Excerpts From the Manual of the
Eucharistic Crusade of the Apostleship of Prayer

Educating the Youth to Live the Mass

(slightly edited by Fr. Boulet)

A. EDUCATION FOR CORRECT PARTICIPATION IN THE MASS

2. THE INSTRUCTION ON THE MASS

A. Explanation of the sacred action (following):

c) Consecration. It should be deeply impressed on the minds and hearts of children what happens at the moment of consecration. - Christ offers Himself to the Father - We offer Christ to the Father - We offer ourselves to God - Christ offers us to God. As expressed by the prayers of the Mass, the best time to make our oblation in union with Christ is immediately after the Consecration.

d) Holy Communion. While at the Consecration we offer the only-begotten Son to the heavenly Father and ourselves along with Him, in Holy Communion God gives us His Son as gift and as food and through Him unites us intimately with the Trinity. Through Holy Communion, therefore, we enter into an intimate union of love and life with Christ. At the same time the Body and Blood of Christ becomes the food and drink of our soul, giving us the strength we need to live up to our vocation of Christians.

C. Explanation of the Ceremonies.

The purpose of this explanation is to give the children the instruction and background they need to understand what is taking place at the altar. It is enough to see to it that, according to their age; they 1) have a grasp of the language of gestures used frequently during Mass: sign of the Cross, the genuflection, bowing, striking the breast, the kiss; and 2) know the meaning of the principal rites of the Mass. This would help towards a correct understanding of the sacred action.

D. "Living the Mass.” means to make those truths which are contained in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the basis and end of one's life. By baptism, a Christian is called to live in an intimate union of life and love and sacrifice with Christ, His Head. Therefore he ought to live as Christ, to be conformed to His Head. This means that he must put into practise the love for God and Christ, adoration, thanksgiving, penance for his own sins and those of others, charity to his neighbour, in general purity of heart - by which we become more and more perfect offerers and victims in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.  "Living the Mass" is therefore nothing other than living according to the perfection of the Christian life. This is what is meant by the Morning Offering, by which the whole day is directed and more perfectly united to the Sacrifice of Christ. Thus all the exercises of piety commended by the Apostleship of Prayer, and therefore by the Crusade, tend to this end.