One Ordinary Sunday: A Meditation on the Mystery of the Mass

by Paula Huston

The popular, award-winning writer Paula Huston draws on her spiritual wisdom and her talent as a novelist to provide both a moment-by-moment record of her experience of one particular Mass on one particular Sunday in her home parish in California and a theologically and historically rich exploration of the origin and meaning of the liturgy. For Catholics, the Mass is the "source and summit of the Christian life," as the documents of the Church put it. Yet many Catholics might confess to not understand in any depth what goes on in an "ordinary" celebration of the Eucharist. In perhaps her most compelling and original book to date, Huston, a novelist and spiritual writer, guides us through a Mass on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time at her home parish in Arroyo Grande, California. A natural storyteller, Huston deftly illuminates what might seem either mysterious to those unfamiliar with the Mass or overly familiar to those who have lost an appreciation of its mystery, including what it means to say that the Mass is a sacrifice; what the purpose of the Eucharistic Prayer is; and what happens at the consecration of bread and wine. This is a book for all Catholics, especially those who have questions about the basic practices of their faith, who are new to the Church, or who have left the Church behind but still feel like part of the family. "To say I loved the book would be an understatement. Bless Paula for writing this book and sharing an ordinary Sunday Mass, which-like da Vinci's Last Supper-manages to capture the divine amidst the turmoil and confusion of Christ's breaking of the bread on the night he was betrayed, when he gave himself, as he continues to give himself and as only God can." -- Paul Mariani Biographer, poet, and author of Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius "Paula Huston has made something beautiful for God and for us. This book will do much good." -- Mike Aquilina Author of The Mass of the Early Christians