Living the Mass
Father Andrea Gasparino
ISBN 9781860823053
eISBN 9781784693756
ASIN B073H26T4B
CTS Booklet DO732
I found a few other books with this exact title. So if you go looking for it, make sure you check the author. I also believe this is one of only three books Father Andrea Gasparino available in English. There appear to be several titles available in Italian, and a few in Spanish, Korean, and Polish. A few years back I stumbled upon the books and booklets from the Catholic Truth Society. I instantly fell in love with the clear and concise writing. I have been hooked ever since. I have read over 200 volumes and have nearly that many on my wish list. This book was published in 2005, and the eBook edition released in 2017.
The description on the back of the book is:
“There is always a danger that even the most extraordinary events can become mere routine. This text helps us to recall the wonderful opportunity at every Mass to meet God in word and sacrament.”
And the chapters in this little volume are:
Holy Communion: Grafting us into the Divine Life
The First Step
Interrupting the routine
Listening: Difficult but Vital
Celebrating and Conversing
Offering and Asking
This is a little volume, even by CTS booklet standards. Coming in at 48 pages. And many of the pages are part pages as each chapter is broken into several sections. But it is well worth the read. If you receive communion in a state of grace and with great devotion, the booklet will have a few tips to help you go even deeper. But it is also a booklet that all Catholic’s today should read. It will remind us of the blessing and gift that it is to receive the Eucharist. It might also prompt some of to not receive it on a specific Sunday or even in general until we have put our life in order.
“The moment when we take Communion is somehow different. It is the awesome moment in which we have a face to face meeting with Jesus Christ. He meets with us personally and has a dialogue with us. He comes to choose us because he has something special to say to us, something which is for our ears only. It is a moment in which we come before Christ alone.”
“For those who take Communion often, it is easy to see that our personal meeting with Christ can soon say very little to us. It is sad but true that all of us have a predisposition for making Communion a banal event: an empty ritual where we are absent and it seems that Christ also is absent, where we become easily distracted and it seems that Christ also fails to speak. And as with every mode of behaviour, this shameful state of affairs can become a habit. These cold Communions can become so common that we stop even feeling bad about them.”
“Once upon a time the problem was getting people to make more frequent Communions; nowadays there is the opposite problem. How does one stop people from taking Communion or at least give them a notion of the seriousness of what they are doing?
This problem was confronted with great severity by St Paul when he wrote to the Christian communities in Corinth (1 Cor 11:27).
Before Communion it is important to ask oneself a question: does my conscience permit me to receive Communion?”
There is a list of seven reasons to celebrate and converse with Jesus after communion that will open our eyes, our minds and our hearts. This is a fantastic little volume that I highly recommend.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2021 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
Books by Father Andrea Gasparino:
Sexuality and Love
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