Mass Plus – Come to Mass, Stay for More!

What:   Presentation along with informal discussion.

When:    2nd Sunday of the month, Sept thru March
10:30-11:25 AM. 

Location:     St. Veronica Church Welcome Center 

(Welcome Center is adjacent to church, doors is to right of main church doors).

---

Mass Plus 2025-2026

Embodied Prayer:    Gestures and Postures in Liturgy

Each year we have a topic related to liturgy.  In 2025-2026 we are focusing on the liturgy as a physical act that we perform with our bodies.  

Catholic worship is embodied worship.  God’s encounter with us happens through physical acts.  Words we speak with our mouths and hear with our ears.  Actions we do.  Gestures we perform and postures we take.  Moving our bodies from one place to another.
 
In sacramental worship, God is present to interact with us through outward signs.  Our bodily actions in liturgy are more than they appear – they are the way we meet the divine mystery.  
 
Much of our focus in liturgy is on words.  But worship for Catholics requires our bodies: to gather, to stand, to sign our flesh with the cross.  What does it mean for us to pray with our bodies?

Here are the dates for Mass Plus this year.  More detail about each session is below.

Topics for Each Month

Sept 14    Embodied Worship
Although we often think of worship as something we mainly do with our minds and hearts, it is first done with our bodies.  We have to show up, to be physically present in our bodies.  

As we know, sacraments consist of signs we experience through our senses: what we see, hear, taste, touch, smell.  This necessarily involves our bodies.

So we make the sign of the cross on our bodies.  We bend our backs or necks.  We process, moving our bodies from one place to another.  Why is this so?  What does it tell us about God’s relationship with us? About faith? About being human?  

Oct 12    The Sign of the Cross
One of the most common gestures in Catholic worship is the sign of the cross.  Our foreheads are traced with the cross at the beginning of our baptism, and we mark our bodies with the same sign at the beginning (and end) of every Mass.  To prepare to hear the gospel we touch our forehead, lips, chest to make a cross.

Why is it important to do this physically?  When I do this, what is this ritual asking of me?  When we do this all together, what does it ask of us as a church?

Nov 9    Postures
In our embodied worship, posture plays a significant role.  We don’t sit for the whole service to watch or listen.  We as a community take assigned postures at prescribed times.  

What does it mean to stand up?  To stand up together?  To sit or kneel? What does bowing my head or my back at certain moments tell me or ask of me, of us?  Why do we all have to do the same thing at the same time?
 How does bodily posture enable us to carry out our worship?

Jan 11    Actions and Objects
In the 20^th century, the Church returned to an emphasis on sacraments as not just objects, but as actions -- the broader action of liturgy as a whole, as well as particular actions.  

With our hands, for example, we take holy water as we enter church, extend a sign of peace, and cup one in the other to receive communion.  The hands of bride and groom are joined for their marriage vows.  Hands of a minister are laid upon our heads in absolution, in blessing, in prayer for the sick.  

How do human bodily actions like this enable us to encounter the mystery of God?

Feb 8    Lent and Triduum Practices
In the liturgies of Lent and the Paschal Triduum, we do many bodily actions and gestures unique to this time.  We wear ashes, wave palms, carry lighted candles in the dark.  We fast together not just a personal practice but a liturgical bodily act.  In processions, we physically move our bodies from place to place with palms, to venerate the cross, from the fire to the darkened church.  

How does this annual embodied worship shape us to live as followers of Christ?

March 8    Processions
Among bodily acts in worship, processions have a prominent role.  Here the liturgy makes clear that we are not mere spectators, but actively engaged in performing worship as we move our bodies from one place to another.  

In the Mass, a few members represent us all as they enter formally or present the gifts, while all come forward towards the altar to receive communion.  When children are baptized, the rite moves everyone from the door to a place to listen to the Word, then to the font, concluding at the altar.  The wedding rite calls for the couple to enter the liturgy walking together, embodying their transition to married life.  

How is the mystery of God revealed to us in the common bodily act of walking?