What happens at Mass? That is the question Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB offers an answer to in his book sharing the same title. A professor at Sant'Anselmo and a monk of Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, Fr. Driscoll has written a very accessible survey of the richness which is the Mass.
Though published in 2005, Fr. Gallagher, CSC brought it to my attention late this summer. He has used the insights of the book for catechizing the residents in his dorm, which is a good use for this book. Only 131 pages in length, 11 of which are spent analyzing the individual lines of the Lord's Prayer, this work is quite accessible. Driscoll organizes his text on the ritual structure of the Mass, adding at first, an opening chapter dedicated to the overall context of the Mass and his hopes for the book. It was there in its opening chapter that I most enjoyed the book. Driscoll writes:
The whole Church has gathered; the Church in heaven and on earth, the Church across the world and across the centuries. And in that Church is gathered the whole creation and the desires of every human heart. The Mass prepared from the beginning of the world is about to begin. The meaning of the whole creation and the whole of human history is contained here in ritual form and in the people who enact the ritual. This action will cause the Church to be: to do Eucharist is to be Church. To be Church, to be assembled into one, is what God intends for the world. The Eucharist is celebrated in thanksgiving and for the glory of God, and it is done for the salvation of the whole world (pg 10).
Driscoll does not want to, nor does he, get mired by debates on what makes for an "ideal celebration". Rather, he writes on the overall structure of the Mass and its individual parts. In this age of liturgical debates it is worth repeating his statement: "Problematic liturgies that have been poorly celebrated, even when that is the dominant experience of a person's encounter with the Mass, are not the basis on which good theological reflection can be built" (pg 13). I give a resounding "Amen" to that!
Ave Maria Press is pleased to announce the publication of a new edition of Brother André: Friend of the Suffering, Apostle of Saint Joseph.
Montréal, December 19, 2009 - In Rome this morning, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI held a private audience with Mgr. Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. During the audience, the Holy Father authorized the Congregation to issue a decree concerning a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Brother André, CSC, founder of Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal. Born on August 9, 1845 at Saint-Grégoire d'Iberville in the diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe, just south of Montréal, Brother André died on January 6, 1937 in Montréal. He was declared Venerable on June 12, 1978 by Pope Paul VI and was beatified on May 23, 1982 by Pope John Paul II in Rome.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” - Luke 1: 40-45
Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people. - Luke 3:14-18.
On this Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe the University of Notre Dame has announced an inspiring campaign to bring 1 million Latino students into Catholic schools, entitled Catholic School Advantage. 
"John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
What happens at Mass? That is the question Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB offers an answer to in his book sharing the same title. A professor at Sant'Anselmo and a monk of Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, Fr. Driscoll has written a very accessible survey of the richness which is the Mass.