Mass

The term Mass refers to the service of Holy Communion (also known as the Eucharist). At this service bread and wine are presented at the altar and consecrated as the Body and Blood of Christ. These sacred elements are then distributed to the people, each receiving a small wafer (the Lord's Body) and a sip of wine (the Lord's Blood). The service recalls Our Lord's Last Supper when He shared bread and wine with His disciples and instructed them to do likewise "in remembrance of me".

"Mass" was the normal term for this service before the Reformation and is in regular use in the Roman Catholic church. This term has been reclaimed by the Catholic wing of the Church of England, because Anglo-Catholics do not reject traditional Catholic teaching about the significance of the Eucharist and have no reason to dissociate themselves from the terminology that is traditionally associated with it.

The word "Mass" derives from the Latin term for this service, Missa. The meaning and origin of this word is not quite clear. It occurs at the end of the rite, when the deacon says Ite missa est – often translated "Go, the Mass is ended", but the real meaning of this rather obscure phrase, which must have something to do with sending out or dismissal, has become lost in the mists of time.

Mass is celebrated daily at Little St Mary's. The standard weekly programme of services can be found here.

High Mass

"High Mass" refers to the Eucharistic Liturgy when it is celebrated by a priest with the assistance of both a deacon and a subdeacon. "High Mass" is the English equivalent of Missa Solemnis (Solemn Mass) and it indicates that there will be full ceremonial, incense, music and so on. In this way we symbolise the corporate involvement of all the people of God, both those in Holy Orders (priest and deacon) and the laity (the subdeacon may be a lay person, as are the servers, acolytes, thurifer and readers) in one God-directed act of liturgical worship.

High Mass is celebrated on Sundays at 10:30. Full details of Sunday services can be found here.

An illustrated account of the service at a Church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition can be found on the website of St Mary Magdalen's in Oxford, here.

Guest preachers, sermon, homily

Services on Sundays and some major festivals include a sermon, delivered from the pulpit.

The sermon is a formal exposition of some spiritual, doctrinal or theological teachings, often based on reflections on the set readings for the day, for the edification of the congregation. The preacher is either one of the clergy or a visiting preacher. Sermons in the Anglo-Catholic tradition usually last between ten and fifteen minutes.

On minor feast days a shorter, less formal homily may be given from the chancel step.

Forthcoming guest preachers at Little St Mary's:

Guest preachers are now listed in the calendar.

A selection of recent sermons can be found here.

Children's Group

This term refers to organised activities for children that take place during the first part of the main Sunday service (elsewhere often called "Sunday School").

Children are normally baptised as infants (or they may be baptised at any time during their childhood) and are brought to church to grow up in the Faith. In churches where the service is long and elaborate, it is normal to provide an alternative form of service, or catechism (instruction in the essentials of the Faith) designed to engage the children and develop their spirituality in an enjoyable way.

LSM runs a Children's Group for children up to about 12 years old, during the Sunday High Mass, from after the Collect to before the Peace.

This is designed to provide a substitute for the section of the Mass called the Liturgy of the Word (the readings and sermon).

For children over the age of 12, a Teenage Youth Group has been established – please contact Bob DeWolf for more details.

There is also an option for pre-school children to attend nursery church at the Church next door (Emmanuel URC).

For full details of the arrangements for children during the main Sunday service at LSM click here.

Eucharist

The Eucharist is the service of Holy Communion (also known as Mass). The term "Eucharist" refers to the giving of thanks over the bread and wine, which is a key part of this service. "Eucharist" is based on the Greek word for "let us give thanks", εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucharistoumen). This is uttered by the priest at the crucial introductory dialogue between Priest and people before the Eucharistic prayer (the Preface), a formula which dates back to the very earliest Christian liturgies.

The Eucharist is celebrated daily at LSM. For weekday celebrations see here. For Sunday celebrations see here.

Sung Mass

A celebration of the Mass including music, at which parts of the service are sung by the Priest, rather than said (as in a "said service"). Normally there will be hymns and choral music in addition.

At LSM Sung Mass is celebrated on most feast days that fall on a weekday, typically at 19:00. Feasts that fall on a Saturday or a Bank Holiday are normally celebrated at 10:00. For details of forthcoming feast days click here.

Major festivals

Major festivals are the days on which the Church celebrates or commemorates someone, or some event, of great significance. There are two main annual sequences:

1. The tracing of events in the life and death of Christ;
2. The commemoration of the saints.

1: The life of Christ

This is mainly followed during the first half of the Church's year starting with Advent (the season of preparation before Christmas) through Christmas (the feast of the birth of Christ), Epiphany (His manifestation to the Gentiles), Lent (a solemn season of preparation for His Passion), Holy Week (tracing the events leading up to His crucifixion), Easter (the feast of His Resurrection) and Ascension Day. These are supplemented by the feast of the Transfiguration in August. In addition Pentecost recalls the coming of the Holy Spirit after the Ascension and Corpus Christi celebrates the institution of the Eucharist. Many of these feasts are tied to the date of Easter. In common with many other religions, Christianity retains the practice of setting the date of this festival by the phases of the moon, not by the secular solar calendar, so the calendar date of all such feasts varies from year to year.

2: The remaining festivals

These are for the most important saints, whose lives and deaths shaped the Faith as we know it. They are often celebrated on a date associated with a key event, typically the date of martyrdom for those who died for their Faith.

Marian Festivals

LSM is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In honour of her special role as mother of the Saviour, she has a number of festivals: these include the feast of the Annunciation in March and the Assumption (in the Orthodox tradition, the 'Dormition' or 'Falling asleep') in August. The dates of the Marian festivals are as follows:

At LSM, we keep the Assumption, the Principal Marian Festival, as our Patronal Festival. We also have a protro-Patronal Festival on the Feast of St Peter (June 29), as the church was formerly called St Peter-without-Trumpington-Gate, and as Peterhouse is the Patron of the church. We celebrate our Dedication Festival on the first Sunday in November; LSM was rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary on November 3, 1352.

Little St Mary's holds a sung Mass, normally at 19:00, on major festivals (other than Christmas) that fall on a week day, and at 10:00 for those that fall on a Saturday or Bank Holiday Monday.

Festivals that fall on a Sunday in Advent, Lent or Eastertide are usually transferred to another day.

There are special services, not always at the usual times, and often with processions and other festal rituals, for Christmas, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Day.

For details of the current season click here.

Holy Week

Holy Week is the period from Palm Sunday (commemorating Our Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, shortly before His Passion) to Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). It is a time of intense devotion for Christians. By attending the solemn services of these most holy days, believers can relive, afresh each year, Christ's last days before His death, His betrayal, trial, crucifixion, death and burial, in order to come to the Easter Celebrations suitably prepared and with a fuller understanding of the significance of Christ's suffering and death. Easter is the most important festival of the Church's year.

Holy Week is a time of intense activity at Little St Mary's.

The Main Sunday Mass on Palm Sunday includes a procession with hymns, from nearby Laundress Green, next to the River Cam, to the Church. This is normally an ecumenical event in which members of Little St Mary's and the neighbouring Emmanuel United Reformed Church worship together. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week there is a daily evening Mass. These form part of the LSM Holy Week experience, and the devotional addresses are given by an invited Holy Week Preacher, chosen for his or her spiritual gifts, who leads the congregation in a thematic programme of prayer and reflection throughout Holy Week. Many people attend every day in Holy Week.

The last three days of Holy Week (from the evening of Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday) are known as the Easter Triduum.

Easter Triduum

The three last days from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday are known as the Easter Triduum, meaning "three days". This is a particularly solemn time with many austere ceremonies that have a history going back to the early Church. All the bells in the Church are silent from the beginning of the Gloria on Maundy Thursday evening until the first Mass at dawn on Easter Sunday. Typically the organ remains silent throughout this period and all choral music is unaccompanied (a capella polyphony or plainchant).

There are special liturgies for the three most holy days of the year.

On Maundy Thursday the evening service is a commemoration of the Last Supper, with the washing of feet, institution of the Eucharist and procession to the altar of repose. This is followed by an all-night vigil before the Blessed Sacrament in the Lady Chapel, which represents the Garden of Gethsemane. On Good Friday, the three hours' devotions, led by the Holy Week Preacher, take place during the period when Christ hung on the cross from noon until 15:00. It culminates in the solemn Liturgy of Good Friday with Improperia (Reproaches), Veneration of the Cross and Communion of the Presanctified. On Holy Saturday the church waits in expectation. Easter Sunday morning begins with the Vigil service just before dawn.

Evensong

This is the service of evening prayer according to the usage of the Church of England, when it is sung.

Evensong is sung on Sundays at 18:00, followed by Benediction. The service is normally sung to plainchant, led by a cantor, but on some Sundays the Junior Choir may sing, and there may be a choral setting and an anthem. Details of the music list can be found here.

Evening prayer (a said service) is offered daily at 18:00.

Benediction

In this short, contemplative service, the Reserved Sacrament becomes the focal point for our adoration and reflection. The Sacrament is censed to signify our love for Jesus, and our thanksgiving for all that he has done for us in His Incarnate Life, His Passion and His Resurrrection. We seek to renew our true goal – life in 'our true native land' with God whose transcendent Glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ, here made sacramentally present to us.

As we kneel in reverence and adoration, we pray that our self-importance may be swept away, and we await the particular, focused, moment of the giving of Benediction. Here Christ, the Light and Radiance of the world, shines upon our darkness, doubt and confusion, so that we may be strengthened to live our daily lives in Him, and so that we may receive Him more lovingly when we next come to recieve Holy Communion.

In response to His Blessing, we in turn bless God in the Divine Praises – God the Holy Trinity, Blessed in His own Being and Nature, Blessed in His Saints. Finally, in the words of Psalm 117, we express ou wonder and joy that God's merciful kindness 'endureth ever more and more towards us'; and that His Truth, which we have perceived and loved in the Sacrament of the Altar, likewise 'endureth for ever: Praise the Lord!'

Benediction follows immediately after Evensong on Sundays throughout the year. On particularly solemn occasions this may include choral settings of O Salutaris and Tantum Ergo.

Office

The term "Office" refers to a form of prayer belonging to the Canonical Hours or "Divine Office" (from the Latin officium). Originally the monastic day was punctuated by seven short services (Matins and Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline). In the Church of England these are reduced to two, Matins in the morning and Evensong (the equivalent of Vespers and Compline combined) in the evening. Sometimes Compline is sung separately in the late evening.

Daily Offices:

At LSM the Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer are said daily (except that Morning Prayer is not said on Saturday). Morning Prayer (usually Common Worship) is at 07:15 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; at 07:30 on Sundays; and at 09:00 on Wednesdays. Evening Prayer is always at 18:00.

From Monday to Friday the Common Worship order is used. On Saturdays Celebrating Common Prayer is used, and the service includes the Lighting of Lamps (Lucernarium) and the Proclamation of the Gospel for the following day.

On Sundays Evensong is sung according to the Book of Common Prayer (with Common Worship lections) and is followed by a Sermon and by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Compline is sung on occasional Fridays at 21:00 or 21:30, depending on the season.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

This is also known as "confession" and is an opportunity for the believer to make a private confession to a priest and receive absolution (forgiveness).

Regular times are published for the hearing of Confessions (12:05 on Fridays and 18:30 on Saturdays). Additional times are published before Christmas and Easter. The Vicar is also willing to hear Confessions by appointment, and to offer advice to those considering making their first Confession.

Click here for advice on how to contact a priest if you are in trouble or if you are in need of this Sacrament.

Spiritual Direction

"Spiritual Direction" refers to the practice of consulting a more experienced guide (usually a person of deep spiritual integrity) who will advise the believer on the practice of prayer and the spiritual life.

The Vicar of LSM is one of a small group set up by the Diocese of Ely to offer advice to those seeking a Spiritual Guide or Director.

Quiet Days and Retreats

A retreat is a kind of holiday, when the believer goes to a centre (a "retreat house") which might be a monastery or convent, or some purpose-built venue, to withdraw from the world and daily life and spend some time in prayer and spiritual reflection.

Such a retreat may be made by a lone person, or a group from a church or college may go on retreat together. In the latter case there may be an organised programme of talks from a spiritual leader, and there may be a rule of silence throughout the retreat.

A Quiet Day is a shorter version of the same thing, but may take place at Church or at a suitable venue a short journey away, with an invited spiritual guide presenting the talks and leading periods of contemplative prayer with a group of the Faithful.

Retreats and quiet days are organised for members of LSM from time to time. To be kept informed of details of these please see the Newsletter, or subscribe to the LSM Social mailing list.

Traditional language and ceremonial

The term "traditional" is used in this context to signify two things:

1. the traditional ceremonial;
2. the traditional forms of music and language.

1: Traditional Ceremonial

The liturgies of the Anglican Church grow out of a tradition of ceremonial with a long history, going back to the seventh century Gregorian Sacramentary. In respect of the main Eucharistic liturgy, this was crystallised into what we know as High Mass in 1570 when Pope Pius V made it de rigeur for all churches of the Roman Rite. The Roman Catholic Church has largely abandoned these ceremonies in favour of a much simpler liturgy with a stronger division between priestly and lay roles, but in the Anglican High Church tradition they live on, adapted to the Anglican forms of words.

2: Traditional Language and music

The authorised service book of the Church of England, Common Worship, permits a number of different forms of service, which may be in either archaic language (with "thee" and "thou" for the second person singular, "ye" and "you" for the second person plural and verb endings in "-est" for second person singular and "-eth" for third person singular) or in modernised language (with "you" for all second person forms).

Common Worship provides forms of service for the Eucharist in two different orders. Order One, which resembles the Alternative Service Book Rite B, and, before that, the liturgy known as Series II, reflects recent ecumenical movements towards a more catholic liturgy, removing those aspects of the Book of Common Prayer which reflected Reformation preoccupations and prejudice. Many Churches use Order One in a modern language version, but a traditional language version is also available, and this preserves the poetic feel of the language of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Worship at LSM follows the Anglican tradition, mainly retaining the pre-Vatican II model, with some local variants. The Mass is still celebrated facing east; in other words, the priest stands with his back to the congregation at the High Altar, and worship is addressed eastwards, to God, not westwards to the people.

NB: In other Churches you may encounter a more Roman-oriented form of Anglo-Catholicism in which a Church that is nominally Anglican has adopted the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and other more recent trends in Roman Catholic liturgical practice. By contrast with those parishes, LSM is a traditional High Church in the Anglican tradition.

LSM uses the traditional language rites of Common Worship for all the major services. The language is similar to the old Book of Common Prayer (BCP). One early morning Mass each week is in contemporary language.

The Bible is read according to the BCP Lectionary at the 08:00 Mass service on Sundays, and according to the three-year cycle of the Common Worship Lectionary, using the Revised Standard Version, at 10:30 on Sundays. The main Sunday morning Mass is based on Common Worship Order One in traditional language.

Sunday Evensong is according to the Book of Common Prayer. Morning and Evening Prayer on weekdays is in contemporary language (using the Common Worship Office).

The traditional liturgy is matched by a range of choral music in traditional style. The repertoire includes Gregorian Chant, English Church music from the Tudor period to the present day, European church music including unaccompanied polyphony and works of continental composers from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. The choirs sing motets in Latin, English, French, German and occasionally Russian. Parts of the ordinary of the Mass are sung to congregational settings, usually Merbecke or Shaw. Click here for further details of liturgical music and the LSM choirs.

Stations of the Cross

The fourteen Stations of the Cross are visual representations of events and encounters on the Way of the Cross, from Our Lord's condemnation before Pilate to His death on Calvary, and the laying of His body in the tomb.

In LSM there is a set of small ceramic tiles depicting these 'Stations' around the walls of the Choir and Nave.

During Lent and Holy Week larger representations are hung on the walls of the Church; these are used for the traditional corporate devotion in which meditations and prayers are offered at each Station, introduced by the words: 'O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross and Precious Blood hast redeemed us: save us and help us we humbly beseech thee, O Lord.'

If the weather is fine, the Stations of the Cross on the Monday of Holy Week are followed in the Churchyard Garden. At 17:00 on Good Friday, there is a special service of Stations of the Cross for children.

Pilgrimages

A pilgrimage is a journey to a shrine or holy place, made as a personal act of devotion, or in order to take part in communal processions or other acts of worship.

A variety of expeditions and pilgrimages are organised from time to time, and are open to current members of the congregation and others, including the more distant friends of LSM. These are sometimes major expeditions, such as the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in January 2007. In other cases they are smaller events, such as the annual LSM pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham.

Many present and former members of Little St Mary's also attend the National Pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham.

In order to keep in touch with news about trips of this kind, please read the Newsletter or sign up for the LSM Social email list. You may also wish to join the Friends of LSM (members of the Friends are warmly invited to participate in these expeditions).

Ecumenical, ecumenism

These terms describe initiatives that bring members of different denominations of Christianity together, and seek to heal the divisions.

LSM has two ecumenical links with other churches; one with a Belgian Roman Catholic parish, and the other with our neighbouring United Reformed Church in Cambridge. We also have a fledgling link with two other Anglo-Catholic parishes.

LSM also participates in "Churches together in the Centre of Cambridge" which organises occasional ecumenical events, including activities for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Lent Courses

Lent is the penitential period of preparation before Easter, from Ash Wednesday to the end of Holy Week.

It is common for Churches to provide extra opportunities for study or spiritual improvement during this time. In the early church this was a period of preparation for those who were to be received into the Church by baptism at Easter. They would undertake prayer, fasting and catechesis (instruction in the Faith). A Lent course is a way for Christian who have been believers for some time to recapture their zeal, by self-denial and by deepening their spirituality. Undertaking a Lent course improves their understanding of the great mysteries of the Faith.

Details of the 2008 Lent courses can be found here. Details of the arrangements for next Lent will be posted here nearer the time, and will also appear in the Newsletter.