Understanding the Catholic Mass

Eucharist means..."thanksgiving"

Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass.  He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist.  You can read about it here. 

Excerpt:

The following chapters illustrate how each of the actions and attitudes listed here can be applied to the celebration of the Eucharist.At the end of each chapter there are five additional helps:

1.  Keep Your Focus on Jesus offers a way to reflect on the action or attitude being discussed in the life and ministry of Jesus.

2.  Learn from the Blessed Virgin Mary offers Our Lady as a guide for getting the most from the Eucharist. Mary is the perfect Christian and looking to her is the perfect way to learn how to follow her son Jesus.Pope John Paul II has said, “If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist,we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church. . . . Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it.”⁴

3.  Attitude to Foster offers a simple verse taken from Scripture to help internalize the attitude or action.

4.  Developing a Eucharistic Spirituality offers suggestions for putting the action or attitude into practice in our daily lives.

5.  A Prayer for Today offers a prayer to recite or practice to help internalize the action or attitude.

There are also other suggestions throughout the book drawn from the teachings of the Catholic Church. The method being proposed here is simple: We must let go of our judgmental attitude and replace it with a sacrificial attitude.This is so simple, in fact, that in each section I have included a lesson I have learned about putting this into practice from my three-year-old son, Joseph.You’ll find that when you approach the Eucharist with the attitude that you have a sacrifice to offer, there will be no end of things to offer God at every Eucharistic celebration!

How to Pray at a Catholic Mass by Michael Dubruiel

Eucharist means..."thanksgiving"

Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass.  He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist.  You can read about it here. 

Excerpt:

F U R T H E R H E L P S

1. Keep Your Focus on Jesus

Whenever you desire to “control” what happens in the Eucharist, or suffer because you sense someone else is hijacking the liturgy,

•    Think of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.

•    Think of Jesus telling his followers to take up their crossand follow him.

•    Think of Jesus saying that he did not come to be servedbut to serve.

Keeping your focus on Christ will prevent the devil in his attempts to distract you from the purpose of the Eucharist.

2. Learn from the Blessed Virgin Mary

Following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary we declare ourselves at God’s service. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38) was Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel’s

announcement that God would become incarnate within her. When we come to the Eucharist, God desires to continue the incarnation within us, and Mary teaches us how we should approach so great a gift.

Mary’s reaction to the angel’s message gives a supreme example of the sacrifice we can bring to every celebration of the Eucharist. When confronted with anything that does not go according to our plans,we need to open ourselves up to what God might be asking of us.

3. Foster an Attitude of Service

When Joshua realized that he was being confronted by a messenger of God, someone who at first he was not sure was a friend, he asked, “What does my Lord bid his servant” (Joshua 5:14)?

When we have the right stance toward God in our worship this is the question we will ask when confronted by anything that disturbs us: “What does my Lord bid his servant”?

4. Developing a Eucharistic Spirituality

Empowered by Christ, we should seek to serve God and anyone God places in our path throughout the day. “How may I serve you?” should be the question ever on our lips, whether at home, at work, or in recreation. We can find concrete ways to serve Christ in the many guises in which he comes to us in the poor and the weak.

Books by Michael Dubruiel

Eucharist means..."thanksgiving"

Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass.  He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist.  You can read about it here. 

Excerpt:

The God who is above everything we can think of, who is the very reason that we live and the reason that the universe exists, humbled himself to become a part of creation. This is in direct opposition to fallen humanity that sought “to become like God” when it disobeyed God’s command in the Garden of Eden.

Our desire to be in control is part of our fallen nature. Many of us live with an illusion that we are in control. We are taught to plan for every eventuality,to insure ourselves for every possible disaster, but if we do not realize that only God is in control, we are living in a fantasy world. Think of the parable that Jesus told of the rich man (see Luke 12:16–21) who built bigger barns to store his large harvest; he was foolish, Jesus said, because he was to die that night. His material wealth could not save or help him once he was in the grave. The rich man thought he was in control of his destiny but, like every one of us, found out that he was not — God was and is.

Jesus rescues us from the chaos that life is without him. Pope John Paul II has said, “In the Eucharist our God has shown love in the extreme, overturning all those criteria of power which too often govern human relations and radically affirming the criterion of service:‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all’ (Mk 9:35). It is not by chance that the Gospel of John contains no account of the institution of the Eucharist,but instead relates the ‘washing of the feet’ (cf. Jn 13:1–20): by bending down to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the Eucharist unequivocally.”⁶

How to Pray the Rosary by Michael Dubruiel

Michael Dubruiel conceived and put together the small hardbound book, Praying the Rosary.  Click on the cover for more information.

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Here's an excerpt:

The Gospels show that the gaze of Mary varied depending upon the circumstances of life. So it will be with us. Each time we pick up the holy beads to recite the Rosary, our gaze at the mystery of Christ will differ depending on where we find ourselves at that moment.

Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14) [Rosarium Virginis Mariae, no. 10].

As we pray the Rosary, then, we join with Mary in contemplating Christ. With her, we remember Christ, we proclaim Him, we learn from Him, and, most importantly, as we raise our voices in prayer and our hearts in contemplation of the holy mysteries, this “compendium of the Gospel” itself, we are conformed to Him.

Also, check out this post from 2003, in which Michael Dubruiel narrates the events of one of his "rosary walks."

Michael Dubruiel's Books

How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist by Michael Dubruiel.

“ I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE”
Jesus told his disciples that he had given them a model to follow. He said,“If you know these things,blessed are you if you do them” (John 13: 17).The traditional tale of the fall of Satan is that it was due to his refusal to serve: non serviam, “I will not serve,” was the devil’s reply to God.Inflated by pride,he would not obey.Fallen humanity shares this trait, as Jeremiah the prophet says: “For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, ‘I will not serve’ ” (Jeremiah 2:20).In opposition to Satan and fallen humanity is Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to be served but to serve. We who follow him are “in Christ”and we are to imitate him at the liturgy.If we want to get the most out of the Eucharist we need to start by fostering the attitude of Christ the Servant.

Books by Michael Dubruiel

How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist by Michael Dubruiel.

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE EUCHARISTIf you want to get the most out of the Eucharist you have to check your “I” at the door.The “I” that wants things, that endlessly critiques the way things are done, and  that demands things be done in exactly a certain way (meaning “my way,” not God’s way). I think it was Peter Kreeft who once said that the famous song, “I Did It My Way,” sung by such great artists as Frank Sinatra and Elvis, is the national anthem of hell. The way of the world may be to do things “our way” but the way of Christ is to do things his Way.We therefore consciously have to leave “my way” at the door and in exchange take up an attitude that asks “how may we be of service to you, Lord, in this celebration of the Eucharist?”

How to Get More out of Mass by Michael Dubruiel

Eucharist means..."thanksgiving"

Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass.  He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist.  You can read about it here. 

How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist gives you nine concrete steps to help you join your own sacrifice to the sacrifice of Christ as you:

• Serve: Obey the command that Jesus gave to his disciples at the first Eucharist.
• Adore: Put aside anything that seems to rival God in importance.
• Confess: Believe in God’s power to make up for your weaknesses.
• Respond" Answer in gesture, word, and song in unity with the Body of Christ.
• Incline: Listen with your whole being to the Word of God.
• Fast: Bring your appetites and desires to the Eucharist.
• Invite: Open yourself to an encounter with Jesus.
• Commune: Accept the gift of Christ in the Eucharist.
• Evangelize :Take him and share the Lord with others.

Filled with true examples, solid prayer-helps, and sound advice, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist shows you how to properly balance the Mass as a holy banquet with the Mass as a holy sacrifice. With its references to Scripture, quotations from the writings and prayers of the saints, and practical aids for overcoming distractions one can encounter at Mass, this book guides readers to embrace the Mass as if they were attending the Last Supper itself.