Seven Weeks of Easter: Suggestions for a Catholic Celebration of Eastertide

The Catholic Church celebrates Easter for seven weeks, all the way from Holy Saturday to Pentecost. Long after the discounted chocolate eggs and bunnies have disappeared from the store shelves, Catholics still sing Easter songs and reflect on Easter-themed readings at Mass. But as the popular culture quickly moves on from Easter, it's tempting for Catholics to do the same in their everyday lives, doing nothing in particular to mark the season. So let us look at how we can make Eastertide a period of special celebration, not just for one day, but for seven full weeks.

Decorations: Enrich your home with Easter decorations, but wait until Easter Sunday, or at the earliest Holy Saturday to display them, so as to preserve the Lenten atmosphere up to that point. Make sure that you include explicitly Catholic symbols in your decorations, such crosses, images of Christ, and Eucharistic symbols. Spring-themed decorations are fine in and of themselves, as a symbol of the new life we receive through the death and resurrection of Christ, but we shouldn't let spring imagery take the place of the explicitly Catholic imagery in our Catholic homes.

At the same time, some images that seem like purely natural spring motifs have deep Catholic significance. Lamb imagery symbolizes Christ as the lamb of God, who offered himself as the Paschal sacrifice. Lambs also signify the faithful, whom Christ the Good Shepherd gathers in his flock.

But what about the Easter bunny and Easter eggs? Some would argue that both of these are pagan symbols, and therefore should be shunned, but they both actually have Catholic roots. The ancients believed that bunnies could multiply through parthenogenesis, that is to say, through virgin birth, and therefore, the rabbit became a sign of virginal purity, symbolizing especially the purest woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Given Our Lady's special connection to the Lord, the symbol of the bunny became associated with Easter.

Easter eggs have even more ancient roots, going back to the earliest days of the Church. The hard shell of the eggs symbolized the tomb of Christ, and the egg emerging out of the shell signified the resurrection of Christ. Later, as Lenten practices became quite strict, Catholics gave up eating all animal products, including eggs from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. Since at Easter they could eat eggs again, eggs became an important part of Easter celebrations, both in terms of food, but eventually also for decorations. The exquisite painting of eggs became a special form of folk art associated with Easter. Images of newly hatched chicks also tie into this symbolism of the resurrection.

Among the decorations, you could also include a Resurrection Set, an Easter equivalent of the Manger Scene. You can find some pre-made ones online, but you can build your own too. You could use rocks to represent the hill of Golgotha. Here you could place a cross or three crosses. Next to it, you could use rocks to make an empty tomb. Small statues of Christ, the Virgin Mary, angels, and some other sacred figures can depict the Resurrection narratives from the Gospels.

Make sure you leave your Easter decorations up all the way through Pentecost. Visitors might wonder why you have not yet gotten around to taking your Easter things down, but that could be a good conversation starter about the length and nature of Eastertide in the Catholic Church.

The Truth About the Easter Bunny

The Story of Mary Magdalene and the First Easter Egg

Easter Candy Centerpiece- The Empty Tomb!

Decorate Your Own Eggs: Dyeing Easter eggs is fun, especially if you have kids at home. Take some time before Easter to dye hardboiled eggs to be served up on Easter Sunday and in the following days. Add meaningful Christian symbols using paint or stickers. If you are more artistic, trying painting more elaborate designs on the eggs yourself. You can also get some beautiful painted wooden Easter eggs online or from some ethnic stores.

New Clothes: Many people indulge in new clothes and shoes before Easter. If you can, continue this tradition to get a new outfit to wear for the first time on Easter Sunday. Show your love and respect for the day by wearing something special.

Volunteer: Easter is not only the holiest time of the Church calendar, but it is also the busiest, busier than even Christmas. Every parish needs lots of volunteers for a variety of tasks: administrative and liturgical preparations, various ministers for the many different liturgies, clean-up after the crowds have gone home, etc. Contact your local parish and ask how you can help. Many hands make light work – and you are sure to have some skills that would be very useful amid all the work that needs to get done.

Triduum: The best way to enter into the liturgical celebration of Easter is to attend the Triduum liturgies of the Church. The Triduum, literally meaning three days, goes from the evening of Holy Thursday through the evening of Easter Sunday. On Holy Thursday, we commemorate the Last Supper, in the course of which Christ instituted the Eucharist. On Good Friday, we reflect on the crucifixion of Christ, through which he offered the sacrifice that reconciled humanity with God. As we pray together on Good Friday, we also remember that every Mass is a mystical participation in the sacrifice offered by Christ on the Cross. The next day, on Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil begins our celebration of the resurrection. At the Easter Vigil, we also celebrate the full initiation of the elect through baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion. Validly baptized converts from other Christian denominations are also given Confirmation and the Eucharist at this Mass.

The Triduum liturgies, when done well, are beautiful, powerful, and deeply moving. They help us enter more deeply into the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ, the central tenets of our faith. If you have not yet been to the Triduum liturgies before, find out when they are at your local parish and make sure to attend.

Easter Sunday Mass: The Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday counts as your Easter Mass, but continue your celebration by returning on Easter Sunday too. Join the multitudes to pray together and to share the Easter joy.

There will be many newcomers, or those who only attend on Christmas and Easter. Make sure to show them hospitality and kindness. Be patient with them if they take your favorite spot or disturb you somehow with their behavior. Help them feel welcome enough to want to come back the next Sunday too. If they are acting very inappropriately, commit to praying for them daily throughout the rest of the Easter season.

Easter Food Blessing: In some parts of the Church, Catholics observe the custom of the blessing of the Easter foods. The faithful bring to church some of the food they are planning to serve at their festive Easter meal. The priest prays over all the food and blesses it. If your parish observes this custom, take advantage of it, and bring some Easter dishes to be blessed. If the food blessing is not a custom at your church, ask the priest if he would be willing to offer this blessing either on Holy Saturday or perhaps after one of the Easter Masses.

Easter Dinner: Make your Easter meal a time of special celebration. Bring out your finest china. Prepare your best dishes. Gather with family and friends if you can. If you don't have loved ones in the area or friends who could celebrate with you, look to see if perhaps there is a community brunch in the area that you could attend.

If you are able to cook, try some traditional Easter foods. If you haven't already done so, look into the culinary traditions of your cultural background and try your hand at traditional Easter foods. If your research leads you to some other attractive Easter dishes too, feel free to experiment with these as well.

Easter Candle: During the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, the priest lights the Easter fire. From the Easter fire, he then lights the Easter candle (also known as the Paschal or Christ candle), usually a candle of massive proportions, which then is lit at different moments during the year, until a new candle is blessed at the following Easter Vigil.

To connect your personal prayer life with the liturgical life of the Church, get a white pillar candle for your home and set it up in your prayer area. If you are good with crafts, you can decorate it with symbols relating to Easter. Light this candle during your prayer time every day in the Easter season. Also, set it on your dining table and light it for dinners until Pentecost.

Octave of Easter: Easter is one of the two feasts of the Catholic liturgical year (the other one being Christmas) that transpire over eight days, hence the designation "octave," meaning eight. While the Easter season goes on for seven weeks, the feast of Easter goes on for eight days. If you can, go to Mass every day during the Octave. Go to Adoration. Have a longer prayer time at home.

Also, keep all of these days festive in your home. Continue using your best china. Make special dishes. Dress up the dining table with flowers. Or eat at out at nice places to celebrate.

Divine Mercy Sunday: St. John Paul II designated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday, in accordance with the request of Christ given to the Church through the visions of a Polish nun, St. Faustina. On this day especially, Catholics are encouraged to reflect on God's infinite mercy for the world. Despite the increasing decay of our society, God's desire is that we experience not destruction or punishment, but his mercy. He demonstrated his mercy for us through his suffering on Good Friday. Now he wants us to be cleanses and find true union with him.

During her visions of Jesus, St. Faustina was instructed to have an image of the Divine Mercy painted. The image depicts Christ with rays of white and red light coming from his heart. Underneath is an inscription that says: "Jesus, I trust in you." If you do not already have this image displayed in your home, do so on Divine Mercy Sunday.

As you prepare for this feast day, pray the Novena to the Divine Mercy starting on Good Friday. (A novena is a set of nine prayers, prayed over nine consecutive days leading up to a feast.) On Divine Mercy Sunday, or the Saturday before, go to Confession. Through the visions of St. Faustina, Christ promised a great outpouring of graces on those who go to Confession in connection with the Divine Mercy Sunday.

The primary prayer associated with the Divine Mercy devotion is the Divine Mercy Chaplet, prayed using a regular rosary. Pray this chaplet on Divine Mercy Sunday, and consider praying it throughout the rest of Eastertide.

The Divine Mercy

Divine Mercy Novena

Divine Mercy Chaplet

Learn from Your Lent: How did you manage with your Lenten commitments? If you gave something up, were you able to stick with your plan? If you failed, use that as a learning experience. Failures in our attempts to gain a greater sense of discipline over ourselves can highlight areas in which we need to grow. If I tried to give something up and was not able to, then perhaps whatever that is has too much control over me, and I need to invest more time and energy into breaking its hold over me. Perhaps I am dealing with stress and anxiety in the wrong way, and I need a course correction. I need to reach out more for God's grace.

If you managed to break a bad habit during Lent, make sure you continue with your new sense of freedom from it during Easter. Eastertide is not a time to fall back into a bad habit you were able to give up. Likewise, if you were able to establish a new good habit during Lent, for example, praying more daily, then don't give it up now. Make it an integral part of your life and enjoy the sense of growth.

Special Meals on the Sundays of Easter: As Eastertide unfolds, make every Sunday a special day of celebration. As during the Octave of Easter, make dinner a special occasion, either by putting on a fancy meal at home or by going out to eat. On these days, gather with family and friends if you can.

Express Your Gratitude: During Eastertide, thank your priest and the many others who worked so hard to make everything happen at your parish. Priests and others involved in church work usually only hear from people when they are displeased. So be the one to give them a note of thanks. Send your pastor and his staff a card. Or send some emails of gratitude to the key people involved. Give a box of chocolates to the choir director to share with singers. Be creative.

Special Prayers: Some special prayers are associated with Eastertide. I have already talked about the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, which reflect on the glory of the resurrection, are especially meaningful to pray during the Easter season.

Also, by custom, the Regina Coeli is prayed in place of the Angelus during Easterside. Traditionally, the Angelus is prayed at 6:00am, noon and 6:00pm every day. I myself pray it when I wake up, then at noon and 6:00pm, as far as I can remember, and also right before I go to sleep. I always follow it up with the Memorare prayer. If you do not yet pray the Angelus, incorporate the Regina Coeli into your life during Eastertide, then switch to the Angelus prayer after Pentecost.

Regina Coeli Prayer

Angelus Prayer

Alleluia: During Lent, Catholics don't use the word "alleluia" at Mass or in other prayers. In fact, in some places, people actually write the word "alleluia" on a scroll, which they then bury until Easter, when the alleluia returns to our prayers. If you followed my Lenten suggestions, you may have done something to this effect yourself. If so, dig up the alleluia on Easter Sunday. But if you didn't, you can still celebrate the return of alleluia. In your daily prayers, sing some alleluia songs during Eastertide. If you are not much for singing, you can find many such songs on YouTube, which you can play during your prayer time or at other times of the day.

Connect with the Sacraments: As discussed above, the Church celebrates the three Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion, during the Easter Vigil. Over the course of the Easter season, reflect on how these sacraments have shaped your life.

In baptism, we are called to be priest, prophet, and king. An entire book could be written on this sense of vocation. I offer here an article from Word on Fire:

Priests, Prophets, Kings by Bishop Robert Baron

In Confirmation, we receive the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which produce within us twelve fruits. During Eastertide, contemplate how these gifts and fruits are manifested in your life now, and pray for those you would like to see more clearly manifested in how you live your life.

Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

7 Gifts and 12 Fruits Of The Holy Spirit That Sanctify Us And Make Us Into Other Christs

Attend Mass as often as you can during Eastertide. Make a habit of going to Adoration. If your local church does not have Adoration, respectfully inquire if that might be a possibility. If you have no access to formal Adoration, try to find a church where you can pray before the tabernacle. During your quiet reflection time, consider reading old spiritual book The Imitation of Christ, especially the meditations on the Eucharist.

Hopefully, as suggested, you had the chance to go to Confession at least once during the Lenten season. Build on that by going to Confession again during Eastertide, preferably during each month spanned by the season. Work on getting into the habit of going at least once a month.

As during Eastertide, pray for all those who are sick and are in need of healing. Pray also for the priesthood, especially in this time of crisis, when the healing and restoration of the priesthood is so badly needed. Pray for a priest or several priests by name. Pray also for all married couples to be able to live out their vocation to marriage, especially as our culture places more and more obstacles in the way of married life.

If you are married, focus on ways that you can enrich your marriage during Eastertide. Here some suggestions, based on ones I gave for Lent:

● Pray together every night. It is very important for married couples to spend at least a few minutes in prayer together every day. If you are not already praying together daily, make this a part of your Eastertide focus.

● Consecrate your marriage to our Blessed Mother every Saturday during Eastertide. Traditionally, Saturdays are dedicated to our Blessed Mother, because, unlike the other disciples, who despaired, she believe in the resurrection and remained filled with faith.

● Say a blessing over each other every day during Eastertide, preferably in person, but if that is not possible, from a distance. Pray to each other's guardian angel for blessings.

● If you have kids, pray a blessing over your children every day during Eastertide, preferably while they are present, but you can do so in their absence too. Consecrate your children to the protection of our Holy Mother every Saturday during Eastertide. Pray to the guardian angels of your children to help them be fully open to the love of God in their lives.

Below are some sample prayers you can use:

Prayer of Consecration to Our Lady for Couples

Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
Queen of Angels, Queen of Peace,
Queen of Martyrs and of All the Saints,
Today we consecrate our marriage to you.
Guide us, guard us, help us, and protect us.
Keep us safe from all attacks of the enemy,
All evil spirits seeking to destroy us.

Dear Mother,
Guide all our thoughts, words, and actions,
So that in all things we may live out God's will in our lives,
And that at all times we may draw closer to your Divine Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Help us help each other grow in holiness, advancing each day
On the way of salvation and sanctification
So that we may join you and all the holy angels and saints
In giving glory, honor, and praise to our God
With our whole being, with all that we are.
Amen

Prayer of Consecrating Our Children to Our Lady
(Adapt as needed)

Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
Queen of Angels, Queen of Peace,
Queen of Martyrs and of All the Saints,
Today I consecrate my children to you.
Guide them, guard them, help them, and protect them.
Keep them safe from all attacks of the enemy,
All evil spirits seeking to destroy them.

Dear Mother,
Guide all their thoughts, words, and actions,
So that in all things they may live out God's will in their lives,
And that at all times they may draw closer to your Divine Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Help me help them grow in holiness, advancing each day
On the way of salvation and sanctification
So that they may join you and all the holy angels and saints
In giving glory, honor, and praise to our God
With their whole being, with all that they are.
Amen

Prayer of Blessing (Female Version)

Lord Jesus Christ, glorious King of Kings,
I pray that you bless [name] my [wife or daughter].
Send your Holy Spirit upon her, and anoint her.
Cleanse her spiritually,
Keep her safe from all evil, all attacks of the enemy.
Heal her and keep her whole in body, mind, and spirit,
Help her love you with her whole heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Let her experience your infinite love for her,
Let her always say yes to the promptings of your Holy Spirit,
And let her be a shining beacon of your love in the world.

I pray also for the protection of our Holy Mother,
The Blessed Virgin Mary over [name],
And of all the holy angels, martyrs, and saints.
I ask all the holy souls in Purgatory to pray for her.

I also ask you, holy guardian angel of [name]
To watch over her, help her, guide her, and protect her,
And help to lead her to full union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen

Prayer of Blessing (Male Version)

Lord Jesus Christ, glorious King of Kings,
I pray that you bless [name] my [husband or son].
Send your Holy Spirit upon him, and anoint him.
Cleanse him spiritually,
Keep him safe from all evil, all attacks of the enemy.
Heal him and keep him whole in body, mind, and spirit,
Help him love you with his whole heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Let him experience your infinite love for him,
Let him always say yes to the promptings of your Holy Spirit,
And let him be a shining beacon of your love in the world.

I pray also for the protection of our Holy Mother,
The Blessed Virgin Mary over [name],
And of all the holy angels, martyrs, and saints.
I ask all the holy souls in Purgatory to pray for him.

I also ask you, holy guardian angel of [name]
To watch over him, help him, guide him, and protect him,
And help to lead him to full union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen

Contemplate the Resurrection: At the core of our Catholic faith is our belief that Christ rose from the dead. We too will share in the resurrection of Christ. We too will rise from the dead. First, when we die, our soul will live on without our body until the Second Coming of Christ. At the Second Coming, our bodies will be raised from the dead and will be reunited with our souls. Our new body will be a perfected body, no longer subject to the limitations of physical life. Our new body will not age, will not suffer, and will never die.

As we deal with the vicissitudes of daily life, let us remember, during the Easter season, that our ultimate hope is the resurrection. Everything in this life will pass away. But we will be raised to a new life in Christ that will last forever.

Reach Out to Newly Baptized: As discussed above, the Catholic Church administers the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil. The people who are received into the Church at this time go through a lengthy initiation process. In the Easter season, they are starting their lives as new Catholics, or neophytes. Help them feel more at home by reaching out to them. Say hi and introduce yourself. Invite them to the different areas of church life you are involved in.

Wear an Easter Pin: Various websites like Etsy sell pins with an Easter message, like "Happy Easter" or "He lives!" Consider wearing a pin like this throughout the Easter season, until Pentecost. People might ask why you are still clinging to Easter so long after the fact, but, as with the Easter decorations, such questions can be a great conversation starter to talk about the length and nature of Easter from a Catholic perspective.

Celebrate the Feasts: During Eastertide, the Church celebrates the feasts of a number of saints. Which saints exactly, will depend on the date of Easter. Look at a liturgical calendar for the season and take note of the feasts of saints that will be celebrated, especially of saints that you more particularly feel connected to. Make a point of doing something special for these days, such as going to Mass, spending time in Adoration, saying prayers to the saint, or having a special meal.

Focus on Mary in May: In addition to celebrating individual feast days of saints, we should focus on honoring the Queen of Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, during the whole of May, a month dedicated to her. Depending on where Easter falls all of May might be within Eastertide, but at least a portion of of it will be.

Make a crown of flowers, using either real or realistic looking plastic flowers. On May first, place the crown on a statue of Our Lady in your home, either inside or in your garden, depending on your situation. If you don't have a statue yet, this would be a great time to install one. Keep the crown on the statue until the last day of the month. (If you used real flowers, you will have to replace it probably more than once.) During your daily prayers, make sure you include Marian prayers, especially the Rosary. Consider making a commitment to make at least one post per day relating to the Virgin Mary on one of your social media accounts in order to bring the joy of Our Lady to others as well.

The Ascension: Traditionally, the feast of the Ascension has been celebrated on a Thursday, but in some parts of the Church, the feast has been transferred to Sunday. After the resurrection, Christ spent 40 days with the disciples, appearing at different times to different people. The Ascension marks the time when Christ completed this last phase of his earthly ministry and was taken up to Haven.

In addition to the celebration at Mass, you can celebrate the feast of the Ascension by driving or hiking to an elevated site, or going up to a very tall building, like a skyscraper, to remember Christ ascending from our realm to Heaven.

Novena to the Holy Spirit: The feast of the Ascension also signals that we are drawing near to the end of the Easter season, which is Pentecost. At Pentecost, we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, which marks the beginning of the Catholic Church. Prepare for this celebration of the profound outpouring of the Holy Spirit by praying a Novena to the Holy Spirit, prayed each night from Ascension Thursday to Pentecost.

Novena To the Holy Spirit

Wear Red on Pentecost: At Pentecost the Easter season comes to an end, but we are not done celebrating yet. On this day, we celebrate the birthday of the Church, as the power of the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the disciples. Since red is the color associated with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, wear red on this day both to church and throughout the day. If anyone asks why, you will have a great conversation started. As you take down the Easter decorations on this day, you can now decorate your home with images of flames and doves – both of which represent the Holy Spirit.

The Feasts Go On: Immediately after Pentecost we have two more significant feast days. The first is Holy Trinity Sunday, which is followed by Corpus Christi, also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. On Holy Trinity Sunday, we should reflect on all that God has accomplished in the world, marked by our liturgical feasts from the incarnation of Christ at Christmas, to reflections on the earthy ministry of Christ in ordinary time, to the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, to the redemption of the world on Good Friday, to Christ's triumph over death and all evil through his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

On Corpus Christi, we should reflect on what is yet to come – the Second Coming of Christ. As we await his coming and go about our daily lives seeking to live out his Gospel, we should remember that he is already with us body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharistic bread and wine. Through our weekly, if not more frequent, reception of the Eucharist, we have the strength to carry our cross and to grow to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves.


Printable Format: This article is available for download as a PDF. Please feel free to share the PDF with others either electronically or in printed format.

Seven Weeks of Easter: Suggestions for a Catholic Celebration of Eastertide PDF

Photo Credit: The Virgin and Child with Saint Catherine and a Shepherd, popularly known The Madonna of the Rabbit by Titian from the Louvre.

Birthday Party for Mother Mary

September 8 is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church. Tonight, my wife and I attended a birthday party for our Holy Mother at the home of fellow parishioners. We started with a Rosary, then had dinner, cake, and a toast in honor of Our Lady. Such a wonderful evening!

The Most Counter-Cultural Thing in the World - A First-timer Reflects on the Latin Mass

I am a cradle Catholic, and I have attended the Novus Ordo liturgy all my life. Being a lay ecclesial minister by profession, and having worked full-time in the Catholic Church for over 18 years, I have taught many classes on Catholic history and theology. The question of the traditional Latin Mass has often come up, and while I have been able to talk about the Latin Mass on an intellectual level, I had not actually had the experience of being at one - that is to say, until this past Saturday.

For the first time in my life, at long last, I actually attended a Latin Mass, held under the auspices of a traditionalist parish in full Communion with Rome, using the 1962 Missal promulgated by Pope St. John XXIII for their liturgies. The community has no church building of their own, so they rent use of the worship space from a suitable Novus Ordo parish in the greater Seattle area.

I have spent the last few days reflecting on the many thoughts stirred up within me by the experience of the liturgy. The first thing I want to note is my approach to the Latin Mass. In discussions of the traditional liturgy, Catholics often speak of the Latin Mass with a dismissive and derisive attitude, sometimes going so far as to assert quite categorically that the Latin Mass was harmful to the life of the Church. But I cannot agree with such a perspective. The Latin Mass, in its various developmental phases, was the central liturgy of Western Catholicism for most of Catholic history.

The Latin Mass was inextricably at the center of the spiritual, intellectual, and cultural life of Catholics for the better part of two millennia. It was the Mass of the saints and martyrs, who lived the Catholic faith to its fullest; of the mystics and thinkers, whose writings and reflections helped to shape our articulation of the faith; of the popes and bishops, who directed the life of the Church and gave formal definition to the articles of our faith; of the multitudes of nuns and monks, who gave their lives throughout the centuries to serve the poor, the sick, all those in need; of the myriad artists who shaped the Catholic experience through paintings, sculptures, mosaics, buildings, stories, and compositions; of the Catholic kings, queens, statesmen, and political movers and shakers who helped create and maintain a Catholic society in their lands.

We could not repudiate the Latin Mass as something harmful without also repudiating the spiritual, theological, ecclesial, and cultural legacy given to us by the millions of Catholics whose lives the Latin Mass nourished, sustained, enriched, and vivified. I will therefore proceed with the assumption that the Latin Mass is a good and profitable thing, and I will seek to find the good in it, however alien the experience may seem at first to someone reared entirely in the Novus Ordo system of liturgy.

I tend to think that the key to understanding the difference between the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo is to consider the focus of each liturgy. The focus of the Novus Ordo is the celebration of the Eucharistic meal; whereas the focus of the Latin Mass is our mystical participation in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Both liturgies have both elements, but the overarching focus is different.

In the Novus Ordo, the faithful are gathered at, and sometimes around, the altar table in order to take part in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread and the sharing of the Eucharistic cup, doing so in remembrance of Christ. The priest presides at the Eucharistic meal, serving, among other functions, as the host of the community. As the host, he naturally faces towards the people, and he naturally speaks words to which the people respond.

As the people come forward to receive Communion, the sense of the shared scared meal is maintained through communal singing. Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ offers each person spiritual nourishment, healing, and strength, and at the same time each person’s participation in Communion helps to build up the whole of the community. The act of Communion is also a sign of shared faith and shared ecclesial identity.

The scriptures are proclaimed and expounded upon in order to give context to the communal celebration of the sacred meal and to help the faithful to live out their baptismal vocation in the world after the worshiping assembly disperses. The music is, for the most part, sung together, to reinforce the sense of community.

The the text of the Novus Ordo describes the sacred meal shared by the faithful as a sacrifice. In fact, we might say that it is precisely the sacrifice of Christ that enables the faithful to be the people of God gathered around the Eucharistic table for our Eucharistic meal. The Fraction Rite, when the consecrated host is broken and the broken host is held up for the people to see, reminds us that, just as Christ was broken for us, we must also be broken for one another in sacrifice.

However, having said the above, the Novus Ordo liturgy is not primarily focused on the idea of sacrifice either in its language or in its liturgical actions. By contract, the Latin Mass revolves around the concept of the Mass as a mystical participation in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The priest, anointed in a special way for this special role, parts a mystical veil and transports us, we might say, trans-historically (my word), to the foot of the Cross. In the Latin Mass, the faithful are not gathered around a table for a sacred meal; they are in a posture of worship beneath the cross. They are looking up at Christ being crucified.

The focus of the priest is not to preside at a meal, but to offer the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, united in a mystical way, across time, with the one sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Thus, the priest’s attention is not primarily directed to the faithful present. He does not stand facing toward the people, because his focus is on the sacrifice being offered on the altar. He does not, for the most part, speak to the people, but addresses most of his words to God, sometimes in a voice inaudible to the congregation.

Since the focus of the Latin Mass is participation in the sacrifice of the Cross, the demeanor of the liturgy is, of necessity, going to be very different from that of a celebratory sacred meal. The motto of the Latin Mass might be, “If it doesn’t belong at the foot of the cross, it doesn’t belong at Mass.” Would we play lively guitar music at the foot of the Cross? Would we tell jokes at the foot of the Cross? Would we chit-chat and socialize at the foot of the Cross?

But, one might ask, what is it that the people are allowed to do? The chief objection leveled at the Latin Mass is that the faithful are merely spectators, who see and hear very little of the actions and words of the priest, and therefore cannot participate in the ritual fully. Instead, many people in the congregation might be quietly reciting the Rosary during the Mass. The Second Vatican Council famously called for the full, active, and conscious participation of the faithful at each liturgy. How could the faithful possibly be so engaged in the context of the traditional Latin Mass?

My answer is that the understanding of full, active, and conscious participation in vogue today is, in my opinion, far too limited. The popular assumption prevalent today is that the complete participation in the Mass called for by Vatican II requires speaking certain words, dialoging with the priest, and singing along with the cantor or choir, as well as seeing and hearing everything that is happening during the liturgy.

But from my perspective, there is another way to participate just as deeply and just as meaningfully. The faithful can participate in the Mass fully, actively, and consciously by uniting themselves internally, spiritually with the sacrifice being offered. The faithful are not mere spectators. They are at the foot of the Cross, worshiping Christ Crucified.

For the faithful, the Latin Mass is an invitation into a contemplation of all that the crucifixion entails – our salvation, our forgiveness, our spiritual healing, our cleansing in the Blood of the Lamb - a sacrifice of propitiation offered to God, through which the world is reconciled to its Creator. We are also invited into reflecting on what the Cross entails for each of us in our lives - the purifying nature of our own suffering, the profound value of accepting suffering for one another, the transformative efficacy of choosing forms of suffering to offer for one another.

Nor would praying the Rosary distract us from such reflections, since the Rosary is an extended meditation on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and, therefore, the Rosary helps us enter more deeply into the contemplation of the mystery of the Cross. I would, in fact, go so far as to say that, for the properly disposed participant, far from being a distraction, the Rosary can form a symbiotic relationship with the Latin Mass.

After our contemplation of and spiritual union with the sacrifice of Christ, we then receive the fruit of that sacrifice, the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. We become physically united with the Lamb of God offered in sacrifice on our behalf. The spiritual and ecclesial benefits of receiving Communion are vast and numerous – but one of the key blessings we are given is the strength to embrace our own cross in our own lives and to carry our cross from day to day, in union with Christ.

By focusing on the sacrifice of Christ and by transporting us to the foot of the Cross, the Latin Mass upholds and proclaims the spiritual value of suffering. As such, the Latin Mass is the single most counter-cultural thing in the world today. Our secular world, which seeks to eradicate all memory of Christianity from our culture, hates nothing more than the Cross. On the one hand, modern technology has helped us do away with much preventable suffering, which is commendable. But our culture pushes us to go much further than that. The chief message of the secular world is that we should never suffer. We must always medicate or self-medicate, we must drown out all pain, anguish, or even inconvenience and boredom, with entertainment, possessions, ephemeral pleasures. In the face of such cultural messages, the most radical thing we can do is to do as Christ commanded and willingly – fully, actively, and consciously – take up our cross. The Latin Mass guides us into exactly that.

Of course, one might object, that the image I present here of the faithful's sublime participation in the Latin Mass is overly idealistic, and that historically many people did not reach such levels of engagement with the mystery of the traditional liturgy. Maybe so. But by the same token, my description of the Novus Ordo celebration above is truly idealized and is a far cry from how most Novus Ordo liturgies are celebrated in the day-to-day life of the Church.

I myself have, as mentioned above, attended Novus Ordo liturgies all my life. I have experienced Novus Ordo Masses on four continents, in over a dozen countries, in many different languages, using a wide range of liturgical styles. The quality of those liturgical celebrations also spanned a wide spectrum. Ironically, the chief complaint I hear from participants in the Novus Ordo, which seeks so hard to engage the participants, is boredom. I must confess that I too have often been bored at Novus Ordo Masses, until I would receive Communion, when a profound peace would wash over me, and the boredom of the prior hour would be worth it. But I have also had many experiences of profound, transcendent, uplifting beauty. As I write this reflection, the Triduum liturgies celebrated at my Novus Ordo parish during Holy Week are still fresh in my mind. They were not just the best Triduum I have experienced, but quite possibly the best Novus Ordo liturgies I have ever participated in.

Whatever happens to the future of Catholic liturgy, there is much beauty in the Novus Ordo that I would be loath to part with completely. At the same time, I believe that the Latin Mass has much to offer to us as a Church and to our society. Whatever liturgical developments are to unfold in the Catholic Church in the future, I believe that one change should without question be made to the Novus Ordo - the recapturing of the centrality of the sacrifice of the Cross for our worship. The Catholic Mass, I believe, as did most Catholics for most of Church history, should focus first and foremost on Christ Crucified. From our embrace of the Cross, individually and collectively, flows healing - the healing of our souls, the healing of our Church, and the healing of our deeply diseased society.