INTRODUCTION

In the early Church, the 50 days of Easter were a time to reflect with the newly-baptized on the mysteries of the faith into which they had just been initiated. In this, our Centennial Year of Prayer and Renewal, we are going to use these 50 days of Easter to reflect more deeply on our Church’s greatest prayer, the Mass. I hope that by taking a brief moment each week to reflect on the different aspects of the Mass, we will be able to enter more deeply, both as individuals and as a community, into the Mystery of Faith which gathers us together, Sunday after Sunday. Today, our musicians will help us to reflect on the first part of the Mass: the gathering of the community.

-- Father Michael G. Ryan

GATHERING

    Every time we gather to pray together in this Cathedral, we are being invited to become part of something larger than ourselves: part of a community; part of the Body of Christ. From many directions, through many doors, we come into one place. From our individual prayer, we are called into prayer together. We stand together. We make the sign of the cross together. We sing together. Through words, gestures, and music, we say yes, I want to be part of this community of faith. And the unity of our prayer makes visible, today, in this place, the Body of Christ, living and active in the world.

    Why is there so much singing at Mass? Because when we stand and sing together, we acknowledge that we are not an audience--we are a community of believers, the body of Christ, called to take an active, not a passive role in the prayer of the Church. There is nothing like singing for expressing unity, and helping to strengthen it. And so we sing during the entrance of the ministers; we sing as we are sprinkled with baptismal water. And we sing the Gloria, the ancient prayer which begins with the song of the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth!”

    Our prayer together is like a symphony. And like a symphony it needs all kinds of instruments: Loud instruments and soft, high and low, young and old, nasal and throaty—-all kinds of instruments. Maybe your voice is the one God simply has to have to make this symphony complete. So, “let every instrument be tuned for praise! Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise!” Let us rise for the entrance!

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