Hello, and
welcome to the Tiber River Café. My name
is Dean Humphreys, and today’s topic is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the
second part of the Catholic Mass.
One of the
ways to think about the Catholic Mass is that it is basically a meal, a ritual
dinner. We come together as a faith
community, as the family of God, to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
our Savior. We gather for the meal that
Jesus promised us in the Gospel. The
meal is our spiritual food which is both the Word of God and the
Eucharist. And at the Mass, like any
meal-time gathering of friends and family, we first sit and talk, then we move
to the dining room table, we say grace and give thanks, we pass the food to
everyone present, then we eat and drink, and finally we leave to go home.
This is the
same basic structure of the Mass.
Catholics come together weekly at our local parish church as a faith
community. We talk to God with our
prayers and petitions. We then listen to
God talk to us, we listen to God’s word proclaimed to us in the Bible
readings. We then come to the table,
which is the altar, to share the bread and wine, which is the Eucharist, the
body and blood of Jesus. And then we are sent home, commissioned to go forth
and to lead a Christian life and to spread the Gospel message. This is the basic foundation of the Catholic
Mass.
The Liturgy
of the Eucharist is the continuation of the conversation with God our Father. The Liturgy of the Eucharist is the high
point of the Mass. Everything in the
Mass is ultimately directed towards the Eucharist; our prayers, the scriptural
readings, everything is in anticipation of the Eucharist. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist we
remember that Jesus took bread and wine, he gave thanks, he broke the bread,
and then he gave the bread to his disciples, and said, ‘take and eat, this is
my body; take and drink, this is my blood.’
This is the Supper of the Lord, this is the celebration of the
Eucharist, and we are invited to sit at the table.
Presentation of the Altar and Gifts
As the
people sit, members of the congregation will bring to the altar the bread,
wine, and water for the celebration of the Eucharist; as well as the gifts, the
monetary collection that the people offer for the support of the Church and the
poor. The bread and wine are the same
elements that Jesus used that Thursday night 2000 years ago, in the Upper Room
at the Last Supper, at the Passover meal with his disciples, which is the night
Jesus instituted the Eucharist. Bread
and wine were part of the basic dietary plan of the early Middle Eastern
Christians, and in the early church people would bring the bread and wine that
they worked to make, for the celebration of the Eucharist.
Preparation of the Bread
The priest,
representing Jesus our Lord, will hold the bread slightly raised, saying,
“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have
received the bread we offer you; fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it
will become for us the bread of life.”
And the people respond, “Blessed be God for ever.” This simple prayer is from the ancient Jewish
Kiddish of the Passover meal which reads, “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God,
Creator of the fruit of the earth. The
earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”
Presentation of the Wine
The priest
then takes the wine and fills the cup, the chalice, the priest then adds a
little water to the wine, and again holds it slightly elevated and says,
“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have
received the wine we offer you, fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it
will become our spiritual drink.” And
the people again respond, “Blessed be God for ever.” The priest will then wash his hands, as the
Jewish leaders would wash their hands before a ritual meal, and says, “Wash me,
O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
Invitation to Prayer
The priest will
then say to the people gathered, “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours
may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”
Now the people stand and respond, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at
your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of
all his holy Church.” Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer
Sanctus
Then we pray
the ancient Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of host, heaven and earth are
full of your glory. Hosanna in the
highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the
highest.” We pray for our Church, our
pope, bishops, priests and deacons, for all the faithful; we pray for Mary and
Joseph, the Apostles and Martyrs, and the Saints.
After the
Sanctus we kneel out of respect and honor as we continue in the mystery of the
Eucharist.
There are
four versions of the Eucharistic Prayer that can be used. The priest will say the institution narrative
recalling the Last Supper, the words Jesus spoke to his disciples in the Upper
Room, “For on the night he was betrayed he himself took bread, and giving you
thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples,
saying: take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will
be given up for you. In a similar way,
when supper was ended, he took the chalice, and giving you thanks, he said the
blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying: take this, all of you,
and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new
and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the
forgiveness of sins, do this in memory of me.”
Then the
priest will say, “The mystery of faith.”
And the people respond, “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess
your Resurrection until you come again.”
The people are not only observers in this mystery but active
participants in the celebration.
Next we
offer another prayer, as the priest says to the people, “The Lord be with
you.” And the people respond, “And with
your spirit.”
Lord’s Prayer
Next we
stand, and pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, the Our Father. The Lord’s Prayer is our petition for our
daily sustenance, our daily spiritual bread which is the Eucharist, as well as our
prayer for the forgiveness of sins.
Sign of Peace
Again, the
priest offers the people his peace, saying, “The peace of the Lord be with you
always” and the people respond, “And with your spirit.” Then we offer each other the sign of peace, which
is an ancient tradition of reconciliation, of shaking hands and saying “peace
be with you.” Before we continue with
the Eucharistic mystery we must first express and restore our peace with our
family and neighbors, and we do this with the Sign of Peace, an outward sign of
our peace and charity as a faith community.
We shake hands with our family, friends, and neighbors as a sign of
unity in our faith. Although we are many
people we are gathering as one community, we are the Body of Christ.
Breaking of the Bread
The early
Christians called the Mass, the ‘Breaking of the Bread’, when one load of bread
would be broken and shared with those gathered.
Now is the time when the priest will take the bread and break it into
smaller pieces. The priest will then
break off a small piece of the bread and add it to the wine, saying quietly,
“May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal
life to us who receive it.” The people
will then either recite or sing, “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the
world, have mercy of us.”
Next the
priest faces the people, and will take the bread, the host, and the chalice
with the wine, and holds them raised, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold
him who takes away the sins of the world.
Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” And the people
respond just like the Roman Centurion in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8 verse
8, responded, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but
only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Jesus is the Lamb of God as pointed to by John the Baptist, and Jesus is
truly present to his people gathered, he is present in his Word, and he is
present in the Eucharist, the bread and wine now become his body and blood, our
spiritual food.
Next we slowly
move forward towards the altar and hold out our hands to receive Communion, the
body and blood of Jesus. Just like Jesus
promised us, the bread has truly become his flesh and the wine has truly become
his blood. The bread and wine are now fully the body, blood, soul and divinity
of Jesus. And as Jesus instructed us we
are to eat his flesh, to chew his flesh and drink his blood in order to have
eternal life. The priest, or Eucharistic
Minister, will hold up the host and say, “The body of Christ” or “The blood of
Christ” and we respond, “Amen”, our way of saying “Yes, I believe.”
After
receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, we return to our seats and sit in
silence, praying and reflecting.
Next we pray
as a community, the priest will say the Prayer after Communion, and all
respond, amen.
Concluding Rites
The priest
will offer a final blessing and dismisses the people by saying, “The Lord be
with you” and the people respond like the early Christians, “And with your
spirit.” And with a final blessing from
the priest, “May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.” And we cross ourselves and say
one last time, “Amen.”
The priest or the deacon says, “The Mass
has ended”, and we say, “Thanks be to God.”
We are commissioned to go home, we have been nourished and transformed
by the Body and Blood of Jesus, and now we are to live a Christian life, to
spread the Gospel message with our words and actions. We continue to stand as the priest and other
ministers process out of the Church.
In the Book
of Acts, chapter 2 verse 42, we read how the early Church came together, how
they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s instructions and the communal life, to
the breaking of the bread which is the Eucharist, and to the prayers. And 2000 years later we continue this
tradition when we gather each Sunday at Mass.
I find it very comforting and reassuring that the same readings are proclaimed
throughout the universal Church, that we are a family, brothers and sisters,
sitting at the one table. And it’s
amazing to consider that, with 24 time zones encircling the globe; that at each
and every moment of every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that there is a
Catholic Mass being celebrated somewhere in the world. In Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians,
chapter 5 verse 17, we are instructed to “Pray without ceasing.” The Mass is truly a constant and universal
prayer, a prayer without ceasing.
So there you
have it, a rather simple overview of the second part of the Catholic Mass, the
Liturgy of the Eucharist. We bring God
our gifts, the bread and wine, as well as gifts for the Church and the poor,
and then God gives us the gift of the Eucharist, which is truly the body and
blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Something to think about next Sunday at Mass.
I encourage
you to check out my blog site, tiberrivercafé.blogspot.com, where I have put
together a listing of Bible references for each part of the Mass, as well as
complete transcripts for all my videos.
I hope you will see how Biblically saturated the Mass and our Catholic
faith really is.
Well, thanks
again for stopping by the Tiber River Café, where there is always plenty of
room at the banquet table. I hope to see
you next time. Peace be with you.
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