Book Review: The Mass of the Early Christians
The second book I read during my time in Vermont was The Mass of the Early Christians by Mike Aquilina. Despite the title, it actually is more focused on the Eucharist itself rather than the Mass. There are excerpts from the rubrics of early Christian liturgies, but it's much more about the reverence they had for the Eucharist as it is the Body and Blood of Christ.
Part one of the book goes into the roots of the Mass as it comes out of Jewish religious practice and early Christian customs. As he points out, the Mass is older than the Bible, as the first Christians went to Mass regularly from the early times of the Church.
The second part of the book, which makes up the bulk of the work, is excerpts from writings of the early Christians discussing what they believed and why. Here, you read selections from a virtual who's who of early Christian thinkers as well as a few excerpts from the earliest extant Christian liturgies. (Some of which are still used today in the Eastern Churches.)
Finally, the book closes with a second person narrative of what it was like for a typical Christian to go to Mass in the early days of Christianity. The risks they undertook in the times of the persecutions to go and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and worship him as a Christian community. How being caught could mean death for yourself and all those with you, but sacramentally receiving Him was worth the risk.
It's quick book to read, but worth it: it shows that from the earliest times of the Church, it was understood that the bread and wine offered at Mass became the Body and Blood of Jesus, and that the Christians of the time placed a high value on that. That's an example we ought not to forget in this time.