Mass ─ How to Explain What We Do on Sunday to Our Children and Friends

For parents trying to pass on the Catholic faith to their children and to their friends, this simple book will help them explain what Catholics do on Sunday and why they do it. The Mass should work at the deepest level of our being, changing us into people who share God’s own life. For this to happen, we need to take part in it in a way that is inspired by the spirit of the church’s liturgy. In simple language, the first section of this book leads us step by step through the Mass so that we may take part in it with a deeper reverence and understanding. Should you wish to dig more deeply, the second section is one into which you can dip from time to time to examine the meaning of some words associated with sacred Scripture and the sacrifice of the Mass. The third section considers some extra spirituality dealing with the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Father John Mahon is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin who is now retired after over fifty years in the ministry, the last twenty of which he spent as parish priest (rector) of Our Lady Queen of Peace, Bray, County Wicklow. He was educated in Saint Joseph’s Infant School and Christian Brothers' National School in Carlow before going to Glenstal Priory (now Abbey) School in County Limerick. From University College Dublin he obtained a B.A. degree and a higher diploma in education, with honors. His training as a priest took place in Holy Cross College, Dublin, and he was ordained in 1951. For the first twenty years of his ministry, he was very involved in working for youth.