The liturgy—including prayers, songs, and kneeling— is ‘totally permeated by the Word of God’ By Father Randy Stice If you attend Mass regularly, you probably know more Scripture than you realize. In addition to the readings in the Liturgy of the Word, much of the Mass is drawn from Scripture: …
Confession is an encounter with the Trinity
In the sacrament, we truly meet our heavenly Father in His beloved Son and the Holy Spirit By Father Randy Stice Every celebration of a sacrament, says the Church, “is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit,” a dialogue in liturgical signs, actions, …
Eucharistic adoration flows from the Mass
St. Alphonsus: ‘adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments’ By Father Randy Stice The Church has never ceased to reflect on Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist, penetrating ever more profoundly into the mystery of the complete transformation of the bread and wine into the …
The five offices of the Liturgy of the Hours
The Divine Office ‘is an excellent preparation for the celebration of the Eucharist itself’ By Father Randy Stice Jesus prayed throughout His public ministry, from His baptism to His anguished cry to the Father on the cross. He frequently exhorted His disciples to pray, to seek, and to ask, and …
Explaining three profound aspects of the Mass
‘Memorial,’ ‘covenant,’ and ‘sacrifice’ are spoken in every liturgy, but what do they mean? By Father Randy Stice “As we celebrate the memorial”—“The new and eternal covenant”—“May the Lord accept the sacrifice.” We hear these phrases at every Mass, and the three italicized words—memorial, covenant, sacrifice—express three profound aspects of …
The culmination of the sacraments of initiation
Pope Francis: baptism, confirmation, and first Communion ‘form a single saving event’ By Father Randy Stice In recent columns, we have explored the relationship between the Eucharist and the other sacraments. In the final column in this series, we will look at the Eucharist as the culmination of the sacraments …
The Eucharist and the anointing of the sick
All that Christ did during His earthly ministry, He now does in the sacraments By Father Randy Stice In the Eucharist, we encounter “the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself.” This is why the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life” and why the …
Spouses’ total gift of self ‘has a eucharistic dimension’
The integral relationship between the Eucharist and matrimony is profound By Father Randy Stice In recent columns, I have been discussing the relationship between the Eucharist and individual sacraments. The seven sacraments of the Church “touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth …
The Eucharist and the sacrament of holy orders
The interplay between them goes back to the Upper Room, where they were instituted By Father Randy Stice “All the sacraments are bound up with the Eucharist and are directed toward it. For in the most blessed Eucharist is contained the entire spiritual wealth of the Church, namely Christ himself.”1 …
Pope Francis on the Mass: ‘prayer and encounter
The meeting is ‘with God through His Word and the body and blood of Jesus’ By Father Randy Stice In 2017 and 2018, Pope Francis gave a series of catecheses on the Mass.1 In this column, I want to share our late Holy Father’s insights on the Mass. Pope Francis …
The connection between Eucharist and penance
‘A love for the Eucharist leads to a growing appreciation of the sacrament of reconciliation’ By Father Randy Stice All the sacraments,” said the Second Vatican Council, “are bound up with the Eucharist and are directed towards it. For in the most blessed Eucharist is contained the entire spiritual wealth …
‘Not head knowledge: a personal encounter’
Father Randy Stice encourages devotion to the Eucharist, ‘the wonder of the Mass,’ in his latest book By Gabrielle Nolan Initially drawn to the Catholic Church in the 1990s because of the Church’s teachings on the Holy Eucharist, Father Randy Stice decades later has written a book on cultivating a …