPietraszko]

How important is it to attend Mass? How important is it not to attend Mass? Please give a reason or reasons for your answer, preferably informed, and not backed by mere personal 'attitude'.

lol - nice qualification there.

Well by Mass - do you mean Catholic mass?

The Catholic Tradition holds that the Eucharist is the same sacrifice in memorial and substance (time and essence) as that of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ who poured out salvation for us on calvary. It is not a re-sacrifice, but rather a participation in the one true sacrifice of Christ, via a miracle/sacrament.

The consequences of this doctrine in our faith is that we are at the foot of the cross by eyes of faith, and we participate in this sacrament of salvation. We encouter Christ's suffering at mass, not that his suffering is e-longated into time, but that we are brought to calvary ourselves as time is suspended. In other words, we are before the true cross, and we are given his flesh and blood which are true drinks, a teaching hard to accept - for the life of the world, for the forgiveness of sins and for the sake of eternal life.

Also, Christ's disciples with the exception of the beloved disciple were not present at the foot of the cross. That is because they were ashamed or fearful like Adam and Eve in the garden. Or perhaps they had "better priorities." But to a person who has a relationship with Christ, an appreciation for his death and life and salvation, he does not leave Christ alone on the Cross. He encounters Christ for strength and compassion to participate in this gift and consequence of our sin.

That is the Catholic interpretation - if Mass isn't a real transformation, I can see it as being important for attendance, but perhaps optional. For me its not an obligation because its a law, its a law because its unloving to be disobedient as the absent disciples were - and their disobedience was grounded in fear, and that of the flesh.

 

[papist1]

In hebrews 10 is says we must continue to gather together etc...

and jesus Himself stated

he who eats the flesh of the Son of man and drinks his blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day, he who does not has no life within him
JN 6:54

I would say it is of the highest importance as it is the highest form of worship known to man.

peace, papist