CatholicFatherOf2

The Mass of the Early Christians

I have read another book, The Fathers of the Church, by Mike Aquilina. It inspired me to learn more about the early fathers and how they impacted the Mass. I have just completed the book and I was not disappointed. The book is broken up into 3 parts: How the Mass Began, The Testimony of Witnesses and The Mass of the Early Christians. The book is about 217 pages and many biblical references and excerpted English translations of many ancient texts. The second part is a little difficult for me to follow, but it was made a little easier by my earlier reading of Aquilina’s other book about the Church Fathers.

The first part is about what the Mass was like in general and discusses is origin. The second part, which makes up the vast majority of the book, go into detail about all of the documents and testimony that give us incite into what the Mass was like. It talks about the New Testament, the Didache, and the writing of many Saints. It also uses many others sources including, oddly enough, heretical and legendary texts that actually give us insight into what the Mass was like and support the writings of other more “recognized” sources. It also talks about who was and who was not allowed to attend which parts of the Mass and why. The last part is what I found most intriguing. It gives a short second person account of what it must have been like to be a Christian and attend a Mass in the early years while persecutions still occurred on a regular basis. This account becomes more meaningful after reading the previous parts of the book that are used to make the details of this account accurate. This account gave me a tremendous new respect for the people that suffered to keep the faith alive and available to us today.

posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 11:43 AM