After "groveling" before the Lord by confessing our sins and asking for His mercy, we break into a song of rejoicing, "Glory to God in the Highest and peace to His people on earth..." This song connects us with Christmas and the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first line is the Angels' greeting to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. It seems to me highly appropriate that this song which rejoicing in God becoming man should be sung or said at this point of the Mass. It is in the mass that Christ comes down from Heaven to earth on the Altar. In the words of St. Augustine: "O venerable dignity of the priests in whose hands as in the womb of the virgin, the Son of God become Incarnate". Christmas should fill us with wonder as we contemplate God becoming man, the babe in Mary's arms. The same cause of wonder and awe is before us at every mass.

The celebrant then opens his arms and greets the people: "The Lord be with you" and the people respond "And also with you". This simple gesture and greeting expresses our love in Christ for one another and invites us all to pray. We need to try to pray the mass to offer our attention to the Lord in mind and heart. The desire of our heart should be to meet the Lord in one another, in His word and, most particularly, in the Blessed Sacrament of toe altar. We don't want to miss Him by our lack of attention. In our culture which is dominated by television, it is not easy to "Wait upon the Lord". I can remember overhearing a child asking his mother before mass; "When do they turn it on, mommy?" We must be careful that mass does not become solely an entertainment hour. The mass, of course, has elements of theater and dance but always it calls forth faith and love from us. Without the exercise of faith and love on our part there is little profit in the mass for us.

In the "Prayer of the Day", formerly called the collect, we have a short address to God which expresses the theme of the mass. Monsignor Ronald Knox in his Mass in Slow Motion calls this prayer a telegram to God. It expresses succinctly our "joint message of salutation to A1mighty God".