Countdown to Lent : Focus on the Mass

Only two weeks to go before the start of Lent (Ash Wednesday - March 5). Have you made any plans? Thought about what you might focus on? What about the Mass?

Lent is traditionally a time for spiritual reflection. It is an invitation to enter more deeply into our relationship with Christ. We do this through three particular Lenten practices; prayer, fasting and alms-giving, all of which help us to re-order our lives and center them on Christ, drawing us closer to his heart.

This Lent, we invite you to focus your attention on the most important prayer of our Church, that singular, prayerful work we call the Mass. Pope Francis, in his most recent general audience emphasized that “At Mass, Christ gathers people around him "to nourish us with his word and his life. This means that the mission and identity of the church begin and take form there.” Everything else that we do this Lent, and throughout the year, flows from our celebration of the Mass; our personal time of prayer, our individual discipline of fasting, our reaching out to others through charitable giving.

It's easy for us to forget just how important this celebration is to our lives. If you've been going to Mass regularly for most of your life, it can seem pretty routine. We can find the prayers, the readings, the psalms and the music happening around us without much need for our own participation. We can find ourselves simply going through the motions, missing the very graces we will need to be Christ for others in the rest of our week.

The simplest way to focus on the Mass is to begin keeping a “Mass Journal”. This could be a small notebook, it might be a section of your own, prayer journal, it could even be the 'notes' app on your smartphone. In the coming weeks we will be providing small notebooks for you to use but whatever method you choose this Lent, the most important thing will be to use it at every Mass you attend.

Once you have it, the following simple steps will help you to use it;

1.Before Mass begins, ask God to help draw your attention to one thing, just one, about the Mass that day. It might be something in the opening prayer, it might be a line from scripture or the psalm, it could be something Father mentioned in his homily or even the chorus from one of the hymns that keeps running in your head.

2.Pray the Mass. Participate as fully as you can in the prayers, the responses and the times of silence throughout the Mass. Engage your senses; watch what is going on, listen to what is being proclaimed, use your voice to join in the prayers and hymns.

3.Write it down. Before you leave the pew, take out your notebook, your journal or open your app and simply jot down one thing. Just one. Is there a word from scripture or a line from the psalm that has stuck in your head? Did something Father said get you thinking? Is there a hymn or a prayer that your mind keeps wandering back to? Don't be concerned with elegant prose and wise words, a word or two, one sentence at the most is all you need.

4.Say thank-you. You began by asking God to help draw your attention to some part of the Mass, and he has answered your prayer! Take just a few moments to thank your heavenly Father for giving you just one thing to take home with you today.

This week Pope Francis asked “Do you go to Mass because it's a habit or a time to see your friends...Or is it something more?" This Lent, take up the challenge, focus on the Mass and let God help you make it “something more”.