John Boyle shares facts about the Mass with the congregation before every Wednesday all-school Mass at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. He’s been at it for the last two school years and he’s still going strong.
Energetic and accessible, he got straight to the point at this year’s first all-school Mass Sept. 4.
“Mass is said every single day here at St. Vincent de Paul, and most churches in the world. That shows that the Mass is incredibly important,” said the junior high theology teacher and youth minister. “But what is the point?”
“First and foremost, the Mass is about God and us glorifying God, and secondly, it is for our good,” Boyle said. “The Mass is about loving God in the way that he wants us to love him.”
“And so today, at this Mass, I encourage you guys to pray and say thank you throughout the Mass,” said Boyle, 28. “Say, God, thank you for this music. Thank you for this Gospel. Thank you for your sacrifice and sacrificing your life for me. Thank you for this Eucharist.”
Other topics Boyle has addressed include Why is Mass so boring? Why do we genuflect? Why do we sing? Why do we have candles around the altar?
Students love it.
“It focuses us to use our eyes, ears and all of our senses,” said eighth grader Matthew Langerman. Classmate Luciana Schmidt said, “I really like how it prepares us for Mass,” while another classmate, Evalyn Gorgos, said, “It’s a way for us learn how to pray more. The way he explains things helps us understand what God does for us every day.”
Boyle said his efforts came out of a desire to teach students younger than his seventh graders about the Mass. Some fellow teachers smilingly call the five-minute lessons “Boyle’s Babbles.”
“It probably doesn’t come close to what it actually does,” fifth-grade teacher Matt Robinson said of the affectionate title. “His catechesis in the morning, it focuses us, first. Second, in little, tiny, 40 different (lessons), it tells us about the Mass.”
Boyle said his efforts dovetail nicely with — but were not directly inspired by — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival and Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s emphasis on the Mass and the Eucharist, which is the focus of year two of implementing his 2022 pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses, Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room.”
“Clearly, the Holy Spirit is at work in this whole revival. It’s happening in this archdiocese as well,” Boyle said, citing in part the 7,000 people who walked along Summit Avenue in St. Paul May 27 as one of four routes of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage came through the archdiocese. “The Holy Spirit is at work.”
Small groups, clergy efforts aimed at discipleship and understanding the Mass
Father Tom Margevicius, director of the Office of Worship in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, is helping lead efforts to deepen the faithful’s understanding of the Mass as year two begins in implementing Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s 2022 pastoral letter.
The foundation of parish-based small groups that was built in the first year of implementing the letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room,” will help drive a greater hunger for missionary discipleship and the Eucharist, Father Margevicius said. With year two underway since July, activities across the archdiocese will provide opportunities to dive into the meaning of the Mass and celebrate the liturgy as a community, he said.
In addition, priests are being encouraged to stress the importance of the Mass and invigorate their celebration of the Eucharist, he said. A clergy study day Oct. 2 will focus on St. Paul’s teachings on the Mass found in his letters in the New Testament, and Archbishop Hebda is hosting private dinners with groups of priests to talk about ways to celebrate the Mass, Father Margevicius said.
A Nov. 7 ars celebrandi — the art of celebrating — seminar for priests will focus on ways ministers can celebrate the liturgy that reflect their spiritual integration of the words and actions of the Mass, Father Margevicius said.
The goal at each Mass is to “pray over this passage so that its meaning becomes my meaning. I’m 100 percent part of this text; I own its meaning. I’m proclaiming my faith and the Church’s faith” in the same breath, Father Margevicius said.
YEAR TWO CALENDAR
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Discipleship and Evangelization is organizing presentations and materials on the Mass and the Eucharist as year two unfolds, implementing Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s 2022 pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room.”
After Jan. 1
- The archdiocese will make a “passport” people can mark as they experience liturgies and see churches across the archdiocese. Also to be available in the second half of the implementation year: teaching Mass materials.
Already happening:
- Fathers Ryan Glaser and Michael Joncas are among presenters of a vision of God’s desire for covenant and relationship to inspire the faithful to celebrate the liturgy as part of God’s plan of salvation. 6- 9 p.m.
- 26, St. Ambrose, Woodbury; Nov. 25, St. Rose of Lima, Roseville; Jan.16, Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville; Feb. 5, Epiphany, Coon Rapids; March 20, St. Odilia, Shoreview (in Spanish); May 14, Pax Christi, Eden Prairie; June 11, Ascension, Minneapolis (in Spanish). Water, coffee and light refreshments will be served during a15-minute break.
- Jesus’ Pilgrimage to Us Holy Hours, 7-8 p.m.
- Monthly Eucharistic Holy Hours of communal prayer, conducted as prescribed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ newly revised rite for exposition of the Eucharist, adoration and Benediction. Sept. 19, St. Joseph, West St. Paul; Oct. 24, St. John Neumann, Eagan; Nov. 21, Sts. Joachim and Anne, St. Mark campus, Shakopee; Dec. 19, Our Lady of Grace, Edina; Jan. 23, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Hastings; Feb. 20, Divine Mercy, Faribault; March 27, St. John the Baptist, Dayton; April 24, St. Therese, Deephaven; May 22, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony; June 19, St. Michael, Stillwater.
- Seven Times a Day I Praise You, Thursdays, 7-9 p.m.
- Learn to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a seminar by the Catechetical Institute of The St. Paul Seminary, St. Paul, $50. Sept. 19 and Oct. 3 at Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul; Nov. 7 and Nov. 21 at St. John Neumann, Eagan; register at saintpaulseminary.org/ci/learn-to-pray-liturgy-hours.
- Five Archdiocesan Liturgies
- 29, 5:30 p.m., Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis, Mass of Solidarity for World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
* Events from October through June will be at the Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul. Oct. 14, 7 p.m., anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral; Oct. 28, 1 p.m., episcopal ordination of Bishop-elect Kevin Kenney; April 17, 2025, 10 a.m., Chrism Mass; June 7, 7 p.m., Pentecost Vigil; June 22, noon, feast of Corpus Christi.
- Fire on the Hill
- Third Saturdays of each month beginning Sept. 21, 5:15 p.m. Mass followed by prayer meeting, the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
- Life in the Spirit seminars
- Fridays and Saturdays, times to be determined. Jan. 10-11, 2025, at St. Peter, Forest Lake; Jan. 17-18 at the NET Center, Mendota Heights; Jan. 24-25, at St. Therese, Deephaven.
- School of Charism Discovery
- 28-April 1, Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace, Edina.
- Arts and Architecture
- 3, Icon Processions, part of 9:30 a.m. and noon Masses, Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis; Nov. 9, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., includes lunch; tours of Orthodox and Catholic churches. Start at the Basilica of St. Mary. Register at mary.org; Nov. 17, 11 a.m., Iconography 101 about Byzantine iconography, with iconographer Nick Markell.
