The Catholic Church expects all Catholics, not only the ordained priests, to attend Mass with fully conscious and active participation, and not simply as spectators.
For at least the last century, and especially in the last several decades, the Catholic Church has encouraged more physical, mental, and spiritual participation by the laity at Mass, even restoring the liturgy to do so.
Active participation at Catholic Mass means being fully present, aware, and engaged in the beauty and richness of the liturgy, while praying, singing, and acting together with the congregation.
Catholics are called to understand what is actually occurring during Mass, conforming their hearts and minds to every word and gesture, so as to make the liturgy part of their own internal and external prayer.
External participation at Mass includes vocal responses and singing, and proper postures and movements, along with generally being more aware of what is being said and done during Mass.
Catholics participate internally by being open to the power of God’s grace and allowing their hearts to be truly present to the mystery of Christ’s sacrificial love made present in the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass.
The heart of Catholic Mass is the worship of God. For the glory of God the Father and for the salvation of the world, Catholics actually offer the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus as a sacrifice to his Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Active participation allows baptized Catholics to act as kingdom priests at Mass, united to the action of the ministerial priest at the altar, and with Jesus the High Priest who willingly offers Himself to the Father.
United with Christ through their Baptisms, Catholics also join with Jesus as sacrificial victim, placing themselves and their lives on the altar to be sacrificed in union with Jesus’ one perfect sacrifice in a mysterious but real way.
By entering more consciously and intentionally into the prayers, gestures, and mystery of the sacred liturgy, Catholics have a more profound experience at Mass, improve their prayer life, and develop a more intimate relationship with Jesus.
Where personal prayer finds its fulfillment:
Participating in Christ’s own prayer of praise for his Father:
Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2: 4-5
Catholics at Mass are not merely spectators:
Mass is worship, and worship is giving:
Participating with Jesus as priest and victim:
United to the sacrifice of Christ:
Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people, is their right and duty by reason of their Baptism. In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit; and therefore pastors of souls must zealously strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all their pastoral work. Yet it would be futile to entertain any hopes of realizing this unless the pastors themselves, in the first place, become thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy, and undertake to give instruction about it. A prime need, therefore, is that attention be directed, first of all, to the liturgical instruction of the clergy.
Pope Paul VI, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 4 December 1963
Entering more deeply into the Paschal Mystery:
Remaining attached to the life of Jesus:
It is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates. “Liturgical services are not private functions but are celebrations of the Church which is ‘the sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united and organized under the authority of the bishops. Therefore, liturgical services pertain to the whole Body of the Church. They manifest it, and have effects upon it. But they touch individual members of the Church in different ways, depending on their orders, their role in the liturgical services, and their actual participation in them.” For this reason, “rites which are meant to be celebrated in common, with the faithful present and actively participating, should as far as possible be celebrated in that way rather than by an individual and quasi-privately.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1140
Treat Mass like a big deal:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Speaking God’s word to God’s people:
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