In my “ti morceaux” over the past couple of months I’ve mentioned the most important theological reality of Mass: the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I’ve also mentioned the most important principle of Catholic liturgy: full and active participation by all worshipers. Now, before beginning to deal with some of the de­tails of the structure of the Mass, I want to mention what is sup­posed to be the most significant characteristic of good liturgy in our Church.

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy mentions it in par­a­graph 34: “Ritual actions should be distinguished by a noble simplicity.” This basically means that our liturgy tries to be pretty formal and deliberate, all the while trying to attract at­tention to just one thing at a time.

The Mass is not a three-ring circus or sporting event, with three or four things always going on. No, the Mass is an ex­perience of shared worship, when everyone focuses on the same things toge­ther, and in order. We try not to dupli­cate symbols or repeat things needlessly. We try to resist the temptation to add gimmicks to our worship, or to con­stantly change our ritual actions. Perhaps most impor­tantly, the gestures and prayer texts used by priests and others don’t go overboard in extravagance or wordiness. Have you noticed this?