The
Mass is the
Eucharistic celebration in the
Latin liturgical rites of the
Roman Catholic Church. The term is used also of similar celebrations in
Old Catholic Churches, in the
Anglo-Catholic tradition of
Anglicanism, and in some largely
High Church Lutheran regions, including the
Scandinavian and
Baltic countries. For the celebration of the Eucharist in
Eastern Churches, including
those in
full communion with the
Holy See, other terms, such as the
Divine Liturgy, the
Holy Qurbana, and the
Badarak, are normally used. Most Western denominations not in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, such as
Calvinist Christianity, also usually prefer terms other than
Mass.
For information on the theology of the Eucharist and on the Eucharistic liturgy of other Christian denominations, see "Eucharist" and "Eucharistic theology".
The term "Mass" is derived from the late-Latin word missa (dismissal), a word used in the concluding formula of Mass in Latin "Ite, missa est" ("Go; it is the dismissal").[1]
The Council of Trent reaffirmed traditional Christian teaching that the Mass is the same Sacrifice of Calvary offered in an unbloody manner "The victim is one and the same the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different. And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner... this sacrifice is truly propitiatory" (Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, c. 2, quoted in Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1367). The Council declared that Jesus instituted the Mass at his Last Supper "He offered up to God the Father His own body and blood under the species of bread and wine; and, under the symbols of those same things, He delivered (His own body and blood) to be received by His apostles, whom He then constituted priests of the New Testament; and by those words, Do this in commemoration of me, He commanded them and their successors in the priesthood, to offer (them); even as the Catholic Church has always understood and taught."[2]
