The Mass in the Early Church was Catholic.
As I have said I am studying the Early Church and finding out just how Catholic it was. Little wonder that many Evangelicals in America who did the same found themselves compelled to convert to Rome. But let me talk about the Mass.
A Protestant Early Church historian J.N.D Kelly. "...the eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian sacrifice. Malachi predicted (Malachi 1:10 -11) that God would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have a 'pure offering' made to Him by the gentiles was seized upon in every place by Christians, the Didache actually apples this term 'thusia'
or sacrifice to the Eucharist.............the bread and wine moreover are offered 'for a memorial' a phrase which in view of his identification of them with the body and blood implies much more than an actual of purely spiritual recollection" But let us quote from the Fathers.
ST Clement. A contemporary of the Apostles and the third successor of Peter in Rome, wrote with authority to the Church in Corinth admonishing them for dismissing their presbyters who were appointed by the Apostles and other eminent men. It was a letter which demonstrated the authority of the successor of St Peter. "Our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate those who blamelessly and holily have offered its sacrifices" (AD 96) We can see that there were priests indeed in the Church with the same role as our priests have today.
ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH "Take care then to have one Eucharist, for there is one flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of his blood; one altar; one bishop along with the presbyter, and deacons, my fellow servants, that whatsoever you may do you do in accordance with the will of God" Notice how the word 'flesh' is used. It is he same word that Jesus used when he told his followers that unless they eat of his flesh and drink of his blood they cannot have life in them. The disciples did not understand this, as indeed we do not understand it today, but they believed it because Jesus had said it.
Again if I quoted all the early Fathers this would turn into a book, but believe this. The Mass did not evolve over centuries, it was there right from the beginning, and the priesthood was there right from the beginning.
The prophecy of Malachi 1:10 - 11 is worth reading and in the Mass the priest says just before there Consecration. "From the rising of the sun until it setting a fitting sacrifice its offered. In Rome the Mass was offered in Greek until about 180 when it was changed to Latin. The use of Latin worldwide as the language of the Mass was again to show the unity of the Church in its worship and the same Mass was offered everywhere. The same cry to Heaven. Those of us who went to Church during the Latin Mass were accused of not understanding what was going on, preferred to say our own prayers, saying the Rosary, just sitting doing nothing. No at school the Mass was taught to us and we knew every part. It is the children of today whose teaching on the Eucharist was deliberately stopped who with no understanding would rather not attend. Nothing was further from the truth. The fact that the Mass is in English does not mean there is any change in the faithful. Habitual repetition presents its own problems. But I will vote one more Father of the Church.
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM "for when you see the Lord sacrificed and laid upon the altar, and the priest standing and praying over the victim. and all the worshippers empurpled with the precious blood, can you then still think that you are among men, and standing upon the earth, are you not on the contrary immediately translated to heaven.
A Protestant Early Church historian J.N.D Kelly. "...the eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian sacrifice. Malachi predicted (Malachi 1:10 -11) that God would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have a 'pure offering' made to Him by the gentiles was seized upon in every place by Christians, the Didache actually apples this term 'thusia'
or sacrifice to the Eucharist.............the bread and wine moreover are offered 'for a memorial' a phrase which in view of his identification of them with the body and blood implies much more than an actual of purely spiritual recollection" But let us quote from the Fathers.
ST Clement. A contemporary of the Apostles and the third successor of Peter in Rome, wrote with authority to the Church in Corinth admonishing them for dismissing their presbyters who were appointed by the Apostles and other eminent men. It was a letter which demonstrated the authority of the successor of St Peter. "Our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate those who blamelessly and holily have offered its sacrifices" (AD 96) We can see that there were priests indeed in the Church with the same role as our priests have today.
ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH "Take care then to have one Eucharist, for there is one flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of his blood; one altar; one bishop along with the presbyter, and deacons, my fellow servants, that whatsoever you may do you do in accordance with the will of God" Notice how the word 'flesh' is used. It is he same word that Jesus used when he told his followers that unless they eat of his flesh and drink of his blood they cannot have life in them. The disciples did not understand this, as indeed we do not understand it today, but they believed it because Jesus had said it.
Again if I quoted all the early Fathers this would turn into a book, but believe this. The Mass did not evolve over centuries, it was there right from the beginning, and the priesthood was there right from the beginning.
The prophecy of Malachi 1:10 - 11 is worth reading and in the Mass the priest says just before there Consecration. "From the rising of the sun until it setting a fitting sacrifice its offered. In Rome the Mass was offered in Greek until about 180 when it was changed to Latin. The use of Latin worldwide as the language of the Mass was again to show the unity of the Church in its worship and the same Mass was offered everywhere. The same cry to Heaven. Those of us who went to Church during the Latin Mass were accused of not understanding what was going on, preferred to say our own prayers, saying the Rosary, just sitting doing nothing. No at school the Mass was taught to us and we knew every part. It is the children of today whose teaching on the Eucharist was deliberately stopped who with no understanding would rather not attend. Nothing was further from the truth. The fact that the Mass is in English does not mean there is any change in the faithful. Habitual repetition presents its own problems. But I will vote one more Father of the Church.
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM "for when you see the Lord sacrificed and laid upon the altar, and the priest standing and praying over the victim. and all the worshippers empurpled with the precious blood, can you then still think that you are among men, and standing upon the earth, are you not on the contrary immediately translated to heaven.
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