The Mass is the central liturgy of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner".Quoted by John Hardon in Mass, Modern Catholic Dictionary, accessed on 17 September 2026 The Church describes the Mass as the "source and summit of the Christian life", and teaches that the Mass is a sacrifice, in which the sacramental bread and wine, through consecration by an ordained priest, become the sacrificial body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ as the sacrifice on Calvary made truly present once again on the altar. The Catholic Church permits only baptised members in the state of grace (Catholics who are not in a state of mortal sin) to receive Christ in the Eucharist.
Many of the other sacraments of the Catholic Church, such as confirmation, holy orders, and (often) holy matrimony, are generally administered within a celebration of Mass, but before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) these were often or even usually administered separately. The term Mass, also Holy Mass, is commonly used to describe the celebration of the Eucharist in the Latin Church, while the various Eastern Catholic liturgies use terms such as Divine Liturgy, Holy Qurbana, and Badarak, in accordance with each one's tradition.
The term Mass is derived from the concluding words of the Roman Rite Mass in Latin: ('Go, it is the dismissal', officially translated as 'Go forth, the Mass is ended'). The Late Latin word substantively corresponds to the classical Latin word . In antiquity, simply meant 'dismissal'. In Christian usage, however, it gradually took on a deeper meaning. The word dismissal has come to imply a mission.
Sacrificial nature In Catholic teaching, the holy sacrifice of the Mass is the fulfillment of all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, the one sacrifice on the altar of Calvary is revisited during every Catholic Mass. Catholics believe that Jesus Christ merited all graces and blessings for humans by His death on the Cross, and that these merits form an inexhaustible fountain of grace to nourish the supernatural life of souls. At Calvary, Christ is said to have not only merited all graces for people but also established certain channels whereby these graces may be obtained. These channels are the Sacrifice of the Mass and the other Sacraments.
The Mass is said to be instituted by Christ at the Last Supper, on the first Holy Thursday. Thus, the first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated on the eve of the Passion. The unbloody sacrifice of the Last Supper is considered a memorial of Christ's bloody sacrifice on the cross. Thus, for Catholics, the Mass is a unifying event of the Last Supper and Christ's sacrifice on Calvary. The Council of Trent referred to Christ "present and offered in an unbloody manner" in the Mass, and the Second Vatican Council also stated that he "is offered sacramentally in the Eucharist and in an unbloody manner until [he] himself comes".Second Vatican Council, Presbyterorum ordinis, Section 2, published on 7 December 1965, accessed on 17 September 2026
The Mass contains the four essential elements of a Jewish/Christian sacrifice: priest, victim, altar, and sacrifice. Its Priest, Jesus Christ, uses the ministry of an earthly representative; its Victim, Jesus Christ, truly present under the appearances of bread and wine; its altar; and the Sacrifice is a mystic representation of the blood-shedding of Calvary. The Mass is thus offered for four ends: adoration, atonement, thanksgiving, and petition.
History
The classic study of the Mass is that of Josef Andreas Jungmann, the two-volume Mass of the Roman Rite or Missarum Solemnia. Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson trace the history of eucharistic liturgies from first-century shared meals of Christian communities, which became associated with the Last Supper, to second and third-century rites mentioned by Pliny the Younger and Ignatius of Antioch and described by Justin Martyr and others, in which passages from Scripture were read and the use of bread and wine was no longer associated with a full meal.The Eucharistic Liturgies: Their Evolution and Interpretation. Liturgical Press; 2012. . pp=1–59.
When in the fourth century Christianity was granted the status of a legal religion and was even viewed with favour by the Roman Emperors, the Christian celebrations took on a more formal appearance and were embellished by the use of vestments, lights and incense. Ex tempore prayers by the presider gave way to texts previously approved by synods of bishops as a guarantee of the orthodoxy of the content, leading to the formation of liturgical forms or "rites" generally associated with influential episcopal sees.Bradshaw and Johnson (2012), pp. 70–71
The Catholic Church encompasses a considerable number of such liturgical rites. Apart from the Latin liturgical rites, Mass in the Catholic Church is also celebrated according to the Byzantine Rite (in various languages based on Greek texts of the Church of Constantinople); the Alexandrian Rite (used by the Coptic Catholic Church, the Eritrean Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Catholic Church); the Antiochene Rite (used by the Maronite Church, the Syriac Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church); the East Syriac Rite (used by the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church); and the Armenian Rite (used by the Armenian Catholic Church).
Mass in the Roman Rite Within the Latin Church, the Roman Rite Mass is by far the most widely used liturgical rite. The history of the development of the Mass of this rite comprises the Pre-Tridentine Mass, the Tridentine Mass and the post-Vatican II Mass.
The Pre-Tridentine Mass of the Roman Rite was adopted even north of the Alps (but often modified by non-Roman influences) even before the time of Charlemagne, who wished it to be used throughout his empire, but the text actually distributed incorporated many Gallican additions. Roman missionaries, such as Boniface and Augustine of Canterbury introduced the Roman Mass to Germany and England. It was accepted also in Ireland, but met greater opposition in Spain and Milan.Adrian Fortescue. The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy. Longmans Green & Co; 1917. . p. 177–180.
In accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545–1563), Pope Pius V in 1570 enforced use of the Tridentine Mass in the Latin Church. Before the invention of printing, each diocese of the Latin Church could and often did have its own particular Rite of Mass, generally but not necessarily based on the Roman Rite; but Pius V made his revision of the Roman Missal mandatory throughout the Latin Church, permitting continuance of other rites only if they had been in existence for at least 200 years.
The Second Vatican Council also decreed a revision of the Roman Missal, which was put into effect by Pope Paul VI in 1969.
Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum authorized under certain conditions, more widely than before, continued use of the 1962 form of the Roman Rite, which it called the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, while it called the post–Vatican II form promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and revised by Pope John Paul II in 2002 the Ordinary Form. On 16 July 2021 Pope Francis in his apostolic letter Traditionis custodes restricted the celebration of the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Rite and declared that "the liturgical books promulgated by Saint Paul VI and Saint John Paul II, in conformity with the decrees of Vatican Council II, are the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite."Traditionis custodes, article 1
Roman Rite of the Mass in modernity
The following description of the celebration of Mass, usually in the local vernacular language, is limited to the form of the Roman Rite promulgated after the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and revised by Pope John Paul II in 2002, largely replacing the usage of the Tridentine Mass form originally promulgated in 1570 in accordance with decrees of the Council of Trent in its closing session (1545–46). The 1962 form of the Tridentine Mass, in the Latin language alone, may be employed where authorized by the Holy See or, in the circumstances indicated in the 2021 document Traditionis custodes,Traditionis custodes by the diocesan bishop.
In the modern form the priest usually (though not obligatorily) faces the people (versus populum); in the earlier form the priest most often (but again, not obligatorily) faces in the apse of the church, a stance that since the twentieth century is often called ad orientem, although not necessarily eastward.
As mentioned, the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated in the Catholic Church also in other Latin liturgical rites and in those of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the importance of the Mass in the Catholic tradition under the headings: I. The Eucharist – Source and Summit of Ecclesial Life II. What is This Sacrament Called? III. The Eucharist in the Economy of Salvation IV. The Liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist V. The Sacramental Sacrifice Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence VI. The Paschal Banquet VII. The Eucharist – "Pledge of the Glory To Come"
Liturgical books The Roman Missal contains the prayers, antiphons and rubrics of the Mass.
The Lectionary presents passages from the Bible arranged in the order for reading at each day's Mass. Compared with the scripture readings in the pre–Vatican II Missal, the modern Lectionary contains a much wider variety of passages, too extensive to include in the Missal. A separate Book of the Gospels, also called the Evangeliary,General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), paragraph 44 is recommended for the reading from the Gospels, but where this book is not available the Lectionary, which also includes the Gospels, is used.
The Roman Missal refers to another liturgical book, the Ceremonial of Bishops, saying the norms found in it are to be observed when a bishop celebrates the Mass, or presides without celebrating the Eucharist.The Roman Missal, Catholic Truth Society, 2010, ISBN 9781860827303, page 60, n. 112. An English translation was published in 1989.
The Roman Missal also says special celebrations of Mass should observe the guidelines for them. This includes Masses with children, in the "Directory for Masses with Children", by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, 1 November 1973.The Roman Missal, Catholic Truth Society, 2010, ISBN 9781860827303, page 31, n. 21, footnote 32.
The most frequently celebrated form of the Roman Rite Mass is that in the post–Vatican II editions of the Roman Missal. Authorization for use of the earlier (1962) form may be granted by the Holy See or, as indicated in the 2021 document Traditionis custodes,Traditionis custodes, article 2 by the diocesan bishop.
Liturgical structure
The Eucharistic celebration is "one single act of worship" but consists of different elements, which always include "the proclamation of the Word of God; thanksgiving to God the Father for all his benefits, above all the gift of his Son; the consecration of bread and wine, which signifies also our own transformation into the body of Christ;1 Corinthians 10:17 and participation in the liturgical banquet by receiving the Lord's body and blood".