At almost every moment of the Mass there is vocalization. Someone, or everyone, speaks or sings. There may be a few moments of silence, or of music without words. But mostly, the air vibrates with words, and those vibrations are heard. Sometimes they’re also listened to.
Most of the words spoken or sung at Mass are also present in written form—in hymnals, missals, lectionaries, Bibles, and bulletins. Some of the Mass’s words are read from these books, while others, lodged in memory, are taken from there, particularly the formulas used at every Sunday Mass: Gloria, Creed, Paternoster, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and so on. Whatever the balance between words read aloud and words spoken from memory, reading and reading materials are always ancillary and dispensable at Mass. In principle, memory, vocal cords, and ears suffice for what needs to be done with words.
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