In the first half of the sixteenth century Martin Luther wrote his essay "An Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenburg" and four centuries later the Vatican II council implemented many of his suggestions on what needed reform in the Catholic Church. By looking at this text the modern St. Joseph Sunday Missal, and personal experience we can see how closely the modern Catholic Church follows Luther's recommendations of how the mass should run.

Luther wrote his many essays and letters hoping to change the Catholic Church from a materialistic incomprehensible organization into a much more spiritual and easily understandable community of worship. He believed that the Church focused too much on ceremony and didn't pay enough attention to the spiritual motivation behind the pomp and circumstance. He also wanted to remove several elements of the church service, or else drastically change them, especially the practice of saying mass in Latin, which he felt alienated people and did not serve to bring more people in to the faith, but instead turned people away and misled those who remained.

The reforms Luther calls for fall into three categories: elements of the mass he found acceptable, those he disliked and were changed, those he disliked and stayed the same. The things that were changed within the Catholic Church were the ones that took place after Vatican II. Among the things that he found acceptable were the singing of songs, (although he preferred the old Psalms), the Kyrie, the readings from the Gospels, although all of these things needed to be sure to focus on the main purpose of the Mass, the eucharist.

The list of things he finds unacceptable is vast, most of them directed at the corruption and embezlement of the papal hierarchy and burocracy. This included collections, saying masses for specific intentions, the concept of purgatory, celibacy, any sacraments beyond those of baptism and communion, the saying of the mass in Latin, a language no one understood, the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and the "external additions of vestments, vessels, candles and palls, of organs and all the music, and of images" (Luther, 22). But his special complaint was reserved for the institution of the Papacy and the bishops and cardinals, and the burocracy involved.

Many of these things in the official Catholic Church has not changed and will not in the forseeable future. These are: celibacy of the priests, the many sacraments, the commitment to Mary and the saints and the papal hierarchy. These things are what remain of the medieval Church that distinguish Catholicism from other Christian religions. However, depending on the politics of the parish, the opinions of celibate male priests vary.

The Mass is no longer officially said in Latin, although it is in many monasteries, but everything else that is different has been changed either by Vatican II or by popular decisions, sometimes only on the local parish level. In most parishes collections are voluntary and are not used as payment for prayers or pennance. The same is true of masses said in the name of the deceased, since purgatory is no longer accepted as common belief, still, masses are occasionally said in honor of the dead family members for no charge. The sacraments have severely decreased in frequency if not number.

Communion is still expected to be taken weekly, but the sacraments of confession and the others have been distinctly downplayed and are not taught to be as important as they once were, mostly due to a general secularization of the church. Where it was once expected for the faithful to go to confession once a week, now a group confession is held once a year in many churches. The other sacraments still exist but aren't given the importance they once were.

Another large part of Luther's arguments against the Church as it was in the 1500's was that against all the external trappings of a formal organized religion. This included the ceremonial clothing, images, candles, ceremonial objects, iconography and images, and the excessive use of music. Luther argued that they were showy and unnecessary and were even heretical in that the images and icons were likened to the Bible's warning against worshipping false idols.

Today, in many churches all these things still exist, especially in large cathedrals and basilicas. However, in small parishes, especially rural ones, the informal folk mass is becoming more and more popular, drawing larger crowds than the formal ones. Here the masses are often held in the church basement or gymnasium, with only one candle and maybe a large cross behind the altar. The priests often wear the bare minimum of the required vestments and the songs are not the heavy lengthy ones reserved for the "upstairs" or formal masses.

The growing popularity of youth organizations and youth masses in the Church is also changing a lot of things. It isn't uncommon to have mass with everyone in bathing suits and cutoffs at an outside barbeque, the priest dressed as the teen congregation, with a picnic table for an altar. While Luther might say these masses are a little too informal, he would probably prefer them over the common masses in his time. These masses have greatly changed the face of the Catholic mass, stripping it down to its bare bones as today's youth refuses to stand on formality and ritual for the sake of ritual with no clear meaning behind it. Perhaps as this generation takes over the Church burocracy we'll see even more changes.

The order of the mass has also changed, and is now much more in accordance with Luther's standards. The Liturgy of the Word he allowed to remain essentially intact, limiting the readings to one and one gospel reading. Here Luther only suggested a few minor changes here and there. The Liturgy of the Eucharist, however, he seriously modified, saying it "smacks and savors of sacrifice" (Luther, 26).

The offeretory procession still exists but is mainly used as a method for members of the community to participate in the service. He then describes the mixing of the wine and water, but doesn't condem the practice, and it is continued in the Church today. The dialogue between the priest nad the people is almost identical, but Luther's reccomendation * and then the Sanctus or "Holy, Holy, Holy," as it's more commonly known,* goes immediately to the consecration of the bread and wine. He grudgingly allows for the elevation of the bread and wine, and this has been severely downplayed in modern Catholicism. He cuts out many of the prayers and songs in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, leaving the Our Father, the Agnes Dei, the Benedictus, and a few others. This is even more lengthy than what follows communion in the modern Church.

It is very probable that the Second Vatican Ecumenical Coucil used Martin Luther's works as a guide to how they should modify and update the Catholic Mass. There are a large number of similarities, and Luther was a pious Catholic priest, and therefore did not suggest anything heretical, and could be easily accepted by the Church. Also he had a very clearly written, well thought-out argument that was entirely valid. It may have taken four hundred years, but the leaders of the Church finally realized that people needed to know what they were doing and chose the best way they reasonably could to allow change and still keep the meaning and as much of the ritual that would distinguish the Mass as still Catholic.