Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Sacrifice, not "service"

I was just lent a copy of Dr. Scott Hahn's The Lamb's Supper after our weekly viewing of Father Corapi's series on the Catechism. As I was reading the foreward by Fr. Benedict Groeschel I was struck by the intersection of one thing both he and Fr. Corapi said in different ways - words mean something. Not that this is new, but it's intriguing that I should come across this at nearly the same time as the whole pro multis issue was being decided. Interesting timing. Anyway, Fr. Groeschel:


I always feel a twinge of annoyance when I see in a college or a hotel a list of "religious services" and observe the Mass listed at 9 A.M. The Mass is not a religious service. When Catholics say morning prayer or the recitation of the rosary or even have Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, that's a service. It's something that we do for God, similar to the public prayer of any religious denomination. But the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy, is not precisely - in its essence - done by man at all.

Again, not one of those things as a Catholic you should be surprised to hear. But certainly something that makes you stop for a second and say, "yes, indeed it is so". Source. Center. Summit.