Sunday, September 15, 2013

The Mass in the setting of Yom Kippur

After going to Yom Kippur Saturday, I heard Mass differently. The opening prayer, after greetings, in the Mass is:
Brethren (brothers and sisters), let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries. I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God
In the Jewish Prayers of the Day of Atonement, the Jews admit to sins and are forgiven by Adonai. Now the Mass talks loud in a polemical way at times, most notably in the Nicene Creed, but this struck me as a soft request for the Jewish mother Mary to do what you would expect her to do, to accept us and perhaps even his faults if he has them, and the subsequent beliefs may be part of that, to be loved, even in fault, and made whole by Adonai.

No comments: