Posted February 28, 2008 Book: The Mass Is Never Ended: Rediscovering Our Mission to Transform the World Author: Gregory F. Augustine Pierce Ave Maria Press. Notre Dame, IN. 2007. Pp. 126 An Excerpt from the Jacket: “Ite missa est.” “Go, we are sent forth.” At turns entertaining, profound, and practical, The Mass Is Never Ended will renew appreciation for the beauty and wisdom of the Mass for Catholics everywhere. Examining the Mass through the lens of the dismissal, Greg Pierce reveals how our Christian mission has not changed since Jesus gave it to the original disciples and that our daily work aims toward building the kingdom of God. An Excerpt from the Book: We finish the opening hymn, the presider welcomes us and reads a short prayer, and then we get our first reminder that we are going to be sent forth again. The priest suggests that we have all failed in some way, and we all agree. There is no show of hands for those who have sinned and those who have not. We each admit that we have failed in many ways, “in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do.” Through the lens of the Dismissal, the main thing we have “failed to do” is to bring about that kingdom of God we were sent forth to help inaugurate. Oh, we may have tried. We may even have succeeded in some (usually small) ways. But overall and corporately, we have failed on the mission on which we were sent just a few days earlier. Surprisingly, however, we don’t beat ourselves up about it. Instead, we ask for forgiveness — from God, from one another, from ourselves. We ask our Blessed Mother, the angels and saints, and our “brothers and sisters” present with us to pray for me to the Lord, our God.” The priest asks God to “have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.” We all recall that we are a forgiven people and are not expected to succeed all the time. We pray or sing, “Lord, have mercy.” And then, surprisingly, we are forgiven. It is as easy as that, partly because — from the point of view of the Dismissal — we know we are going to be sent forth again soon and well have another chance. Suddenly, we are so happy that we start singing again. This time it is the “Glory to God,” the ancient hymn of all Christians to express our joy at being part of the entire enterprise. We are in a line of over two thousand years of people coming together and then being sent forth again. So we give thanks to our God “in the highest: and ask for “peace to his people on earth.” Remember: In a little whle we will be sent forth in that same peace “to love and serve” that same Lord. From the point of view of the Dismissal, our time together is already running out, and we still have a lot of work to do. Table of Contents: Part 1: A mission worthy of our lives 1. Vocation and mission for all 2. The kingdom of God 3. Mission impossible Part 2: The mass as a sending forth 4. The sending forth 5. The coming back 6. Preparing to be sent forth again 7. Transubstantiating our gifts 8. Food for the journey Part 3: The spirituality of work 9. Sustaining the sending forth 10. God and work 11. Jesus and work 12. The church and work 13. The Christian spiritual tradition 14. Getting into the world 15. A spirituality for the sending forth Conclusion