Memory and Mass, by Regis Martin

By Regis Martin, Crisis Magazine, Dec. 28, 2023

Regis Martin is Professor of Theology and Faculty Associate with the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He earned a licentiate and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. …

Christianity did not entirely disavow the ancient idea of memory, but instead baptized it, most perfectly in the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary.

For the ancient Greeks, on whom we depend for the life and inheritance of the classical world, the goddess Mnemosyne, daughter of the earth-goddess Gaia and the sky-god Uranus, was designated Mother of all the Muses, from whom the charisms of art and poetry, science and song, draw their inspiration. And while her name literally means Memory, it was not until Christianity came along to complete and perfect the pagan world that the real meaning of memory became clear. ….