The Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, famously said that “Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy” (14). The liturgical year begins on the First Sunday of Advent. Around this time, then, it is praiseworthy to think about ways that one might enter more deeply into the liturgy. In this vein, I would like to offer a suggestion that could aid in precisely that.
First, it is helpful to consider what “full active participation of all God’s holy people in these liturgical celebrations” (41) actually means—and doesn’t mean. In our frenetic age, there is a temptation to think that active participation means doing a lot of things. As then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy: “Unfortunately, the word [participation] was very quickly misunderstood to mean something external, entailing a need for general activity, as if as many people as possible, as often as possible, should be visibly engaged in action.”1 But such a reading misses the true point of the council’s instructions. According to Ratzinger, “the word ‘part-icipation’ refers to a principal action in which everyone has a ‘part’.”2 In other words, it is not about each person having a separate role but rather every person fully engaging in one and the same liturgical action (according to one’s state in life, of course).
Sacrosanctum Concilium itself offers a helpful explanation of what this means: “The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ’s faithful when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration” (48, emphasis added). In other words, active participation—while it includes such things as vocalizing the responses—is primarily about the intellectual contemplation and heartfelt intentionality of the faithful during the liturgy. It is about actively thinking of what is being said, what it means, and consenting with one’s will to the sacred mysteries taking place.
It can still be helpful to read the prayers while the priest is praying them out loud, offering two forms of sensible engagement for maximum attentiveness.
If you are anything like me, you may at times struggle to keep yourself focused on what the words being spoken even are. It can easily happen that one goes into “sleep mode” and is only awakened when one hears the words that immediately precede a prescribed response, leading to a kind of Pavlovian, automatic, reflexive response. For instance, it might be the case for a significant number of Catholics—even those who go to Mass regularly—that they are not even truly aware of what the words of the Eucharistic Prayer being used are. If one does not even really know what the words are, then how is one to have a “good understanding of the rites and prayers” as the council exhorts?
This is where my recommendation comes in: through my experience of going to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass—the Traditional Latin Mass—at a diocesan parish. Because I was not as familiar with that form, I did what a lot of Latin Mass goers do: I brought a hand missal and followed along. Many missals have Latin and the vernacular on pages facing each other so that, depending on how well you know the prayers in Latin, you can follow in either language. Personally, I found that this helped me to follow along with the liturgy and to be more consciously aware of the prayers being offered.
It is not nearly as common to see hand missals being used at the Ordinary Form of the Mass. Missalettes are common, but people tend to use them just for the readings. They usually do not have the collects (e.g., the opening prayer and prayer after communion) printed in them. Some missalettes and other in-pew books do have the ordinary parts (the parts that remain the same at each Mass), but again, I rarely see them used for that purpose.
In particular, I have not witnessed many people using any resource to follow along with the Eucharistic Prayer. While it could be the case that some folks know the Eucharistic Prayers really well and are able to follow along by listening, my suspicion is that many just coast through that portion of the Mass and wait for the cues for their responses. If that is at all accurate, then I would argue a fortiori that it also applies to other parts prayed silently, like the prayer the priest says while washing his hands (the lavabo).
I would also surmise that even for folks who know the Eucharistic Prayers well, it is easy to lose focus. In such a case, it can still be helpful to read the prayers while the priest is praying them out loud, offering two forms of sensible engagement for maximum attentiveness.
For these reasons, I recommend that Catholics consider acquiring a hand missal or learn to follow along in the liturgical books available in the pews, especially if they contain the ordinary parts of the Mass (though it can be a challenge to navigate effectively without ribbons). I have started to do this practice regularly to help myself and my children be more actively conscious of what is being prayed at Holy Mass. Not everyone will find following this suggestion necessary, but it can be helpful to familiarize oneself with the prayers and foster greater active participation in the liturgy.
1 Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Seward (Ignatius, 2000), 171. See also Richard G. DeClue Jr., The Mind of Benedict XVI: A Theology of Communion (Word on Fire, 2024), 271–274.
2 Ibid.
