Catholic Faith Refresher Course

DIRECTIONS TO THE STUDENT

The purpose of these instructions is not only to impart knowledge. The more important purpose is to instill a practice of the Christian faith. If you are serious about this course of religious instructions, you must start attending Mass every Sunday and Holyday of Obligation.

A. THE OBLIGATION OF WORSHIP ARISING FROM THE LIFE GOD HAS GIVEN YOU:  You know you are made by God. God gave you life. God makes it possible for you at this very moment to breathe, to walk, to talk. God keeps that little organ, the heart, beating in your breast. He gives you food and clothing. Make a list of what God has given you. He gives you everything. You give yourself nothing. The point is that you must acknowledge that God gives you everything you have. You acknowledge it by your private prayers, but especially by worshipping God, both in private and in public. To worship means to acknowledge your total dependence on God. You must worship your God. You are indebted to God. You cannot repay Him for what he has given you, but you can and you must recognize and acknowledge what He has done.

B. THE OBLIGATION OF SUNDAY WORSHIP FROM THE LAW OF GOD

So that you will not forget Him, God Himself tells you in the First Commandment, "1 am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before Me." Then more directly in the Third Commandment, God says to you: "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath Day." The obligation of worship on a particular day of the week we find in the Bible.

C. THE OBLIGATION OF SUNDAY WORSHIP FROM THE FACT THAT YOU ARE A PARENT

This section is addressed to parents. If you are not married yet, read it anyway, because some day with the help of God you hope to be married, and to become a mother or father.

Parents must worship God on Sunday if they want their children to be good. One of the reasons Priests and religious sacrifice their lives is to make your children good boys and girls. If parents fail to worship God on Sunday they are destroying one of the basic influences of the Catholic school system.

D. YOUR ANCESTORS WORSHIPPED GOD ON SUNDAY

Let us be practical about this matter of Sunday worship. Today many non-Catholics go to church when they please. Not so your good non-Catholic grandfather and grandmother. Sunday was the Lord's Day. The Lord came first on S Sunday .They knew they had an obligation to go to church every Sunday. You have the same obligation before God. All the priest is asking you to do is to come back at least to this part of your ancestor's Christianity. Then you are on the road to practical Christianity.

E. LET US EXPLAIN THE OBLIGATION NOW:  You probably know that all Catholics are seriously obliged to attend Mass every Sunday. God made all of us, and God made the same laws for all of us. There is not one set of God's laws for Catholics and another set for those who are not in the Catholic Church. Therefore, we insist that everyone who has any idea at all that he wants to be a Catholic must go to Mass. There are fifty- two Sundays and in the United States six Holydays of Obligation. Anyone who is serious about Christianity must assist at Mass on these days, even when busy at home. There are valid understandable excuses for not worshipping God publicly on these fifty- eight days. They will be explained when we explain the Third Commandment. For the present, try to understand that it is a serious sin to miss Mass without a serious excuse.

F. WHAT IS THE MASS? The Mass today is the same as the Last Supper. The priest at Mass brings down upon the altar Our Lord, Jesus Christ, offers Him to God for our sins, and gives Him to the people in Holy Communion.

To explain the Mass, therefore, we must go back to the Last Supper. At the Last Supper there is Christ, the Son of God. He had come to unite us to Himself by His teachings and by His wonderful example of goodness. He had finished His public career. He had tried to unite heaven with earth. He had proved that He was the Son of God by His miracles. A great longing had filled the soul of Christ during the thirty-three years of His life. He wanted to unite us to Himself, to give us Himself, to make us like Him. To show this great longing to the Apostles and to us one final time he says, "With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you, before I suffer." (Luke 22:15 ) It was the night before He was to suffer and to die for our sins.

Having given us His teachings and example, and about to give up His very life on the cross, He is still not satisfied with His work for us. He must give us His own Body and Blood at the Supper Table and in subsequent Masses, so that He will be united to us and we will be united to Him forever. He looks down the long corridors of the years and sees how He can give Himself to all, even when He will have left the world. Christ then and there changed bread and wine into His Body and Blood and gave the Apostles the power to perform the same act.

"And taking bread, He gave thanks, broke and gave to them, saying This is My Body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me."'

" In like manner, the chalice also, after He had supped, saying: This is the chl/ice, the new testament in My Blood, which shall be shed for you." (Luke 22:19-20)

Christ did not say: " Pretend this is My Body and Blood." " Let us imagine it is My Body and Blood." "Close your eyes and try to believe it is My Body and Blood." "This represents My Body and Blood." He said none of these things. He said, "This is My Body. ..This is My Blood." (Matthew 26:26-28) After Christ changed bread and wine into His Body and Blood there was no more bread and wine on the supper table. It was now His Body and Blood, not bread and wine.

Christ at the Last Supper offered the first Mass and gave us the most beautiful prayer there is, and the highest kind of worship we can give Almighty God.

 G. CHRIST GAVE THE POWER TO THE TWELVE APOSTLES

After Christ changed the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, He gave this same power to the twelve Apostles. He said: "Do this for a commemoration of me." (Luke 22:19)

With these words Christ gave the power and the command to the Apostles. In other words, Christ said: You do this action from now on -change bread and wine into My Body and Blood.

H. THE APOSTLES GAVE THE POWER TO OTHER BISHOPS AND PRIESTS

The Apostles offered Mass. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians in the Bible, we find St Paul speaking of that offering. The successors of the Apostles have this same power today. These successors are the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church. Your parish priest has the power to say Mass for the people. He received that power from the Sacrament of Holy Orders when the bishop ordained him. Only Catholic priests and bishops have this power.

How do you know when the sacred moment of consecration has arrived? After the altar boy has rung the bell, you will see the priest bend low over the altar .He says, "This is My Body ." Then the priest bends his knee to Christ whom he has in his hands, raises Jesus over his head for you to see and adore while the altar boy rings the bell again. Then the priest bends over the cup of wine and says: "This is My Blood." He bends his knee to the floor once more, and raises over his head the cup containing Jesus as the altar boy again rings the bell. When the priest says these sacred words, Christ beconmes present on the altar and offers Himself to God for us. 

I. BE AT HOME IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Begin attending Mass every Sunday and Holyday of Obligation. Be at home in the Catholic Church. The priest and the people want you there. Christ wants you.

Don't worry about when to stand or sit. Just follow the congregation. There is one very simple rule to follow-do what everybody else does, but do NOT receive Holy Communion, unless you are a Baptized catholic and are in the state of grace. 

Christ is there for you as well as for the Catholics who are present. Christ is there offering Himself to God for you in the most beautiful act of public worship there is. Christ is present on the altar praying for you, and helping you to understand the instructions you are receiving in the Catholic Church. At Mass you offer the most perfect and most powerful prayer you can offer and you are doing it with Christ and through Christ This prayer cannot be refused by God the Father, because it is a prayer offered principally by His Son.

Anyone who wants to become a Catholic m ust assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every Sunday and Holyday of Obligation during the course of instructions. Ask your parish priest the hours of Masses on S Sunday and on the six Holydays of the year.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW OF THIS LESSON

I. What is the Mass?

2. Who said the first Mass?

3. Where did your parish priest get the power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ?

4. Is it a sin to miss Mass?