# Every Part of the Catholic Mass Explained (And Why It Matters)

An episode of [AfterMass](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1823710125), 24 Apr 2026, 9:50.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/1069762b8/podcast/play/119011990/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-24%2F422825439-44100-2-1519f066dbdbb.mp3

If you’ve ever been at Mass just going through the motions, this will completely change how you see it. Every part of the Mass is rooted in Scripture, history and meaning.. and once you understand what’s actually happening, it stops feeling repetitive and starts becoming something you can’t unsee.

## Transcript

[0:00] If you've ever been at Mass and found yourself just following
[0:03] along with what everybody else is doing without really knowing
[0:06] why. Or maybe you've gone your whole
[0:09] life and you know when to stand and when to sit, but can't
[0:14] actually explain what's happening.
[0:15] I want to walk you through the Mass in a way that makes sense
[0:19] because the Mass isn't this random once a week gathering.
[0:23] It isn't something that the church just put together over
[0:26] time. It's rooted in Scripture and in
[0:29] history. And once you see that, it can
[0:32] and hopefully will change how you experience Mass and every
[0:36] single part of it. So let's start with the
[0:38] introductory rights. When Mass begins and the priest
[0:42] processes in, that is not just an entrance to start things off.
[0:46] It's really meant to represent Christ entering his temple.
[0:50] And the reason that we stand is because standing has always been
[0:53] associated with readiness and reverence before God, even in
[0:56] the Book of Revelation where the Saints are described as standing
[1:00] before his throne. And then the priest gets up to
[1:03] the altar and he actually kisses the altar.
[1:05] And this is one of those details that it can be easy to overlook.
[1:08] But the altar represents Christ himself.
[1:11] And from the earliest centuries of Christianity, the altar has
[1:14] always been understood as a place of sacrifice, not just a
[1:17] table. In fact, the early Christians or
[1:20] some of the early Christians often celebrated Mass over the
[1:23] tombs of martyrs because their lives were united to Christ's
[1:27] sacrifice. So that connection between
[1:29] sacrifice and the altar has always in there.
[1:33] Then we begin with the sign of the cross, which is not just a
[1:36] habit or something that we do just to start.
[1:39] It's a reminder of our baptism that everything we're about to
[1:42] enter is rooted in the Trinity and the identity that we
[1:46] received when we were baptized. Right after that comes the
[1:49] penitential act. And this is where the Mass
[1:51] immediately places us in the right posture because before
[1:54] approaching something holy, the first thing we do is acknowledge
[1:57] our sin. The same way that you see
[1:59] throughout Scripture when people encounter God and immediately
[2:02] become aware of their own unworthiness.
[2:05] On most Sundays, the glory of follows, which Oh, and I also
[2:08] wanted to note this about the penitential act.
[2:10] Your venial sins are forgiven. So just a little small tidbit.
[2:14] I always love to share that. But then the glory of follows,
[2:17] which is it's not just a hymn, it's the song of the angels from
[2:21] the Gospel of Luke. So already right at the
[2:24] beginning of Mass, we are stepping into something that
[2:26] Scripture shows us as happening in heaven.
[2:30] Then we move on to the liturgy of the Word.
[2:33] So this is where a lot of people underestimate what's happening
[2:36] because it can feel like just kind of a series of readings.
[2:40] But there is a structure behind it that the church has developed
[2:42] over century through what's called the lectionary, which
[2:46] organizes Scripture in a way that overtime exposes you to the
[2:50] full scope of salvation history. So typically we will hear an Old
[2:54] Testament reading, then a Psalm, and then a New Testament
[2:57] reading, and then the gospel. And those are not randomly
[3:01] chosen, They are intentionally connected so that what you hear
[3:05] continues to build on itself. We sit during this part because
[3:08] we're in a posture of receiving, of listening, but then we stand
[3:12] for the gospel. And that is important to note
[3:15] because the gospel is treated differently.
[3:17] It's understood as Christ speaking directly, which is why
[3:21] you'll often see candles and incense used because throughout
[3:23] Scripture, especially in the Psalms, incense was associated
[3:27] with prayer rising to God. And worship has always been
[3:30] something embodied, not just internal.
[3:33] Then comes the homily, which is rooted in the same pattern that
[3:36] you see in Scripture when the Word of God is proclaimed and
[3:39] then explained so that it can actually be understood and then
[3:43] lived out by us. So after that, we profess the
[3:45] creed. And this is one of those moments
[3:47] that people can just say it without thinking.
[3:49] I know I have. But the creed comes out of
[3:51] centuries of the church defining and defending what we believe
[3:55] about Christ, especially in response to early heresies.
[3:59] So when you say it, you're kind of stepping into something that
[4:02] has already been clarified and preserved from the very
[4:05] beginning. Then we offer the prayers of the
[4:08] faithful where we intercede for others because the Mass isn't
[4:12] just something that we watch, it's something that we actively
[4:14] participate in. Next up is the Liturgy of the
[4:18] Eucharist. This is what I believe is the
[4:20] third part of it. So then everything kind of
[4:23] shifts as we enter into the liturgy of the Eucharist.
[4:27] The bread and wine are brought forward, and even that connects
[4:30] back to Scripture, to figures like I don't know how to say
[4:33] this name. It's in Genesis, who offers
[4:35] bread and wine as a priest, which the Church is always
[4:38] understood as a foreshadowing of Christ.
[4:40] So then we have the Eucharistic prayer.
[4:42] That's what begins, which is the center of the entire Mass.
[4:46] And when the priest speaks the words of consecration, he is not
[4:51] speaking as himself. So when you're looking at Father
[4:55] so and so Father Bob, it's not Father Bob speaking.
[4:59] He is speaking in the person of Christ, which again is something
[5:03] that the Church has always taught in persona Christie, when
[5:06] Jesus says at the Last Supper, this is my body, the Church has
[5:09] always taken that seriously, not as a metaphor.
[5:12] And you see that then reinforced in John 6 as well, where Jesus
[5:16] does not soften his language even when people are struggling
[5:19] with it and don't actually take it literally.
[5:21] So at that moment, Catholics believe the bread and wine are
[5:24] truly changed in their substance into the body and blood of
[5:27] Christ, even though it still appears as bread and wine.
[5:31] And that belief has been held from the earliest centuries,
[5:34] long before it was ever formally defined using the language that
[5:38] you hear now, transubstantiation, which is
[5:40] what that means. And that's why people kneel,
[5:43] because what is happening is understood as the same sacrifice
[5:47] of Christ being made present. Not repeated, but made present
[5:52] outside of time. Hopefully that makes sense.
[5:56] But then bells are rung at that moment.
[5:59] Historically it was to draw attention, especially when
[6:01] people couldn't clearly see the altar.
[6:03] Because what's believed to be happening is the most profound
[6:06] reality in the Mass. Then we proclaim the great Amen,
[6:11] which is the entire congregation, affirming what has
[6:14] just taken place, not passively but intentionally.
[6:17] And after that we move into the communion, right beginning with
[6:21] the Our Father, which is the prayer that Christ himself gave
[6:24] us, placing us in the position of children speaking to the
[6:27] Father. Then we offer the sign of peace.
[6:31] This one's a pet peeve of mine. Just a fun fact about me, I
[6:35] don't like the sign of peace. Over the weekend I was in the
[6:38] Diocese of Charlotte and the sign of peace wasn't done.
[6:42] I went, I attended 2 separate masses and the sign of peace
[6:46] wasn't done. It was, it was, it was done, but
[6:48] it wasn't within the congregation.
[6:50] We didn't turn to each other and give the sign of peace, which I
[6:52] was a big fan of. So the sign of peace, I don't
[6:55] love when we have to kind of do it amongst each other.
[6:58] I prefer that the priest gives us the sign of peace and then we
[7:01] move on. But anyways, that's just a
[7:03] little random tidbit about me. Let's continue the sign of
[7:06] peace. When we offer the sign of peace,
[7:08] that connects to Christ's instruction to reconcile with
[7:12] one another before approaching the altar.
[7:14] So that's kind of the history behind the sign of peace, which
[7:17] the intention and the history behind it I can obviously
[7:20] understand and I can appreciate, but the actual doing it with one
[7:23] another is something, it's just like a pet peeve of mine.
[7:25] OK, anyways, so then we move on to the priest when he says,
[7:29] behold the Lamb of God, which ties directly to John the
[7:32] Baptist words and to the Passover where the Lamb's blood
[7:36] was what saved, pointing to Christ as the fulfillment of
[7:39] that. Then we receive Holy Communion.
[7:42] And this again, it's not just about receiving something that's
[7:45] blessed or symbolic or important, although it's
[7:48] obviously the most important, but this is understood as real,
[7:52] true union with Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity.
[7:56] And This is why the Church has always taken communion very
[7:58] seriously. So if you are not in a state of
[8:01] grace or a Catholic, you can't, you know, if you have somebody
[8:04] visiting your Mass, they cannot receive communion because we've
[8:08] always taken it literally. Because as Saint Paul writes in
[8:10] First Corinthians, receiving unworthily has very real
[8:13] consequences, which only make sense if what is being received
[8:17] is truly Christ, which it is. So at that moment after
[8:20] receiving, when things become very quiet, it's not just this
[8:23] transition period. It's actually one of the most
[8:25] important moments because this is where you are meant to
[8:28] respond interiorly to what you've just received.
[8:32] Now we move on to the last part of the Mass, which are the
[8:35] concluding rites. So this is when the Mass
[8:38] concludes with the final blessing and the dismissal.
[8:41] And this is where the word Mass actually comes from, from the
[8:44] Latin here, Misa Ethan Miseste, Latin, here we go.
[8:52] My pronunciations. I apologize.
[8:53] But basically that means that you are sent like go you're,
[8:57] you're sent because the expectation isn't that what just
[9:01] happened there stays within the walls of the church, but that it
[9:04] carries into your life and that you leave the mass differently,
[9:07] that what you encountered will actually shape how you live once
[9:11] you leave. So that is the mass broken down.
[9:13] And when you understand what's happening in each part of the
[9:15] Mass, it can stop feeling like this repetitive or confused
[9:19] thing that you attend. And you start to see that every
[9:21] movement and every prayer and every posture is connected to
[9:25] something that's deeper and connected to scripture and
[9:28] history and the way that Christians have worshipped from
[9:31] the beginning. And once you see that, hopefully
[9:33] you don't experience it the same way again.
[9:36] And that wraps it up. So that was my mask guide for
[9:40] beginners. So hopefully you found that
[9:41] helpful, insightful, maybe you learned something new.
[9:44] And that's all I have for today. So thank you guys so much for
[9:47] listening. I will see you guys next time.
[9:49] Bye.

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