Over the course of the second and third centuries, we know that there were a lot of things happening in the church, but our information about them is rather limited. These were centuries when the church sometimes, and in some places, was subject to persecution and also when Christians were subject to suspicion and misunderstanding, despite the fact that their numbers were multiplying, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean area.
The documents we have and the results of archaeology give some glimpses of the life of Christians at the time. There sems to have been many ‘house-churches’, that is houses of Christians in which the faithful gathered, some of these houses were gradually turned into more permanently organised church buildings. There were quite a few of such houses in Rome, and archaeologists are often seeking to find them below the present street level of the city, but their ruins are not always easy to find.
The liturgy was probably celebrated rather simply given the limited space and smaller numbers of people. It seems that the introductory and concluding rites, as we have them now at Mass, had not yet developed, as they were not necessary in those circumstances.
We know that what we would call the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist were certainly celebrated, even if in somewhat different ways. We know that the presider gave a homily following the readings and we know there was a prayer of the faithful. We have a very enlightening document written by Justin the Martyr in Rome in about the middle of the second century and he gives us a run down of what happened at Mass at this time. (They even had a collection!). He also tells us that communion was taken to those unable to be there.
The liturgy was a good deal more fluid than it would become later. Justin tells us that the presider gave thanks (Eucharistic Prayer) as best he could. Things would change in the next century, when Christianity would gradually become the religion of the whole Roman Empire. The number of Christians would greatly increase, which did change many of the elements in the celebration of the liturgy.
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Angela Dupuche says:
Very interesting thank you Fr Frank! It makes me wonder as the churches are emptying maybe we will go back to the early house churches. Back to the future!
David Rush says:
Thank you, Father it’s so interesting to look at the very early Christian worship in households and then it’s movement to larger public secular buildings which became Christian basilicas; the basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill is a wonderful historic building of this very early Christian design for Christian worship