This is Scott Han and I want to welcome you to the Road to Amaeus, a podcast from the St Paul Center. Take a deep dive into the Sunday mass readings this new year.

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a video series hosted by Dr. Scott Han and me, Dr.

John Bergman. Visit St. Paul Center.com to subscribe and to read scripture from the heart of the church. Hello and welcome to the Road to Amaeus, a podcast from the St Paul Center.

Today's episode is drawn from a conference talk that Dr. Han gave several years ago. It begins with an interesting

question that Protestants often ask, do Catholics ever hear the gospel? And if so, where?

Scott's answer to that question for himself

started in a basement chapel at a daily mass in a Jesuit university.

It was the first time he'd ever seen a mass and he could come as a Protestant doctoral student just to sit and back and observe.

The answer is that

can't help hearing the gospel, if they'll pay close attention to the order of the mass.

In this talk, Scott leads us on a close look at the parts of the mass

that are so familiar, maybe too familiar to most of us, and unpack some of their

inner logic. Why do we call it the mass? What is the meaning of the sign of the cross? What do the changing colors we encounter point to?

What one word captures the whole meaning of the mass?

I would like to discuss with you something that I suspect many of you already know and that is the order or the organization of the mass.

How is it outlined? Everywhere in life there is order in organization. And generally speaking people feel lost when they go somewhere and things are happening and there is a certain order that they don't understand. You feel lost when you can't follow it.

In addition, you might feel indifference if you're not really understanding it.

I'm thinking of a football game.

And a friend of mine who went, who was from another country,

and he sat through three quarters until he finally told me he said I don't have

the faintest idea what they're doing.

...