WHAT EVERY CATHOLIC NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MASS A Parish Guide to Liturgy Kevin McGloin Paper, $9.95 80 pages, 5½" × 8½" ISBN 0-89390-536-4 View Table of Contents View Excerpt Quantity:

Many Catholics — long-time active parishioners as well as newcomers — do not have an up-to-date understanding of liturgy. This little book can make a big difference. What Every Catholic Needs to Know about the Mass walks the average Catholic through the history of liturgy, their role in the Mass, the importance of art and environment, the place of music and a vision what liturgy looks like if all members of the assembly take their role seriously. This is a great resuource for liturgy committees, RCIA groups, adult study groups — or the entire congregation.

Review

 “Kevin McGloin’s What Every Catholic Needs to Know about the Mass is by far the best resource on liturgy I have found. No one has time to read every document, but Kevin has taken quotes from the best materials from many sources to prepare a masterful, very easy to read, informative and very challenging look at what we should be about at liturgy. Our parish made the investment and put this book in the hands of every parishioner.”
— Paul Hillebrand, composer/clinician with OCP, and director of liturgy and music, St. Maria Goretti Parish, Scottsdale, Ariz.

 About the Author

 Kevin McGloin is currently the director of liturgy and middle-school coordinator at St. Patrick Parish in Scottsdale, Ariz. He is also a guidance counselor at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Ariz. He received his undergraduate degree in broadcasting from Arizona State University, a master’s degree in divinity from St. John’s Seminary and a master’s degree in professional counseling from Ottawa University in Phoenix.

There are five titles in the What Every Catholic Needs to Know series:
What Every Catholic Needs to Know about the Mass;
What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Lent, Triduum, and Easter;
What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Advent and Christmas;
What Every Catholic Needs to Know about the Bible;
What Every Catholic Needs to Know about the Eucharist;
You can order sets of all five of the titles in this series at the special set price of $39, by clicking on the button below.

Table of Contents

 1. The History of the Liturgy
2. The Liturgy of the Word and the Eucharist
3. The Role of the Assembly at Liturgy
4. Music at Liturgy
5. Environment and Space in Worship
6. A Prayerful Hope and Vision for Liturgy

Following is the introduction to What Every Catholic Needs to Know About the Mass. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2001, Resource Publications, Inc.

 Introduction

 What we call today “the Last Supper” was never named that by Jesus. “Do this as a remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19) was the only term the Gospels gave to the first Eucharist, which took place on the eve of Christ’s passion. At that meal, Jesus took bread in his hands and it became his body. He took a cup of wine and the wine became his blood. Jesus then invited his disciples to eat his body and drink his blood.

 Jesus did not pass down a strict literal transcript of his words; we do not know the exact words Jesus spoke at the Last Supper. He did not have a secretary on hand taking notes. Written approximately 20 years after the Last Supper, the first description the church has of Christ’s words are found in 1 Corinthians 11.

 In the Gospels of Luke, Mark, and Matthew, and the epistle of Paul, the words “This is my body” and “This is my blood” are found and scholars say that the statement is so brief and striking that it is difficult to imagine that the phrases have undergone any change.

 The four Gospels tell us that Jesus instituted the Eucharist. In Paul’s first letter to Corinth and in the Book of Acts we have some picture of what the “breaking of the bread” was really like in the times of the apostles. The Mass in the time of the apostles underwent profound changes and this was an important period in the history of the Mass. Volume discounts available when 10 copies or more are ordered.