The Religious Teachings and Rituals of the Faith Essay

The Religious Teachings and Rituals of the Faith - Essay Example in its vast fold. The Mass serves as the gathering of the Christian community at the church on Sunday morning, in memory of Holy Jesus (Baldovin 2003), in order to participate in all the rituals going to take place in church according to the Christian belief system and traditions associated with this sacred gathering, aim to pray to God and demonstrate their loyalty and dedication to the Holy Christ. The Mass contains the beginning hymns (performed with musical instruments), sermon depicting the sacred life and noble teachings of Jesus Christ, recitation and interpretation of some verses from the Gospel, collective prayer in the light of Christian belief, presentation of gifts and prayers to altar, the priest’s lecture at the altar, elucidating the noble cause behind the great and exemplary sacrifice made by Christ for humanity, blessing the bread and wine, according to the commands made by Christ at the eve of his Last Supper, followed by the collective Great Amen and receivi ng of Jesus in Holy Communion, and the final blessings at the end (Chadwick 106). Consequently, the Mass is actually the completion of all the rites associated with Eucharist from gathering to the participation in the final blessings. The question aptly rises in the minds of the Christian community that since they could offer their prayers and can observe meditation and recitation while staying at their homes, then why should they proceed to church and spend time at there as they are to perform almost the same at home, which they are going to carry out by visiting the church. However, at the moment they forget the very reality that the prayer does not mean mere delivering of some words from the mouth or doing some specific acts at a room in the residence; on the contrary, worship stands for a comprehensive and organized activity, to be observed in the company of the fellow people of the same faith in order to join the prayer session collectively, and to comprehend with the real mess age of Jesus Christ that the Christians are responsible for conveying his message to the entire humanity without any discrimination of class, caste, community, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status (Latourette 295). It is, therefore, then every Christian is welcomed at the church without taking his position, appearance, wealth and resources into slightest consideration even. Similarly, selection of Sunday by the saints for communion is actually for celebrating the day of Christ’s resurrection (Baldovin 2-3), on the third of his crucifixion at the hands of the cruel ruler of his era. Another important issue related to the Mass includes the purpose behind it. Since Eucharist stands for Thanksgiving, it is actually the expression of gratitude to Christ for his sacrifice and love, which should be made in the congregation by visiting the church instead of sending the same by staying at home.