One of the many great things about being Catholic is knowing that you can attend Holy Mass anywhere in the world and it will look and sound the same as everywhere else, even if it’s not being offered in your native language. On any given Sunday, the prayers and readings are the same all over the world. The offering of the Eucharist in worship is the same all over the world. It’s a great gift that many other Christians don’t have. In fact, the word “catholic” actually means “universal”, which means the Church is meant to spread all over the world, to reach all languages and nations in one universal religion. While we may have different cultural backgrounds, our worship is meant to share a kind of unity that transcends all of our differences. To assist us in that task, the Church has provided liturgical books as the source of our structure for Mass. This week and next, we’ll take a quick look at the two primary liturgical books that form the structure and content of our worship, namely the Roman Missal and the Lectionary.   The main book that you see the priest use for the prayers of the Mass is called the Roman Missal, commonly called the Missal. It is Roman because the Roman Catholic Church has its home base in Rome, where the Pope lives. The word Missal comes from the Latin word for Mass, Missa. We’ll talk more about Latin in a few weeks. The Missale (Latin again) is the Mass-book, which translates into Missal in English. The Roman Missal provides the structure of the Mass by way of instructions called “rubrics” and the various prayers of the Mass the priest offers on behalf of the people. They are called rubrics because they are written in red ink (ruby) and instruct the priest on what to do, while the prayers are written in black and reveal to the priest what to say. There is a common phrase: say the black, do the red.    As I mentioned back toward the beginning of our Catholic Massterclass, structure has always been an essential component of man’s worship of God. From the time of Moses onward, the Lord has provided a specific structure for His people as they come before Him to offer worship. The Catholic Church throughout history has understood this to be essential in offering Mass, especially as the Christian faith has spread around the world. There have been various changes to the structure of the Mass throughout history, but the same substantial reality has been present from the beginning and will be present until the end of time. Because of this reality, it is essential that the priest not deviate from the rubrics and prayers. Sometimes priests have thought that they could make a little addition or subtraction here and there, but these would be considered to be liturgical abuses. As I have mentioned throughout our classes, it’s incredibly important for all of us, clergy and laity alike, to remember that the Mass is about what we offer to God on His terms, which comes to us through His Church; it’s not about my preferences or yours. The Church teaches: It is the right of all Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and particularly the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to the stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms. (Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 12) You have a right to the proper celebration of Holy Mass and the priest has an obligation to properly offer the Mass. He does so when he follows the rubrics and offers the prayers with the Eucharistic sacrifices as the Church requires.