Mass Plus – Come to Mass, Stay for More!

What:   Presentation along with informal discussion.

When:   2nd Sunday of the month [usually, check below], 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).

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Mass Plus 2026-2027

Liturgy Shapes life:    

what does Liturgy form us to do?

Each year we have a topic related to liturgy.  In 2026-2027 we are focusing on how the liturgy shapes or forms us.  

Often we think of the Mass and other sacraments as an expression of our faith.  We as Catholics have beliefs, and we express these in an outward way in the signs and actions of the liturgy.  While this is true, it is only half the story.
 
When we carry out the liturgy, we are shaped by the actions and words we do.  Doing our repetitive rituals instills beliefs in us and forms us into the body of Christ, the church.  This is the liturgy’s main purpose, in Catholic teaching.
 
But being the church isn’t for our own benefit; it’s not primarily for our future personal salvation or present feeling of belonging.  God forms us into a unified body to continue God’s work of unity in the world.  We are transformed into the body of Christ in order to transform the world, to live the liturgy in all aspects of our lives, to be Christ’s hands and feet in service to all.
 
How does liturgy change us?  What does the Church teach about this?  What are some practical ways God is calling us to live the liturgy now?
 

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

More about the Topics for Each Month

Sept 13    How Liturgy Shapes Life
Among Catholics, it’s common to hear people speak of the Mass as their weekly “hour for God.”   What we do at Mass, this seems to suggest, is directed to God in a way that’s different from the rest of the week.  
 
But, as baptized Christians, isn’t every hour of our life for God?  What if the things we do at Mass are not different from daily life?  What if the words we say and the actions we do in Mass are a picture of how we actually live?  What if what we do in that one hour is essentially a training or a rehearsal for our behavior and attitudes for every hour in all aspect of our lives?


Oct 4    Formed as One Body
Our attention as Catholics at Mass is focused on the presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine that become his very body and blood.  This is rightly so.  But often we forget the next step.  Why does the Holy Spirit change our gifts? Why does Christ become present in this food we brought up to the altar?
 
As we pray in the Eucharistic Prayer, the Spirit changes the gifts of bread and wine in order to then change all of us who eat and drink.  The bread and wine that we presented is transformed into the body and blood of Christ, so that we may be transformed by the same Spirit into Christ’s body, to do Christ’s service in the world.  We receive communion in order to be a communion, a church united to serve God by serving the world.  God makes us one unified body at Mass, because God wants us to live that unity and bring about that unity in every aspect of our lives.  
 
Is this essential meaning of Mass familiar to us?  How can we live more faithfully as a communion in our present times in this country?


Nov 8    Formed for Mission
It’s commonly known that the Roman Catholic Church undertook a renewal of its liturgy after Vatican Council II.  Much of what the Council taught in 1963 about liturgy had been received from scholars and pastors active in the Liturgical Movement.  This 20^th- century effort, which began in Europe, uncovered an understanding of the Mass and sacraments that prevailed in early Christianity but had been later lost.  
 
One key idea about liturgy that was crucial to many pioneers in the Liturgical Movement in the early 20^th century was similarly lost by the time of Vatican II.  This was the conviction that liturgy held the solution to problems of society, such as the poverty and suffering of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
 
What was this thinking?  How could a religious act like liturgy be a solution to secular economic issues?  Come hear about the surprising contributions and insights of Virgil Michel, a monk in Minnesota, who in the 1920s brought the Liturgical Movement to the United States.


Jan 10 Giving Ourselves
Doing the Eucharist, Sunday after Sunday, shapes us into the church, the body of Christ.  Doing the Eucharist rehearses in us the attitudes and behaviors of Christ.  
 
Especially in the Eucharistic Prayer, Christ joins us to his prayer to God the Father.  In this prayer, at each Mass, Christ offers himself in thanksgiving to God the Father.  He gives himself away in love and trust to the Faithful One.  “Through him and with him and in him,” by the power of the Holy Spirit, we do that too.  With Christ, we give our lives away to God – which can only mean that we give ourselves away in service to others.
 
How does thinking of Mass as a “training” or “rehearsal” in the attitudes of Christ affect our understanding of what Mass is and what it is for?  


Feb 7   Living the Mass 
“[T]he Eucharist is not merely an expression of communion in the Church's life;  it is also a project of solidarity for all of humanity.”    
“The Christian who takes part in the Eucharist learns to become a promoter of communion, peace and solidarity in every situation.”  
“[T]he Eucharist [is] a great school of peace.”
 
These words are from Pope John Paul II in a reflection on the Eucharist in 2004.  Here he emphasizes what we “learn” from Eucharist.  But this learning is learning-by-doing, not from being told.  It is learning instilled in us from doing the rituals of Mass, week by week, decade by decade.
 
Do we know the Eucharist as “a great school of peace”?  What practical effect does that have on our behavior and attitudes at home, at work, as American citizens?


March 14   Catholic Social Teaching
This is often called the Church's best-kept secret.  Beginning in the late 1800s but drawing on the past, Catholic Social Teaching developed in official statements from bishops, church councils, and popes.  

This teaching arose to address new social realities about how people treat one another in the industrial age, like the dignity of the laborer, the right to a just wage, the right to organize, the duty of the state to ensure safe working conditions.

The first document to teach about this was the encyclical Rerum Novarum ("of new things") in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII.  Many consider this to be significant in why our current pope chose to be called Leo XIV.

What are some of the key points in Catholic Social Teaching?  How are these found in the liturgy?  In what ways does this teaching challenge our usual assumptions about being American or being Catholic?

​Current Handouts & Recordings​​​
​Past Handouts & Recordings​​​

The button for Current Handouts and Recordings takes you to folders for each session happening during the current school year. Each session has a handout with an outline and notes to use during that session. It may also have supplemental handouts with additional material useful for that session.

After each session of the current year, a recording will be available here as well.  Use the handout for the session along with watching the recording. 

The button for Past Handouts and Recordings takes you to content from previous years.  When you view the recordings, it helps if you also open the handouts for that session so you can follow along.


If you cannot make a session in person, you may join us through Zoom.  Passcode is MassPlus. 

Join Mass Plus by Zoom

Questions?   Contact Emily Besl: [email protected]