The Holy and Divine Encounter: A Journey Through the Beauty of the Holy Mass

The Holy and Divine Encounter is not your typical book on the Catholic Mass. It is a book aimed at helping the People of God participate more authentically at Mass by allowing the prayers and symbols of the liturgy to form their internal prayers. In this work you will find a breakdown of the major prayers and actions of the Mass so that the lay person may better understand and participate in what is going on in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The book relies primarily on Sacred Scripture to comment on the Roman Missal. It also utilizes the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Church Councils, Liturgical Documents, Thomas Aquinas and Benedict XVI. The book is written in the spirit of the liturgical thought of Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI. While this book is not a critique of the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo) Mass it does take up various issues such as gestures during the Our Father, the busyness during the Sign of Peace and the direction the priest faces when praying to God. Saint Pius X’s Tra le Sollecitudini (on Sacred Music) is provided in full in the appendix.