Have you had that awkward moment yet? I have. Actually, a couple times. Everyone around me remembered to grab their instructional pew cards. But no, I haven’t mastered that necessary skill I need to remember not to say “And also with you.” So there I stand, awkwardly sputtering the words my mind automatically supplies.

And what’s up with the creed? Consubstantial? As Steven Colbert put it, “We’re trying to get into Heaven here, not take the SAT’s!”

Have you figured out what that word means yet? Cause when we say it we’re professing what we believe. It’s as big a deal as it sounds so read about it here. Mark Hart’s explanation helps a lot.

I have to be honest – it’s been interesting trying to adjust. I found my favorite part of the new prayers though! It’s from the Eucharistic Prayer that the priest prays. He says, “Through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.” (Eucharistic Prayer III)

I love that!

I admit it’s easy to be negative about a lot of things. Such as being a little frustrated with my mistakes in praying the new Roman Missal. I can even find a way to be a downer about Advent! I think to myself, “Great . . . another liturgical season where I probably won’t do what I should do in order to fully participate and get the most out of it.”

You probably never have such negative thoughts, huh?

God only bestows good on us though! The new Roman Missal? Good. My mistakes that humble me? Good. The Advent season? So good – because even my shortcomings can lead to a more powerful surrender to Jesus at Christmas. I realized that when I accept my weaknesses I’m free be more authentic with God.

So peace be with you (hint: you say “And with your spirit”). Keep trying; keep praying the prayers. Listen closely and maybe you’ll find a part that really speaks to your heart as well. And have a great Advent, even if the only thing you do is surrender this season to Jesus, He’ll lead you to what’s good.

After all, that is what He loves to “bestow on the world.”

I’m praying for you.

The day has finally arrived! We prayed the new Roman Missal at Mass for the last two Sundays. Did you like it? Do you remember the part of the Creed where we professed believing that Jesus is “consubstantial” with the Father? In case you were confused about what that big, fancy word means, here’s an excerpt from the book “More Than Words” that explains it. You can purchase the book in the Life Teen Store to help you understand all the words in the Mass that are different!

If you’ve ever had a best friend or been completely in love, or if you’ve known someone almost your whole life, you know what it is like to say “We’re basically the same person.” If you’ve known twins, you’ve probably noticed how they seem to know what the other is thinking, whether they are identical or not. If you’ve attended a wedding and heard the priest reference that the two become one flesh (Mark 10:8), you know that there is a sacred joining of two together.

But when we talk about the union of God the Father with God the Son, it is not enough to just say that they are the same. They are both God – one God in three unique Persons. By asking us to now use the word consubstantial when we pray the Creed (remember, the Creed is a statement of what we believe as Catholics) the Church is reminding us of the importance of professing that the Father and the Son are the exact same substance.

That means we believe that what they are made of, what they both are at their very core, is the same, just as Jesus Himself said: “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30).

This is an excerpt from "More Than Words." Buy it today in the Life Teen Store.

This is one of the ways we try to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity. We will now say that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father when we pray the Creed; it might call you to go deeper in Scripture to try and understand Jesus. The more you read, especially in the Gospels, you’ll start to see why this is such an important part of what we believe about Jesus. You might also want to check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 242, 262, 467, and 663, for some further explanation.

Pray that you will understand Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man.

One final note if you want to go a little deeper: the idea of the Father and Son being consubstantial is one of the ways that the early Church answered against heresies about who Jesus was. When some wanted to say that Jesus was not fully human or was not fully God, or when others did not believe that He was eternal, the Church professed her belief that Jesus and the Father are One God of the same substance. The concept of homoousion, which is now translated into consubstantial, was first clearly articulated at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD (which is where the Nicene Creed came from).

A candle looses nothing by sharing it’s light with another. Are you sharing Christ’s love in the world?

Readings for the 3rd Sunday in Advent (Gaudete Sunday): Is 61:1-2a, 10-11; Lk 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54; 1 Thes 5:16-24; Jn 1:6-8, 19-28

*The Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Podcast is a reflection on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings with Mark Hart brought to you by LifeTeen.com.

I was celebrating a wedding, the first wedding in the parish where I was assigned as a newly ordained priest. It was for a couple that was not particularly faithful and whom I had never gotten to know because I had just shown up at the parish. The deacon of the parish was to assist me by preaching since he knew them.

We walked in for the entrance procession and everything went just swimmingly well and we’re still singing the opening hymn of the wedding Mass and I notice a man who I had never seen before walk in.

I thought it was kind of odd that he was coming to the wedding late; he wasn’t wearing a suit and he really wasn’t dressed appropriately. I thought that it was kind of odd that he was coming to a wedding if he wasn’t invited. But then I thought maybe he was just coming to Mass, however he still shouldn’t walk right down the center aisle and sit in the front row ’cause the bridal party is there.

He walked all the way up the aisle to the sanctuary, genuflected and then went to the left to the side chapel where the statue of Our Lady of Fatima is kept. He approached the statue and I thought “Well gosh, I guess he really wanted to pray in front of the statue.”

But he didn’t, he immediately walked to the statue (which is about 4 feet tall) and picked it up off of the pedestal. We’re now saying the opening prayer. So I say to the deacon,

“What is he doing?”

“What’s he doing with it?”

But at one point I’m thinking, “Is this some part of the wedding ritual in this parish that I don’t really understand?” After the man picks up the statue, he turns around and immediately walks out of the church with it. Middle of the Wedding. Just takes the statue out of the church.

We sat down for the first reading and I realize that the bride has to lay flowers at the statue of Our Lady – it’s in the program. And there’s no statue of Our Lady whatsoever because someone has stolen it from the church … during the wedding!

So I finally said the deacon, “You have to go get it, we have to have it.” And the deacon’s like, “Now?” and I say “Go! Now!”

So he goes during the middle of the reading and I can see out the back of the church through the window. He approaches the man with the statue in his arms.

And you can tell the deacon says, “Give me the statue.” And the man shakes his head “No!”

They’re fighting and gesturing and then the next thing I see – the deacon and the man are going fist to cuffs, there’s no other way to say it. He reaches for the statue and pulls it and the man pulls the statue back and I see all of this taking place whilst the cantor is singing the responsorial psalm of the wedding.

Finally the deacon takes the statue and pushes the man away. He processes in the church, down the center aisle, with the statue in his arms. He sets the statue on the pedestal where it belongs and walks immediately to the ambo and proclaims the gospel … without missing a beat.

Glorious.

The man decided that he wanted to pray the rosary with some friends in the parking lot because it would be a public witness for Our Lady of Fatima’s anniversary, but didn’t bother to tell anyone in the church that he was doing it and didn’t seem to care that there was a wedding.

“I desire to unite Myself to human souls, Know, My daughter, that when I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul.

Now you shall consider My love in the Blessed Sacrament. Here, I am entirely yours, soul, body and divinity, as your Bridegroom. You know what love demands: one thing only, reciprocity.” – Jesus to St. Faustina

Have you ever been to a wedding? There are a lot of people in the wedding. There is flower girl, bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers, wedding coordinator, etc. All of these people add to the celebration of the wedding.

However, if they don’t come, the wedding would still happen. The only two people needed for a wedding are the bridegroom and the bride. If one of them does not show up, the wedding doesn’t happen.

The Bible says that Jesus is the bridegroom and the Church is His bride (Song of Songs, John 3, Revelation). At Mass, we are called to the wedding feast of Heaven where we are united to our bridegroom in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We can always count on the bridegroom showing up.

When we are at Mass, we renew our Covenant with Him – the New Covenant that he instituted with us at the Last Supper. It is this covenant – this promise made by the one who loves us – that allows us to one day spend eternity with our bridegroom in Heaven.

This covenant is something that has to be renewed every week on the Sabbath. Genesis 1 says that God created in six days and on the seventh day he rested. The number seven in Hebrew is “sheba” which is also the Hebrew word for covenant.

On the seventh day in the book of Genesis, God created a covenant with man and the seventh day would be put aside for creation to worship her Creator. This is also why God commands us to worship Him, to “keep holy the sabbath day” in the ten commandments (Exodus 20:8-11).

When we skip Mass on Sunday, we are violating our covenant with God. We are saying to God, “I don’t need to be united to you. I don’t need to worship you.” It may seem innocent, but we are actually declining His marriage proposal. We are not showing up for our own wedding.

When we make a decision to deny His invitation to covenant we are saying we don’t want a relationship with Him. Because our God loves us and is a gentleman, he allows us to do this.

However, it’s a grave sin to miss Mass.

If we have full knowledge that missing Mass is a grave sin and we fully consent to it (i.e. being sick or getting in a car accident on the way to Mass would be legitimate excuses for missing Mass), then we are in a state of mortal sin – we have cut off our relationship with God and need to seek the Sacrament of Reconciliation before we receive Holy Communion again.

Audio from Mark’s bible study talk at Life Teen Leadership Conference 2011.

Download the MP3 of Mark’s talk

Transcription of Mark’s bible study

Revelation 19:7. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for the wedding day of the lamb has come, his bride (and the bride is the Church, that’s you and me) has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment. The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones. Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the lamb.” And he said to me, “These words are true. They come from God.”

Now a lot times we think the bride wears the white dress to show that she’s a virigin or that she’s pure, and that is part of the tradition. In this case, the linen garment shows in an outward way that on the inside is pure. This is one of the reasons that in Corinthians the Church says before you go to receive the Eucharist, you should be in a state of grace. You should not have serious sin. You should not have mortal sin in your soul. You should go to Confession before you go to Communion.

What the Church is trying to teach us, what God is revealing to St. John to reveal to us is Revelation. The book of Revelation is not a book of damnation and hell; the book of Revelation is about a wedding.

Literally, the whole first part is about the groom and the whole second part is about the bride.

Literally, the whole book of Revelation is trying to teach us that Jesus is the groom- the perfect groom, and He’s coming for His bride. And His bride is in a world that is filled with sin.

And this is where it gets hard, cause the guys are like “dude, I’m not a bride, I will be the best man. I will stand aside Jesus in a tux and I will look good doing it, but I am not the Bride.” That’s where we have to think a little bit higher for a second. That Jesus is the groom is coming for the Church, and the Church is the Bride and the Church is in a world that is surrounded by sin.

But the same way that the groom is going to come with the groomsmen with the saints and the angels… the groom is coming for the Bride. And He’s going to take the Bride back to where He is, but when He takes her back, Jesus and the Church, there is going to be a consummation.

People are starting to go, this is getting uncomfortable now… This is Biblical. Well you’re like- but it’s sexual. It’s more than sexual, because it’s truly intimate, it’s Biblical.

It’s that god wants to have this level of intimacy with us. The only thing more intimate than when my wife and I make love is when my wife and I pray, because we’re bearing souls- not just bodies.

This is one of those reasons too, I was going to say, I always encourage teenagers and young people to pray together- but I’m also going to say that you need to be really careful when you do, especially if you’re dating because it gets to this really intimate level- and sometimes we can mistake that intimacy. We always have to have barriers and boundaries. You have to be careful. It’s always good to pray in groups. Because there is an intimacy there, and you don’t want to let the evil one in and turn something beautiful, like prayer, into something it’s not, like a disordered action, premarital sex.

But this is what Jesus is trying to reveal to us and Jesus is saying, “I’m the groom and I’m going to come to where you are, so that we can be truly intimate.”

And Revelation is not just about the end of the world, or the end times, Revelation is about the Mass.

But people say it’s about a second coming, the word is parousia When he comes back at the end of time. Like you hear of all those people who say he’s going to come back. Remember a couple months ago, He’s coming back in May. The word Parousia doesn’t mean coming at the end of time, it means His coming… His presence.

When does Jesus as the groom crash into our presence? Every single day in fact, He’s going to be crashing into your presence in two hours you are going to your wedding. Ladies, you don’t have to wait another ten years. Guys in a weird way, we’re going to a wedding

When we go into that Abbey today, and every time you’re going into a Church, every time you go into your own parish- at Mass – it is a wedding. And what God is inviting you into is the most intimate relationship you’ll ever know. The only perfectly intimate and perfectly loving relationship you will ever know. Because He is perfect.

As awesome and as holy as your marriage is, if you’re called to marriage, it’s never going to be completely perfect. And it has no shot at it if God, who is perfection, is not at the center of it.

(So what’s going to happen is, we’re going to walk into a Church, and this is why I was saying- if you’re going to Communion you got to go to Confession, because you’re not going to be dressed right. Remember the first parable you read

Why did he get thrown out? He wasn’t dressed in wedding garments. He wasn’t dressed appropriately. But he was invited. Yeah we’re all invited … but we still have to dress appropriately.

When should that guy have figured out, even if he didn’t know or even if he had never been to a wedding before… when should he have figured out he wasn’t dressed right? By looking around, when you’re walking in, when you see everyone walking in and you think- that’s a nice tux or man that’s a pretty dress – I hope I’m okay in my cargo shorts and flip flops and my ripped up tank top. Like it should have occurred to him on the way in… or at least once he’s inside. )

So here we are in the Mass and it says, “rejoice and be glad that you’ve even been invited”. But it doesn’t stop there because God says, I want such intimacy with you that I’m going to stand at the aisle, like a groom. And the bride, the Church, is going to rise and walk forward.

And when the Bride rises and walks forward… the Bride is going to come face to face to Jesus, at the end of the aisle, like the groom

And the groom, there’s going to be an unveiling. It’s veiled. It looks like the host, looks like the bread. There’s going to be an unveiling and what’s really interesting… when we consume the Eucharist that’s the exact same root word for the word consummate.

So literally we’re going to consume the Eucharist and the two are going to become one. So now here we are in the house of God. And the two will become one.

And literally we are going to be able to receive Christ Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity and His grace is going to come within us

And this is the way the Church looks at it… this is why it’s so important we have grace because we know what. When my wife and I- we consummate our relationship, and I’ll tell you what. We consummated and nine months later we had to name that consummation. Because it bore fruit. God was involved

That’s why when you contracept and God’s not involved you cannot bear fruit. You take out the purpose and we’re left with use.

So hear we are, we consummate and bear fruit Think about this.. God is saying I want you to have my grace and grace is God’s life. That’s what grace is. God’s life in you

And God says I want my life in you, so what I’m going to do. So I’m going to humble myself and come to where you re and unveil my presence and I’m going to allow myself to be consumed by you and truthfully while I’m allowing myself to be consumed by you, you’re being spiritually consumed by Me.

And you have God’s grace in you- so that when the two become one we are now going to go out of this church and you’re going to be impregnated with my life. That you’re going to bear fruit and share fruit with the world. And guys are so like, this is not comfortable

But you have to go to that higher level, A spiritual level, a mystical level

That literally what God is saying is, I am not okay with you just going around on your own, I want to be with you and I want you to come back to me often.

Because this is true intimacy and there’s time when you go to Mass and that is a consummation act- it’s intimate