Mass and the Bible

[Jaybones]

Does anyone know where I can find some literature on where parts of Mass point to parts of the Bible . Someone I know tried to tell me that protestants have more Bible reading in their worship services .
Thanks

 

[FCEGM]

Does anyone know where I can find some literature on where parts of Mass point to parts of the Bible . Someone I know tried to tell me that protestants have more Bible reading in their worship services .
Thanks

The Bible and the Mass, by Fr. Peter Stravinskas, would fit the bill. Keep in mind that Catholics hear far more of the entire Bible during the rotating liturgical years than most Protestants. Another good book covering some of the topic is Evangelical Is Not Enough, by Thomas Howard.

 

[benedictgal]

For one thing, the three-year Sunday lectionary cycle and the two-year daily Mass lectionary cycle expose Catholics to just about the entire Bible. This also includes the Responsorial Psalm and a good portion of the Gospel Acclamations.

The Entrance and Communion Antiphons are mostly taken from the Psalms. The Gloria takes its starting point from St. Luke’s Gospel Account of the Nativity. The Sanctus comes from a merging of Isaiah and the Gospel Account of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The Institution Narratives of the Eucharistic Prayer is taken from the Gospel Accounts of the Last Supper. One of the Memorial Acclamations, “When we eat this bread and drink this cup…” comes from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The Pater Noster is straight from the Gospel. The Agnus Dei is a reference to St. John the Baptist’s reference to Jesus as the Lamb of God. The prayer before the reception of Holy Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy…” will soon mirror almost word-for-word the plea of the Roman Centurion to Jesus to only say the word.

The sign of the Cross at the beginning and the final blessing mirror Jesus’ words “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

 

[Apryl]

Does anyone know where I can find some literature on where parts of Mass point to parts of the Bible . Someone I know tried to tell me that protestants have more Bible reading in their worship services .

I have ALWAYS heard this, but as I was only going to Catholic Masses, I didn’t really have a point of reference.

Sure, I visited Protestant Churches, but when I was a kid, I wasn’t paying attention (let’s face it: I was looking for cute boys!)

This summer, I had two events. One was my family reunion. We decided to worship together on Sunday.

They were together for about 2 hours. They did a reading from Proverbs, a Psalm, and maybe some other scripture was part of the preparation for the collection.

I don’t recall the preacher saying much of anything about what they read.

Then, less than a week later, a cousin’s funeral meant I went to another church.

The preacher told the story of some one reading the 23rd Psalm, and the punch line was that this old woman “Knew the Shepherd”. Cute story. I’ve heard it before… but that was the only mention of scripture during that gathering

As for Catholic Masses, every single part of the Mass, all the way down to the priest’s vestments, is taken from scripture.

Not to mention, we have readings at all of our Masses, which relate to each other, and together, they tell a complete story.

It does no good, though, if the one doing the Homily doesn’t contemporaize the readings, and that does happen. And it does no good if we sleep through the readings and/or the Homily. Sort of like having a library of books but never crack the cover.

Here is a good site that points out all the parts of the Mass and the Scriptural Reference for each part

davidmacd.com/catholic/catholic_mass_bible_references_full_text.htm

 

[Apryl]

As for Catholic Masses, every single part of the Mass, all the way down to the priest’s vestments, is taken from scripture.

And let’s not forget: the FORMAT for the Mass comes from Scripture, too.

The Book of Luke, I think the 24th Chapter, when the disciples were on the road to Emaus, the meet with Christ.

They have the Word explained to them… once it’s opened up to them, they are able to SEE Christ. They break bread with Him.

Beautiful

Our Mass… no need to change a thing!

 

[japhy]

Does anyone know where I can find some literature on where parts of Mass point to parts of the Bible. Someone I know tried to tell me that protestants have more Bible reading in their worship services.

My three-volume series on the Mass (second one goes to print next month) deals with the presence of Scripture in the Mass. A lot of our prayers and gestures and actions are biblical.

For example, you could look at Mass in the Roman Rite as being a re-presentation of Jesus’ life from Palm Sunday (when He entered Jerusalem) to Ascension Thursday (when He blessed and commissioned His disciples before ascending into Heaven).

Entrance Procession = Entry into Jerusalem
Penitential Act = Cleansing of the Temple
Liturgy of the Word = Jesus teaching in the Temple during those days
Offertory = Peter and John preparing the upper room for the Passover
Eucharistic Prayer = Passion and Crucifixion
Communion Rite = Resurrection
Concluding Rites = Blessing and giving the Great Commission

(That begs the question… where does Pentecost fit in? I’ll let you think about that one.)

If you’d like to hear more about that before you buy the book, you can watch/listen to two 28-minute videos here.

 

[lutherlic]

For one thing, the three-year Sunday lectionary cycle and the two-year daily Mass lectionary cycle expose Catholics to just about the entire Bible. This also includes the Responsorial Psalm and a good portion of the Gospel Acclamations.
…

I was just researching this topic (specifically: daily readings) a bit more today and was surprised by what I found.

This is not uniquely Catholic. Many Protestants can make the same claim. Many mainstream denominations share a Revised Common Lectionary (click to see a good article on it). It is basically the same as us (based on our Ordo Lectionum Missae), but with some modifications (e.g. they removed some of our feast days and added things like “reformation day”). It is actually produced by the “Consultation on Common Texts” of which the USCCB is a member. You could say that not only do Protestants use most of our Holy Bible, they also use most of our lectionary.

Also, on the “expose Catholics to just about the entire Bible” there are some interesting stats. Counting Sundays and weekdays, the Gospel is well covered at almost 90% of the verses (57.8% on Sundays and Major Feast days alone). On the other hand, some OT books are not covered at all (1 Chronicles, Judith, Obadiah). On Sundays and Major Feast Days, overall OT coverage is only 3.7% and NT coverage is 40.8%. A very detailed statistical analysis is published here.

 

[benedictgal]

I was just researching this topic (specifically: daily readings) a bit more today and was surprised by what I found.

This is not uniquely Catholic. Many Protestants can make the same claim. Many mainstream denominations share a Revised Common Lectionary (click to see a good article on it). It is basically the same as us (based on our Ordo Lectionum Missae), but with some modifications (e.g. they removed some of our feast days and added things like “reformation day”). It is actually produced by the “Consultation on Common Texts” of which the USCCB is a member. You could say that not only do Protestants use most of our Holy Bible, they also use most of our lectionary.

Also, on the “expose Catholics to just about the entire Bible” there are some interesting stats. Counting Sundays and weekdays, the Gospel is well covered at almost 90% of the verses (57.8% on Sundays and Major Feast days alone). On the other hand, some OT books are not covered at all (1 Chronicles, Judith, Obadiah). On Sundays and Major Feast Days, overall OT coverage is only 3.7% and NT coverage is 40.8%. A very detailed statistical analysis is published here.

However, I think you might be missing some of the other feast days. For example, for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the responsorial psalm actually comes from the book of Judith (You are the highest honor of our race). For the Vigil of the Assumption of the BVM, the first reading actually comes from First Chronicles which makes reference to the Ark of the Covenant.

 

[TobyLue]

“The Lambs Supper” by Scott Hahn is also a great book.
One of the best IMO.