The shirt asked you a question

Mass?

“Mass” comes from the Latin missa, which means “sent”: it ends by sending you out.

Never been to Mass, or not in a long while? First, what you would see this Sunday. Then, why it looks the way it does.

Scroll

The print on the back of the shirt: hands lifting the host over a chalice, and the words Want to join me at Mass? Tap my shoulder.
People in the pews of a church during Mass, the priest at a white altar.

IThis Sunday

Sunday morning

You walk in and sit down

Mass takes about an hour. Nobody expects you to know what to do: stand, sit and kneel when everyone else does.

A young priest reading at a lectern beneath a crucifix.

The first half

The Word

Readings from the Bible: usually one from the Old Testament, a psalm, one from the apostles and the Gospel. Then the priest explains them.

Hands holding a gold chalice above an open book at the altar.

The second half

Bread and wine

Bread and wine are brought to the altar, and the priest begins the great prayer of thanksgiving.

A priest lifting the round white host above the chalice.

The heart of it

This is my body

The priest repeats Jesus’ own words and lifts up the host. Catholics believe it is now Jesus himself. Everyone kneels.

This is my body, which is given for you.

Luke 22:19
People in line walking toward the altar for Communion.

Communion

Everyone comes forward

Catholics come forward to receive. If you are not Catholic, stay in your seat, or come forward with your arms crossed over your chest for a blessing.

A congregation standing with altar servers in white, a crucifix above the altar.

The end

Sent out

A blessing, and everyone is sent back into the week. The word Mass comes from these last words: in Latin, “Ite, missa est”, go, you are sent.

IIWhy?

Where does all this come from?

Rewind

  1. 1970Mass in the languages people speak.
  2. 1570One Roman Missal for the whole Latin Church.
  3. 313Christians may worship in the open.
  4. 155St. Justin Martyr describes a Sunday Mass: readings, a homily, prayers, bread and wine, “Amen”, Communion. The same order as today.
  5. 33One weekend in Jerusalem.
Juan de Juanes’ Last Supper: Jesus at the centre of the table holds up a round white host above a chalice, the apostles around him.

IIIOne weekend

Thursday night, AD 33

“Do this”

On the night before he died, Jesus kept the Passover with his apostles: the yearly meal that remembers how God freed his people from slavery in Egypt. Then he took the bread and said the words you heard the priest repeat:

And taking bread, he gave thanks, and brake; and gave to them, saying: This is my body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me.

Luke 22:19

The same night

A Passover moon

Passover is always kept at the full moon, so a full moon hung over Jerusalem that night. And at the heart of every Passover was a lamb.

Zurbarán’s Agnus Dei: a white lamb with its feet bound, lying on a stone ledge against a dark background.

Friday

The Lamb of God

At Passover a lamb was offered for every family. The next day Jesus was crucified, at Passover, and his followers saw it at once: he was the Lamb. That is why, before Communion, the priest holds up the host and says:

Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world.

John 1:29
Altobello Melone’s Road to Emmaus: Jesus, dressed as a pilgrim with a broad hat and a staff, walks with two disciples.

Sunday

A stranger on the road

Two of his followers were walking home to Emmaus, heartbroken. A stranger joined them and explained the Scriptures the whole way. They did not recognize him.

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things that were concerning him.

Luke 24:27
Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus: the risen Jesus blesses the bread; one disciple grips his chair, the other flings his arms wide.

That evening, at the table

  1. Took
  2. Blessed
  3. Broke
  4. Gave

He did what he had done at the Last Supper. And they knew him.

he took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them.

Luke 24:30
Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus: the risen Jesus blesses the bread; one disciple grips his chair, the other flings his arms wide.

That is the Mass

First the Word, then the bread

On the road, the Scriptures. At the table, the bread. That is why every Sunday has the same two halves you saw: the Word, then the Eucharist.

how they knew him in the breaking of the bread.

Luke 24:35
Hands lifting the host over a chalice, from the print on the back of the shirt.

Back to this Sunday

So when the priest lifts the host, the Lamb, the Last Supper and the supper at Emmaus are all there in one moment. That is the moment printed on the back of the shirt.

The invitation

If you come with me, you do not need to know anything

Sit with me and do what everyone around you does: stand, sit, kneel. It takes about an hour. Nobody will single you out. Afterwards, ask me anything.

The black Join me at Mass shirt from the back.

The shirt

Want to join me at Mass?

Tap my shoulder.

That is the whole invitation, printed on the back of a shirt. Now you know what it means.

See the shirt

Paintings: Zurbarán, Bouts, Juan de Juanes, Melone, Caravaggio, Raphael and a catacomb fresco in Rome. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Scripture: Douay-Rheims.