A Tour through the Mass!

The Mass in the Fourth Century

The Lord’s Prayer, and several other elements of the Mass as we know it today, became part of the Mass in the late fourth century.  The fourth century was a time when the way of celebrating Mass developed considerably.  One of the reasons for that development was that the number of people becoming Christian was increasing and so the number of people at Mass was increasing.  The times of persecution had come to an end and the church was becoming much more publicly present.  And the buildings used for Mass were increasing in number, ornamentation and size.

The church was in the process of moving from its earlier small communities which normally met in houses that had been turned into ‘churches’ into the use of basilicas for Mass.  Basilicas took their size and shape from buildings of the same name which the Romans used for public meetings, courts of law and the like.

It is a characteristic of Christianity, as distinct from the other religions of the time, that it was not temples which they adopted as the model for their Christian churches but Roman meeting places.  This tells us something about the way they thought about the Mass.  They saw it as the gathering of the Christian people around the word of Christ and the Eucharist which he had commended them to celebrate in his memory.

This was also the time when parts of the liturgy like the entry procession and its accompanying singing were introduced precisely because it now took time for the bishop and clergy to enter into the new bigger buildings.  The same happened with the procession of the Presentation of the Gifts and the procession to communion.  So, processions and accompanying music became part of the newly developed celebrations.

Means had to be found to enable the readers, deacons and the bishop or priest to be heard in a larger building, so we began to get raised lecterns and a raised chair for the bishop.

And of course, supplies of bread and wine had to be increased for the larger numbers going to communion.  And the bread used at the time was usually leavened bread, so larger in size and needing larger vessels and containers.

Our liturgy has always had to adapt to new circumstances as our way through history changed and developed.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin