EWTN Mass
Daily Mass is central to EWTN and is important to the EWTN Family, particularly to those who can’t attend Mass in person, such as the homebound and those in nursing homes, prisons, and hospitals. Though at-home viewers of the Mass aren’t sacramentally participating, they can still benefit by pious spiritual participation while watching the Mass. Fr. Leonard Mary, MFVA, says, “Jesus is still communicating to them from the chapel. He’s still speaking to their hearts."
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Our Lady of the Angels Monastery Celebrates 60th Anniversary
MFVAs
Mother Angelica founded the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA) in 1987 to preach and teach the Catholic faith using the social means of communication. The friars focus their attention on celebrating the liturgy broadcast on EWTN television and radio, leading retreats for visitors to EWTN in Irondale and to the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, as well as providing for the spiritual needs of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and EWTN employees.
“EWTN has helped change my life for the better. I am growing in faith and better understanding the Word, the teaching of our Church. As a result, my heart rejoices, my trust in the Lord has improved greatly. To paraphrase Mother Angelica … ‘What a beautiful thing is our Church.’ The daily Mass on EWTN is a blessing to us! All the programs are effective and wonderful!”
– Philomena, an EWTN viewer
Gregorian Chant & Sacred Music
Mother Angelica always wanted the best for the Lord. This is reflected in the beautiful music that accompanies the Mass offered and broadcast from EWTN’s Our Lady of the Angels Chapel. After the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI had published a collection of simple Gregorian Chants, called Jubilate Deo, which he sent to all the Bishops of the world. His goal was to encourage greater use of chant in the Mass, as well as appropriate vernacular chant and hymnody, as a way to unite the people of God. Ever faithful to the Church, Mother Angelica took this booklet and used it as a guideline for the televised Masses at EWTN.
“Indeed, if faith is always born from listening to the word of God — a form of listening, naturally, not only of the senses but that also passes from the senses to the mind and heart — there is no doubt that music, and especially song, can give the recitation of the Psalms and Canticles of the Bible greater communicative force.” – Pope Benedict XVI
Eucharistic Miracles
“… and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” - Matthew 28:20
How overwhelmingly beautiful is it to know that not only did the Eternal Word promise to be with us always––giving us His Body and Blood for us to receive, but that He also willingly chooses to reveal Himself to us in the most spectacular way through Eucharistic miracles.
Throughout the ages, in different times and places, Christ’s Body and Blood, under the appearances of bread and wine, have been revealed as flesh and blood. Each case has been different, such as the doubt of the celebrant regarding the Eucharistic mystery, or for reasons known only to God. Some of the miraculous phenomenon are listed below:
“When Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.” – St. John Chrysostom
Latin in the Mass
The Second Vatican Council established that the use of the Latin language in the liturgy of the Latin Rite was to be retained. Nonetheless, it authorized its translation into the vernacular, leaving to the bishops’ conferences, with the approval of the Holy See, to what extent this would be done. By the 1970s, it was clear that the vernacular was being widely adopted in all parts of the world. It was in this context that Pope Paul VI, in Jubilate Deo, renewed the call for use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, especially in the common parts of the Mass. Thus, in the EWTN Mass, Papal Masses, and other Masses celebrated around the world, you will notice these common parts, such as the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, said or sung in Latin.
“No human tongue can enumerate the favors that trace back to the Sacrifice of the Mass. The sinner is reconciled with God; the just man becomes more upright; sins are wiped away; vices are uprooted; virtue and merit increases; and the devil’s schemes are frustrated.” – St. Lawrence Justinian
