INTRODUCTION
each chapter is “stand alone.” You don’t have to start at the beginning
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of the book and read to the end. It may be helpful, but not
necessary. You can read any chapter in any of the Minute in the
Church books and learn something. I hope you’ll find this book
easy to read and understand.
If you’re a lifelong Catholic, you may know 99% of what is in
this book. Or you may be like I was – terribly unaware of so much
of the beauty and richness of the Mass. Either way, I think you’ll
find this book helpful. While this book is written generally with
Catholics in mind, I believe that our non-Catholic brothers and
sisters will find it useful as well, especially those who have been
to a Catholic Mass and were puzzled or confused about what was
going on.
There are probably thousands of great books out there about the
Mass. I encourage you to read as many as you can. We should
never stop learning and growing in our faith. Perhaps the best place
to start would be the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which
is quoted fairly often in this book. Paragraphs 1322-1419 are all
about the Eucharist and the Mass. Start there; you won’t be sorry.
Finally, I want to share a brief thought about knowledge. It is
vitally important that we have knowledge about our faith. We
need to know the nuts and bolts, the deeper meaning behind what
we do and say and believe. This I call head knowledge. Far more
important is having heart knowledge. We must know Jesus Christ.
Not just know about Jesus, but know Jesus. We must be in a deep,
committed, personal relationship with Him, a love relationship that
grows deeper every day. Without that, all the head knowledge in
the world won’t amount to a hill of beans. I hope that while this
little book helps you know more about the Mass, you’ll always be
working on that heart knowledge part as well. May God bless and
keep you always.
Gus Lloyd - Pentecost 2015