Why Come to Mass Each Week?

Dear Fellow Disciples:

If a friend asked you why you go to Mass on Sunday, what would you say? One of my favorite ways of answering that question is because there is a relation between the life I live and the ritual I celebrate. Another way to say it is that while the Eucharist reflects my life, my life (ideally) reflects the Eucharist. For example: we bring our life to the Mass; our joys, our fears, our pains and our hopes. In other words, we bring to God who we are and what?s happening in our lives. Through the Eucharist God pours grace into our lives. God strengthens us with the Word of God and the Bread of Life so that we can more fully celebrate our joys and hopes and better deal with our pain and fear.

This weekend we celebrate First Holy Communion with the young people of our parish. That?s always a good time for us big people to think about the reason why we consider this so important for our children. One of the best things we can teach our children is that we gather as a community at Mass for an hour on Sunday so that all the other hours in the week are blessed.

For me, it?s great being a disciple and gathering together as the Body of Christ. We gather to find safety among fellow believers, to be challenged to be more like Jesus, and to experience the joy of being loved by God. After all that we go back out to live what we celebrated in the Mass. The Eucharist not only defines what we do on Sundays, but it also defines who we are during the rest of the week. What a blessing to share this with our young people this weekend.

Your fellow disciple,
Fr. Kevin Carlin Kennedy