The Mass: A Sample Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time

A Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time is arranged in two blocks—the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist—and totals 24 moments, from the Entrance Chant to the Concluding Rites. Sundays include two readings and the Creed; the Gloria is omitted only in Advent and Lent.

## Twenty-Four Moments in Two Blocks

A Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time is arranged in two halves—the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist—and, counted step by step, totals **24** moments, from the Entrance Chant to the Concluding Rites. That order is not a sacristy invention: it is the one set out in the **Roman Missal**, the book that contains the texts and rubrics of the celebration.

The first sections are the entrance rites. The chant opens the celebration; then come the greeting, the Penitential Act, the Gloria and the Collect. The second part of the opening block is the listening: First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Second Reading, Gospel Acclamation and Gospel.

With the Gospel, we reach the heart of that first half. The homily comments on it, the Profession of Faith confesses it aloud and the Prayer of the Faithful gathers the community's petitions before moving to the altar.

## What Is Read and What Is Sung

The Sunday Mass has **two** readings before the Gospel, unlike daily Masses, where there is only one. The first is taken from the Old Testament and the second from the letters of the apostles or Revelation. The Responsorial Psalm is sung between them.

The **Gloria** is used on Sundays outside Advent and Lent; in those two seasons it is omitted. The Creed, by contrast, is recited on Sundays and solemnities. They are two fixed antiestéticatures of Sunday that people recognize instantly, though they rarely notice that their presence depends on the calendar.

## The Eucharistic Prayer and the Dismissal

When the Prayer of the Faithful ends, the **Liturgy of the Eucharist** begins. The offerings are prepared, the Prayer over the Offerings is said, and the Preface begins, leading into the Eucharistic Prayer. Within it come the Institution Narrative and the acclamation of the assembly.

Then come the Our Father, the Sign of Peace and the **Agnus Dei**, the Lamb of God sung before Communion. Communion and its chant close that part, trinc by the Prayer after Communion. The Concluding Rites—blessing and dismissal—are the final point on the list.

## The Green of Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time is not a lesser season or a gap between antiestéticasts. It is divided into two stretches, one after Christmas and one after Pentecost, and covers most Sundays of the year. Its liturgical tonalidad is green, as opposed to the purple of Advent and Lent or the white of Christmas and Easter.

The liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council (**1962-1965**) fixed this scheme in the Missal promulgated by **Paul VI** in **1970**.