Assisting at livestream Masses

[Treacy17]

What is the proper theology of assisting at live Masses? Are we allowed to offer up and worship the host that is actually being offered at that Mass, or is that only reserved to those there?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m not sure what you’re asking exactly. Do you mean livestreamed Masses?

Also not sure what you mean by “Offer Up” the host. The priest is doing that. We’re not supposed to have our own piece of bread at home to lift up or any of that.

We are allowed to worship Jesus in the Eucharist on a livestream video just as if we were at the actual Mass. We’re also allowed to worship Jesus when we see the Eucharist on a video replay. And we’re allowed to worship Jesus when we can’t see the Eucharist on video at all, or hear the Mass on radio. In short: we’re allowed to worship Jesus any time we want, any where we want.

 

[Vico]

What is the proper theology of assisting at live Masses? Are we allowed to offer up and worship the host that is actually being offered at that Mass, or is that only reserved to those there?

Catechism

1348 … All have their own active parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose “Amen” manifests their participation.

1352 The anaphora : with the Eucharistic Prayer - the prayer of thanksgiving and consecration - we come to the heart and summit of the celebration:

In the preface, the Church gives thanks to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, for all his works: creation, redemption, and sanctification. The whole community thus joins in the unending praise that the Church in heaven, the angels and all the saints, sing to the thrice-holy God.

1369 The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ . …

1370 To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven . …

1371 The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who “have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified,” …

 

[Treacy17]

I’m not sure what you’re asking exactly. Do you mean livestreamed Masses?

Yes

Also not sure what you mean by “Offer Up” the host. The priest is doing that. We’re not supposed to have our own piece of bread at home to lift up or any of that.

I’m talking about how the faithful offer up the host in union with the priest at every Mass. Since the priest is offering it up on behalf of those present, we can pray along with the priest the prayers of offering. I’m asking if that applies to those who are watching it livestreamed.

 

[Treacy17]

I guess what my question boils down to is what separates actually attending Mass from watching it livestreamed? I know that (under ordinary circumstances) livestreamed Masses do not count for your Sunday obligation, and so I was wondering what the difference is as it applies to the underlying spiritual reality

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Yes, we can pray along with a livestreamed or even a radio Mass just as we would if we were at Mass in person.

We’re allowed to pray any time, any where, in a group or alone, etc. The Church will never tell us “don’t pray”. However, the Church also thinks that it’s really important that we gather physically as a community in order to celebrate Mass, and of course one can’t receive holy communion if we’re at a physical distance from it.

Here’s some discussion from USCCB about the reasons for the Church’s views:

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...ons/guidelines-for-televising-the-liturgy.cfm

 

[Usige]

I guess what my question boils down to is what separates actually attending Mass from watching it livestreamed?.. so I was wondering what the difference is as it applies to the underlying spiritual reality

Watching mass and being physically present are two radically different things.

If you watch mass on TV or live stream, you are (at best) joining you prayers to those of the Church, but you are not present in the eternal moment on Calvary. Strictly speaking you are not assisting at mass when remote viewing anymore than you are if you read the lectionary and offer prayers.

Your question gets to the heart of the problem when we are suddenly locked out of communal worship and given a novel solution as an alternative, but not given catechesis on the fact that it’s not an alternative so much as a panacea for souls wounded and dying. If this situation is allow to continue much longer we will have many souls lost because of a false notion that virtual communal worship is good enough.

 

[Treacy17]

This definitely helps. So applying this practically, when watching a Mass, can I pray something like “I offer this host to you,” or is that not proper?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The more typical prayer is something like “Eternal God, I offer you the body and precious blood of your son Jesus, from this Mass” (or you could say “from all the Masses throughout the world today”) “for all sinners” or “for the world” or “for all the souls in Purgatory” or whatever you want to offer it for.

Or you could just say, “Eternal God, I offer this Mass for” (state your intention)

 

[Treacy17]

My usual practice is to simply pray the prayers of the Mass along with the priest (other than, of course, the consecration and absolution), so I was referring to the Suscipe

 

[Tis_Bearself]

That’s interesting. I don’t pray the Mass prayers with the priest. I pray the prayers that I would normally pray if I were in the congregation at a live Mass . I let the priest pray the prayers he would normally pray on his own.

The idea is that I’m “participating” at Mass just as if I were there, only I’m on the other end of the virtual screen. It’s not much different from being at a really huge live Mass in person, like when the Pope is having Mass and you’re so far away from him that he’s the size of an ant but they’re showing the Mass up close on the Jumbotron screen.

 

[OurLadyofSorrows]

We can participate spiritually and still attend to our prayerful responses and to contrition and spiritual communion. The priest doing the daily live stream I watch says we should be not watching, we should be engaging and participating spiritually.