What a perfect way to start a new year by assisting at Mass. Does that sound strange? I’m sure it does. You probably expected to hear something like, “celebrating Mass.” “Assisting,” is a word traditionally used but has fallen on hard times, being replaced by “celebrating.” What is the difference. The use of celebrate came into fashion about 50 years ago along with many other verbal slight-of-the-hands that were alleged to help bring clarity and fresh understanding. However, as time has passed, they have proven to only confuse and change understandings, frequently in a negative or false manner. The word, celebrate is popularly understood in our culture as something people do on New Year’s Eve, eat, drink, socialize and make a happy ruckus. Unfortunately, that is the general attitude that using the word celebrate has brought to Mass. The whole idea of assisting has been lost. To show you the difference, if I, as a priest, go somewhere and say Mass with another priest it would be said that I am, “con-celebrating.” Everyone knows that that does not mean I went there to “pop-a-cork” with him. I am assisting him at the altar. Assisting with what? The sacrifice! And so are you. How? With your prayers and the gift of yourself, your heart. In the Preface, the dialogue between the priest and the people before the consecration, the priest says, “Lift up your hearts.” The people reply, “We lift them up to the Lord.” So, I ask you, do you lift up your heart to the Lord? People complain that they don’t get anything out of the Mass. Mass is a prayer from beginning to end. Are you engaging it with a prayerful heart, an open heart, a generous heart, a humble heart. You see, the Lord is listening to our hearts, not necessarily our lips. Our heart is that secret place within our soul that contains the full truth of who we really are. God know it but waits for the invitation to enter. In every Mass we have the opportunity to invite the Lord into our heart. That’s where He wants to be. In this we become increasingly “one flesh” with our God, the person we were created to be. So, I invite you to “assist” at Mass. Begin this new year right, prayerfully give yourself to the Lord. The Lord be with you. Fr. Sid