Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mass understanding, mass appreciation, June 10, 2007
If you've been attending Mass all your life, but haven't experienced Jesus' presence all these years, you're not alone. Neither are you, if you've been guilty of treating the Mass as mere obligation.
The irony is that the Mass was never meant to be a burden. Rather, it has always been meant to help unite us with Jesus and the community of Catholics around the world!
In We worship: a guide to the Catholic Mass, Fr Oscar Lukefahr, C.M., a religious educator with over 40 years of experience, describes the Mass as a ritual, and compares it to the ritual of a baseball game: "Those who understand the rules and the rituals of baseball can have a great time at the game. Those who don't know baseball, on the other hand, will likely experience much confusion."
In a light-hearted, simple-to-read manner, Lukefahr gives good reasons to attend Mass, as well as a brief history showing how the Mass we celebrate goes way back to Jesus' time. He also takes a step-by-step walkthrough of the Mass, explaining along the way the significance of each part.
He also gives practical suggestions for participation at Mass in order to get more out of it, and then reveals why the Eucharist is key to the Mass, and the centre of all other sacraments of the Church (CCC# 1324).
To add value to the read, questions for reflections and activities for personal growth at the end of each chapter will help keep us engaged. A full chapter is devoted to addressing Frequently Asked Questions, which will likely satisfy most, if not all, of your own curiosity.
Not once during the read was I tempted to put the book down as dull or boring. In fact, the further I read, the more I wanted to know! Lukefahr provides a refreshing perspective on the Mass we attend each week, and promises to help the reader with the open heart to experience more fully the meaning of the Mass and the Eucharist.
For Catholics who want to deepen their knowledge on the Mass, or those who have lost the meaning of it, or those simply never understood it, We worship: a guide to the Catholic Mass makes a good read to help you appreciate and love the weekly hour-long devotion as the pinnacle of Christian prayer, where we come in full union with Jesus and the Church.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An eye-opener, April 19, 2006
Being a cradle Catholic, I have attended thousands of Masses over the years, and I truly enjoyed this book. It started off with "why" we should attend Mass, and then moved to the history and progression of the Mass through the centuries. It finished with how to pray and live the Mass. I came away with new perspectives - it is so easy for something like Mass to be something you do on 'auto-pilot' and a new zeal for attending the Mass. We have a great gift in the Mass and I appreciate it even more now.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
pretty good reading, October 16, 2005
Even though this book is not a scholarly approach to worship and liturgy, it is good and easy reading for Catholics who want to deepen their knowledge of some interesting finer liturgical background for the most important ritual in the Church.
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