In 160 A.D. Justin described the Mass just as it is today.

Friday, 6/1/12

Today we honor St. Justin who was born in the year 100, and who was beheaded as a Christian in the year 165. He is often referred to as Justin Martyr, but he might also be called Justin the Philosopher. He was a lover of Greek philosophy for its honoring the one God and creator of all things. One day he met an old man who complimented him on his knowledge about God; but the old man told him that Christians not only know about God, but they actually know God.

Becoming a Christian, Justin opened a school in Rome where he posted his reasoned rejections of lies about Christianity voiced in the Roman Senate. When a senator made the claim that Christians assembled to worship a goat, Justin posted the following description of what we call the Mass. 


Martin Luther in 1520 made the claim that the Mass had only been devised a thousand years after the birth of Christ. It is reassuring to read Justin’s description of it from 160 A.D.

"On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons." In chapter 65, Justin Martyr says that the kiss of peace was given before the bread and the wine mixed with water were brought to "the president of the brethren." The language used was doubtless Greek, except in particular for the Hebrew word "Amen", whose meaning Justin explains in Greek (γένοιτο), saying that by it "all the people present express their assent" when the president of the brethren "has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings."