Say a Prayer for Me, I'm Buried by the Sound

In case you haven’t noticed, we Catholics like to pray…a lot.  We pray not only for ourselves, but for each other, so it’s no surprise that we felt like having another chance to pray WITHIN the larger context of the Eucharistic Prayer.  The next part of the Eucharistic Prayer is the Intercessions…that’s a fancy-schmancy word for “prayers.”  Now, these are not to be confused with the General Intercessions that came after the Profession of Faith (Nicene Creed) earlier in the Mass.  These intercessions are worded in a way to remind us that the prayer we make in the Sacrifice of the Mass is made in communion (Ooooooh..! See that clever, theological play on words, there?) with the whole Church in Heaven and on earth.  We also show through these prayers that the offering we make at Mass is for the Church and ALL its members, both living and dead who are called to share in the Salvation Christ gives us through HIS sacrifice.  So let’s look at how this prayer is spelled out in Eucharistic Prayer II.

Current Text:

Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love together with _____ our Pope, ______ our bishop, and all the clergy.

Remember our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again; bring them and all the departed into the light of your presence.  Have mercy on us all, make us worthy to share eternal life with Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with the apostles, and with all the saints who have done our will throughout the ages.  May we praise you in union with them, and give you glory through your Son, Jesus Christ.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together with ______ our Pope and ______ our Bishop and all the clergy.

Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy; welcome them into the light of your face.  Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, with the blessed Apostles, and all the Saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life, and may praise and glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ.

Obviously the priest doesn’t say “blank” at those blanks, but inserts the name of the current Pope (Pope Benedict XVI at the time of this post), and the bishop of the diocese where the Mass is being celebrated.  Also, notice that THIS is where the Mass outlines for us to pray for the dead…not at the General Intercessions that occur earlier in the Mass.  In fact, in Masses for the dead, there is another little paragraph that can be inserted after praying for the Pope, bishop, and all the clergy:

Current Text:

Remember ______, whom you have called from this life.  In baptism he (she) died with Christ: may he (she) share his resurrection.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Remember your servant ______, whom you have called from this world to yourself.  Grant that he (she) who was united with your Son in a death like his, may also be one with him in his Resurrection.

I have heard this little extra prayer occasionally thrown in at a Sunday Mass by a priest when a member of a parish has recently died, and has not yet had a funeral Mass.  As to the “correctness” of doing this, I can’t find anything saying it SHOULDN’T be done, and I don’t think God minds if we say a few extra prayers at this point for someone’s soul.  But that’s just my thought.  Any priests out there that want to weigh in on the subject, please do.

So anyway, remember that the word Eucharist means “thanksgiving.”  Also, the word Communion, which is what receiving the Eucharist is commonly called, indicates that receiving the Eucharist brings us into COMMUNION with each other in the Church, meaning that we realize that we are all part of the larger Body of Christ, the Church Community.  That’s what these Intercessions in the Eucharistic Prayer are designed to remind us.  We are all part of the Church, whether our souls are still partnered with our mortal bodies here on earth (i.e. we’re alive), or our souls have left these mortal bodies to live with God in the eternity of Heaven (i.e. we’re dead).  So here in the Intercessions we pray for the members of the Church, the leaders of the Church, and those members of the Church who have already passed away.  We also pray that the members of the Church will ultimately get to Heaven where we will praise God forever and live in eternal Glory with Him.

Well, that’s about it.  Nothing more to see…move it along, folks…until next post where we’ll just keep on keepin’ on through the Eucharistic Prayer.

Oh My God, We're Back Again

Yeah, this one’s short, but everyone deserves a break right?  I think so, and since I’m in charge here, that’s all that matters.

In Eucharistic Prayer II, after the Mystery of Faith and the Anamnesis, comes the Epiclesis.  No, that’s not a typo, there is actually ANOTHER short Epiclesis in Eucharistic Prayer II which brings us back to the subject of “Calling down the Holy Spirit.”  It goes a little something like this:

Current Text:

May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.

Beginning in Advent 2011:

Humbly we pray that, partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.

Again, this one’s just short, since we’ve already talked about what the word Epiclesis means, but don’t be discouraged.  We’ve still got two more posts before we finish up with the Eucharistic Prayer.  See you next time.

Don't, Don't, Don't, Don't! Don't You Forget About Me

I promise this post will be less mind-boggling than the last one.  After the Thanksgiving, Epiclesis, and Institution Narrative (in Eucharistic Prayer II) comes the Mystery of Faith by the people, and the Anamnesis.  This comes from the Greek ἀνάμνησιν, which means “memory.”  As I mentioned a few posts ago when summarizing all the parts of the Eucharistic Prayer, the Anamnesis is the collective remembrance through a short song about the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  If there is no choir, obviously, this is just recited.

Some people may not realize that there are actually 4 options when it comes to the Mystery of Faith.  Here’s what they are now along with what they’re going to be starting in Advent:

Intro by the Priest:

Current Text:

Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.

Beginning Advent 2011:

The mystery of faith.

Now for the Anamnesis itself:

Option A

Current Text:

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Beginning Advent 2011

(By the date I posted this, a U.S. adaptation had yet to be decided by the Vatican.)

Option B

Current Text:

Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life.  Lord Jesus, come in glory.

Beginning Advent 2011:

We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.

Option C

Current Text:

When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.

Beginning Advent 2011:

When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.

Option D:

Current Text:

Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free.  You are the Savior of the World.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection, you have set us free.

Now for the Anamnesis, which is said by the priest (in Eucharistic Prayer II):

Current Text:

In memory of his death and resurrection, we offer you, Father, this life-giving bread, this saving cup.  We thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Therefore, as we celebrate the memorial of his Death and Resurrection, we offer you, Lord, the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation, giving thanks that you have held us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you.

So there you have it.  Not too much explanation needed there, as we’ve already talked about Jesus as the Lamb of God and how he was sacrificed for our sins back in “’Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part V.”  In the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer, it just seems fitting that after we hear the words of Jesus in the Institution Narrative, “Do this in memory of me,” that we would immediately remember what the sacrifice of his body and blood really did for us.

A Change Would Do You Good

Ok, I hope you’re sitting down, ‘cause this is going to be pretty heavy.  Good thing is, since this is a blog, and people tend to read blogs on computers, you probably ARE sitting down.  Although, if you’re standing and reading this on an Android phone, you should take a moment to sit down.  If you’re reading this on an iPhone, you should get an Android.  I recommend the HTC EVO 4G.

So two posts ago we talked about the Epiclesis, the calling down of the Holy Spirit, which changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  Last post we talked about the Words of Institution, which change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  So the obvious question is: What is the exact moment at which the bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ.  The not-so-obvious answer is: There is no ONE moment.  (I love that profound look of confusion on your face right now…but wait: it gets worse—or better.)  See, God is infinite, and not bound by time.  This is probably one of the most difficult concepts to grasp, because we are finite, and our entire existence is completely surrounded by measurements of time.  We’ve only ever known existence as bound by time, and so we have nothing else to compare the possibility of no time restraints to.  As far as the Mass goes, we have to realize that we’re not operating by TIME, but more by circumstances and ideas (for lack of much more impressively philosophical terms).  The bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ happens between a combination of the Epiclesis and the Words of Institution, and really the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, but it’s really not correct to say that at the moment of whichever part comes last, the change happens.  There’s also the Great Amen to think about, too.  Our response is important in that we are asking God for this gift as a whole church, but it’s also not correct to say that after we say, “Amen,” the change happens.  It’s just a concept we have to take on faith, because our limited brains just can’t comprehend it.

Now for something even more incomprehensible (uncomprehensible? imcomprehensible?).  What actually happens with the bread and wine?  If you have eyes (which is a pretty safe bet, if you’re reading this right now), you’ve probably noticed that the Body of Christ we receive during Communion looks a whole heck of a lot like the bread that’s brought to the Altar before all this Eucharistic Prayer stuff happens.  So much like it, in fact, that it looks exactly the same.  Same thing goes for the wine that becomes the Blood of Christ.  So where’s the change?  For that, we’ll have to have a short (very watered-down) metaphysics lesson.  (That’s a cool philosophy term.)

Everything in the world (according to Aristotle) has two parts to it that make it what it is: (1) substance, and (2) accidents.  The substance is the basic concept of what a thing is, while the accidents are the properties of that thing that circularly define the substance.  Let’s take a chair, for example…ordinary dining room chair with four legs, a seat, and a back.  The substance of that chair is, well, “chair.”  It just IS a chair.  How do we know it’s a chair?  Well, we just look at its accidents.  It’s got 4 legs.  It’s got a seat.  It’s got a back.  You can sit on it.  It’s (probably) made of wood.  If the wood’s stained, it’s probably brownish in color.  All these are the properties that help us understand the substance of this object and let us realize that this is a chair. 

So what if I changed the accidents of that chair?  Some accidents could change without changing the substance.  For example, I could paint the chair white, and it would still be a chair.  If I changed other accidents, however, the very substance of that chair could be changed.  Let’s say I rip the legs of the chair off.  Now I’m just left with a weird-looking, 3-D, wooden “L.”  It’s no longer a chair.  So I can change the accidents around and either change the substance, or leave it in tact. I can’t, however, change the substance of that chair without changing the accidents.  I can’t look at that chair with its 4 legs, seat, back, sit-ability, wooden composition, and brown color and say, “Well, that’s a TV.”  That’s just ridiculous, because TVs aren’t made of wood.  (Ok, there are other reasons too, I guess.)  No matter how hard I try, I cannot change the substance of something and leave the accidents the way they are.  If you were to change the substance of something without changing its accidents, that would be a miracle…………..

………(I’m waiting for that little light bulb to go off over your head)…………

Before we get too ahead of ourselves (for those of you whose light bulbs haven’t gone off on their own yet), let’s talk about the bread we use at Mass.  Before the Eucharistic Prayer, it’s made of wheat, flour, and water. It’s typically somewhere in the color range of bright white to medium-brown.  It’s usually round, and often has a little cross or some other design pressed into it.  It’s bread.  What about the wine?  Well, before the Eucharistic Prayer, it’s a liquid. It’s either red or white. It contains actual alcohol. It’s made from grapes.  It’s wine.

Here’s where it gets tricky:

AFTER the Eucharistic Prayer, the bread is made of wheat, flour, and water.  It’s typically somewhere in the color range of bright white to medium-brown.  It’s usually round, and often has a little cross or some other design pressed into it.  The wine is a liquid.  It’s either red or white.  It contains actual alcohol.  It’s made from grapes.  It’s wine.  HOWEVER, at this point, it is profoundly incorrect to call these bread and wine.  They have become the Body and Blood of Christ.  The accidents have NOT changed.  ONLY the substance has changed.  This change of substance is called transubstantiation (fact), which is the COOLEST word in the Catholic Faith (shamelessly biased opinion).  This comes from the prefix trans- which means, “to cross” or “to change” (as in Transformers who “change” their form from cars to intergalactic fighting robots), and the –substantiation part comes, obviously, from the word substance.  Literally, “to change substance.”

So now you’re asking, “Wait, didn’t you just say that if you were to change the substance of something without changing its accidents, that would be a miracle”?  Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s this little book called THE BIBLE that’s full of stories about God working miracles.  Picture what happens at Mass: The priest takes the bread and wine we offer and says a prayer asking God to send his Holy Spirit upon those gifts to make them holy so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Well, guess what happens!!  God sends his Holy Spirit upon those gifts to make them holy so that they become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  “Ask and you shall receive,” right? 

So to summarize, during the Eucharistic Prayer, God (because we ask him to) transforms the substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ without changing anything about the accidents.  The Body and Blood of Christ contain the true spirit of the Risen Christ that we are to consume as he DIRECTLY instructed us in John 6:53-58:

Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

So to ANYONE who calls himself a Christian, but does not believe that the bread and wine doesn’t actually become the Body and Blood of Christ, I say re-read your Bible you “claim” to know so well.

You want an idea of how I REALLY feel when somebody challenges the teachings of my Catholic Church?? Go watch this video.  And yes, Stephen Colbert IS a hardcore Catholic.  WARNING: this video is extremely awesome. Another WARNING: yes, there is a word "bleeped" out towards the end of this video, but it's, well, BLEEPED.  Just wanted to make some of our more "sensitive" readers aware of that fact before being blind-sided by it.

Listen, Children, to a Story that was Written Long Ago

Like I’ve said plenty of times before, we (Catholics) don’t make this stuff up.  Everything we say and do in the Catholic faith is either directly from Scripture (the Bible) or directly influenced/inspired by Scripture.  The words of the Eucharistic Prayer are no exception.  The next part of the Eucharistic Prayer is called the Institution Narrative, and is a direct reflection of the words and actions of Christ at the Last Supper the night before his crucifixion.

There are two parts to the concept of the Institution Narrative: the “institution” part and the “narrative” part (don’t have to be a theologian to figure that one out).  The “narrative” part is easy enough to decipher…a narrative is, very simply, a story.  In this case, it’s the story of the Last Supper, like I said earlier.  The “institution” part is a little trickier.  Let’s talk about that after I give you an example of the Institution Narrative from Eucharistic Prayer II.  Now, bear with me, because this part’s a little bit lengthy.

Current Text:

Before he was given up to death, a death he freely accepted, he took bread and gave you thanks.  He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you.

When supper was ended, he took the cup.  Again he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.  It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.  Do this in memory of me.

Beginning Advent 2011:

At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion, he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, 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, once more giving thanks, he gave it 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.

Alright, maybe that wasn’t as long as I thought…especially since most Catholics have been hearing that since they were, well, able to hear.  Again, I want to point out that this is not a “change” in our beliefs.  At the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the idea was to take the Latin and put it into terms that people could understand.  Now, we’re realizing that we’ve really been missing some really deep theological concepts in the last half-a-century.  Don’t misunderstand, though: we haven’t been doing anything WRONG for the last half-a-century, because, if nothing else, God knows what our intentions have been, so we’re good.  Remember, our Church was founded by Jesus, himself, and is continually guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, so we won’t be steered wrong as a whole Church.  Individuals may go astray from time to time (as we’ve seen in the recent priest scandals), but it’s important to remember that those are the faults of INDIVIDUALS and not the whole Church.  But enough of that…

So let’s talk a LITTLE about the “institution” part of this bit.  See, the term “institution” here comes from the term “Words of Institution.”  The Words of Institution are the prayers (that we just read over) that, together with the Epiclesis we talked about last post, ask God to transform the bread and wine we offer into the Body and Blood of Christ.  See, we believe that God transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ because we ask Him to.  The Bible says in Matthew Chapter 7, Verse 11: “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?”  I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a single thing God can give us that’s BETTER than the gift of himself.  So we believe that when we ask, he gives. 

Now HOW this happens—HOW the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ—that’s another topic for another day.  Lucky for you all, that day will (probably) be tomorrow.

You Just Call On Me, Brother

I was reading over my previous posts today, and something troubling occurred to me:  I haven’t been very funny lately.  Sure, I’ve been informative, but the encyclopedia is informative, and no one reads it anymore.  Ok, that’s partially because no one’s SEEN a set of encyclopedias outside a library and a college history professor’s office since 1987, but that’s not the point.  The point is I set out to be informative AND entertaining, and dag-nabbit, that’s what I’m going to be.  So here goes:

Everyone out there who believes in psychokinesis, raise my hand.  (Thanks, Steven Wright.)

Alright, now that THAT’s out of the way, we last left off with the Sanctus, which you all will join in singing every time you go to Mass now, right?  Right.  So now the REAL substance of the Eucharistic Prayer begins.  Now we’re getting into the part where the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.

Before we dive right in, I want to remind you that there are many options as to what the priest might say next and what order he might say it in.  There are different forms of the Eucharistic Prayer.  To be exact, there are 9 in the current Sacramentary: 4 universal Eucharistic Prayers, 3 Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children, and 2 Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation.  I’ve been to PLENTY of churches around the country, and even a few in 3 other countries, and I can tell you from experience that the most frequently used Eucharistic Prayer is Eucharistic Prayer II.  Why?  Well, let’s be honest, here.  Unfortunately, most Catholics are not like you and me—they want to get in and out as fast as possible just to fulfill their Sunday obligation, and Eucharistic Prayer II is the shortest.  Somewhere along the way, priests began to accept this fact for some reason and appease the people with Eucharistic Prayer II.  So for any priests out there reading this, scrap II for a while and bank on I.  Eucharistic Prayer I is the oldest (fact) and by FAR the coolest (opinion).  For these posts, though, I’ll play to the handicap of the masses (HA! Good pun there, if I do say so, myself!) and reference Eucharistic Prayer II.

So we’re going right into the Epiclesis.  Cool word.  Simple meaning.  An Epiclesis (in general) is simply a calling down of the power of God the Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at how the Epiclesis goes in Eucharistic Prayer II both now and beginning in Advent.

First, we back-track a little and see the Thanksgiving:

Current Text:

Lord, You are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness.

Beginning in Advent 2011:

You are indeed Holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness.

And now for the Epiclesis:

Current Text:

Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Beginning in Advent 2011:

Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

So there you have it…the Epiclesis.  Pretty simple, right?  Well, if you said, “Yes,” you should probably seek professional mental help, because you’re talking to a computer screen.  If you simply THOUGHT yes, then you probably haven’t been reading my blog for very long.  This is God we’re talking about, so of course it’s going to be incredibly complicated and nearly impossible for our incredibly simple human minds to comprehend…but we’ll do our best.  See, when the priest calls down the power of God the Holy Spirit, he is beginning a multi-part process of prayerfully having the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.  This change is what we’ll cover next post, so be ready, yo! Playa! What?!  Ok...sorry...I'm done now.

From the Houses of the Holy

I don’t know about you, but one of my least favorite human reactions is the “eye roll.” I just SCREAMS, “I really hate you right now.”  Unfortunately the “eye roll” is one of the most common reactions of many a congregation member when somebody tells them to sing.  Well, I’m all about the singing.  Not just because I’m a musician, but because Mass is a sensory-based experience, and we use ALL of our senses, including the sense of sound.  Now, some of you may be reading this and wishing I wouldn’t be encouraging EVERYONE to sing, because there are probably a handful of people (if not more) in every parish that should never sing outside the shower…and maybe even a couple that make you feel sorry for the shower head.  But still, everyone should sing…and I’m not talking about the singing by mouthing the words silently, where you might as well just be saying “watermelon” the whole time (sorry if you don’t get that joke); I’m talking about moving your lips to the ACTUAL words and having actual sound come out.  It’s possible you don’t know the words to some of the hymns sung, but usually in each pew there are these little stacks of paper bound together with a cover, and the sheets of paper in the stack all have markings and words on them to clearly tell you what words to sing for different hymns…try cracking one of them open and see if that doesn’t just help you out a little bit.

If you’re going to be absolutely immovably stubborn on the singing thing, maybe we could compromise and get you to start out slowly by at least singing the parts of the Mass, like the Sanctus.  If you’ve been going to Mass as long as most Catholics have, chances are you know the words to the parts of the Mass, because they’re generally the same every time you go, everywhere you go.  I say “generally” because there are some parts that have a few options on how the wording can go, although the main idea is always the same.  One of these Mass parts, the Sanctus, Latin for “holy,” is the last part of the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer and (coincidentally enough) the topic of the rest of this post.

The Sanctus is one of those things that we (partially) get straight from Scripture.  Isaiah 6:3 says, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All the earth is filled with his glory!"  Then Matthew 21 tells the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem just before his final days (which we now celebrate as Palm Sunday) and verse 9b says: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.”

In case you’ve never been to Mass, or have been to Mass, but have been mentally absent all this time, the Sanctus goes like this:

Current text:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might. 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.

Beginning in Advent 2011:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.  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.

What’s really cool about this prayer/song is that if we actually READ Chapter 6 of Isaiah, we see that the “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts” part is sung by angels to God.  So when the priest invites us (at the end of his solo role of the Preface) to sing the Sanctus, he mentions that we join the choirs of angels in their unending hymn of praise (or some similar wording).  So that’s why we sing what we sing.  We’re at that moment joined with the choirs of angels in heaven, praising God in the same way (according to the prophet Isaiah—not according to some “made up” theory of the Catholic Church) that the angels do.

At the conclusion of the Sanctus, the congregation all kneels to start off the actual “meat” of the Eucharistic Prayer…where we’ll pick up next time.

Say Your Prayers, Little One. Don’t Forget, My Son, to Include Everyone

The Eucharist is referred to as the “source and summit” of the Christian life.  Jesus instituted the Eucharist during the Last Supper with simple, unleavened bread, and wine.  This is what makes the Eucharist our “source.”  The main focus of the Mass is doing what Jesus commissioned His Church to do at the Last Supper.  We continue to bring the Eucharist into the world through the power of God by the prayers of the priest and the congregation gathered.  As for the Eucharist being our “summit,” we are all (hopefully) looking forward to a life of eternity in Heaven (rather than the alternative), and so we look to the Eucharist, the Body of the Risen Christ, as our ultimate goal.  So how does the source and summit of the Christian life come into existence at Mass?  That’s what we’re about to find out through the next series of posts.

The Eucharistic Prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving (which is what the word “Eucharist” means) and sanctification.  In this post, I’ll give you a snapshot of what the Eucharistic Prayer consists of, then in our next posts, I’ll take one part at a time and unpack what is said and explain what’s not obvious.

First, we have a bit of back-and-forth prayerful dialogue with the celebrant:

Current Text:

Priest: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Priest: Lift up your hearts

People: We lift them up to the Lord

Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right to give him thanks and praise.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Priest: The Lord be with you.

People: And with your spirit.

Priest: Lift up your hearts

People: We lift them up to the Lord

Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right and just.

…again, these revisions coming in Advent 2011 are meant to provide a better, more directly literal translation of the Latin that was spoken at Mass until the 1960s when the Mass began to be prayed in the local language of the Church.

Next comes the Thanksgiving, expressed in the Preface. Much like the preface of a book, this is a short introduction to what’s about to happen that says why we’re about to do what we’re about to do and why we’re glad to do it.  At the end of the Thanksgiving is an invitation for everybody to proclaim the Acclamation.

The Acclamation is a song of praise to God that we sing at the start of the Eucharistic prayer.  It’s the “Holy Holy Holy Lord, God of Power and Might…” song that can also be recited if there’s no choir present. 

The next few parts might come in different orders depending on which Eucharistic Prayer the priest celebrant chooses to pray:

Epiclesis: the invocation of the Power of the God the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Body & Blood of the Risen Christ.

Institution Narrative & Consecration: the reciting of the words and mimicking of the actions of Christ at the Last Supper by the priest.

Anamnesis: collective remembrance through a short song about the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus (may also be recited if there’s no choir).

Offering: offering of the “spotless victim” (Jesus like the spotless lambs that were sacrificed in the Old Testament by the Jews) by the Church in hopes that we can learn to offer ourselves to God.

Intercessions: prayers that show that the Eucharist is celebrated with the WHOLE Church of Heaven and of earth, and that the offering is made for all the members of the Church (living AND dead)

Final Doxology: hymn of praise to God that concludes the Eucharistic Prayer, to which we respond, “Amen.”

So there’s your snapshot of the Eucharistic Prayer.  Like I said earlier, our next few posts will take each of these in more detail.

My Gift is My Song, and This One's for You

Sorry this week has been a little hit-and-miss…I’ve had a couple evening meetings for work, and our first Religious Ed class of the year was on Monday.  Anyway, we last left off talking about the collection of money that happens during the Preparation of the Gifts phase of the Mass.  So while the ushers are passing the baskets around, and the altar is being prepared, the choir has already begun singing a hymn (which we are typically all encouraged to join in with).  Once the donations have all been taken up, the ushers compile them all into one large basket which is brought up, along with unleavened bread (bread made without yeast or any other ingredient used to lighten it) and wine, to the priest waiting in the Sanctuary.  The priest takes the gifts from those who have brought them up, and brings them to the altar.  This is reminiscent of the priests of the Old Testament who God chose to present gifts to Him on behalf of the people (you can find this in the Book of Leviticus…Chapter 4 is a good example). 

So the priest first takes the bread and presents it to God with a prayer that will change slightly beginning in Advent 2011 to reflect the literal translation of the traditional Latin:

Current Text:

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.

Beginning Advent 2011:

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.

…to which we respond:  Blessed be God forever.

Next the priest takes the wine, pours it into a chalice, and pours a small amount of water into it.  This practice of “tempering” wine with a little water was a common practice among Jews in Mediterranean culture around the time of Jesus, so we tend to believe that Jesus used wine that had been “cut” by a small bit of water during the Last Supper, even if the Bible doesn’t go into that specific of a detail.  The practice of mingling water with wine in Mass is documented as early as the writings of Justin Martyr around the year 150 A.D.  St. Cyprian also wrote about this about 100 years later, and St. Thomas Aquinas addressed it in the Summa Theologica, also.  Bottom line is: (1) history suggests that Jesus probably used wine mixed with water at the Last Supper, so we simply do what HE did (good enough reason right there, don’t you think?), and (2) there’s a symbolism present of the blood AND water that flowed from his side when the soldiers pierced him with the spear while he hung on the cross.  Anyway, when the priest mixes the water into the wine, there’s a little prayer that goes: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

So after the water/wine bit, the priest takes the chalice, and similarly to the bit earlier with the bread, he presents it to God with a little prayer that goes a little like this:

Current Text:

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands.  It will become for us our spiritual drink.

Beginning Advent 2011:

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.

…to which we also respond: Blessed be God forever.

Then the priest says another short prayer that goes like this:

Current text:

Lord God, we ask you to receive us and be pleased with the sacrifice we offer you with humble and contrite hearts.

Beginning Advent 2011:

With humble spirit and contrite heart may we be accepted by you, o Lord, and may our sacrifice in your sight this day be pleasing to you, Lord God.

The altar servers then bring over the lavabo (from the Latin lavare, meaning “to wash”)—a small pitcher of water together with a basin to collect the water from the pitcher—for the priest to wash his hands.  This isn’t done for sanitation purposes…he doesn’t use soap or anything here…it’s merely a symbolic gesture of the priest’s desire to be spiritually cleansed.  As you probably have guessed, there is also a little prayer to go along with this that currently goes:  “Lord, wash away my iniquity; cleanse me from my sin.”  However, beginning in Advent 2011, to be closer to the verbatim translation of the traditional Latin, the priest will say, “Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”  Not a big change…just more direct from what we said for centuries before the 1960s.

Once all this is done, the priest invites us (typically by a hand gesture) to stand, then says the following invitation to prayer:

Current Text:

Pray, brethren, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Pray, brethren (or “brothers and sisters”), that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.

To this we 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 Church.”  Beginning in Advent 2011, we’ll put the word “holy” back between “his” and “Church” at the end of our response.

Rounding out the Preparation of the Gifts, the Priest reads the “Prayer Over the Gifts” as prescribed for that day in the Sacramentary (soon to be referred to as the Roman Missal).  This prayer is different for each day, and generally reflects some central theme connected with either the readings of the day, or the occasion of the Mass.

So that’s about it for the Preparation of the Gifts.  I’d say we’ll start the Eucharistic Prayer tomorrow, but it IS the first preseason game for the Saints, and I have tickets…GOOD tickets…so chances are I won’t be posting tomorrow.  I’ll probably see you in a couple days, though—THEN we’ll start to tackle “the biggie” known as the Eucharistic Prayer, which we’ll probably be on for a week or so.

It's All About the Benjamins

Kicking off the part of the Mass called the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we have what’s called the “Preparation of the Gifts.”  Some people commonly refer to this part as the “Offertory” because this is the point in the Mass when we offer gifts to the Church in not only the form of money to help the Church operate, but also in the form of bread and wine that will be used in the Eucharistic Prayer which will follow shortly after.  So let’s talk a little bit more about the gifts we bring to God at this point in the Mass and what their importance is in the overall scheme of this shin-dig…or hootenanny…I never know which one to go with.

First of all, the Altar (that big table in the center of the Sanctuary, which we mentioned in an earlier post is reminiscent of the altar of sacrifice from the Old Testament, and symbolic of the cross on which Jesus was sacrificed for our sins) is prepared by placing the corporal (white cloth on which the gifts are placed), purificator (smaller white cloth used to clean Eucharistic vessels—i.e. chalice & ciborium), Sacramentary (book of prayers for Mass, although beginning in Advent 2011, it’ll just be referred to as the (Roman) Missal), and chalice (cup for holding the wine that will become the Blood of Christ in just a few moments) on it.  The Altar is the focus and center of the entire Liturgy of the Eucharist, so we show importance to it by this detailed preparation. 

While the preparation of the Altar is going on, ushers take up a collection of money from the congregation.  The money taken up at the collection here goes to the basic operation of the Church parish, with a portion going on to help with the operation of the diocese as a whole.  Each parish has a staff of full-time or part-time employees that answer phones; help families plan baptisms, weddings, and funerals; coordinate youth ministry and Religious Education (CCD) programs; etc.  Then there are the basic bills: electricity, water, insurance, maintenance.  See, the Church doesn’t provide any real service that it can “charge” for, so it’s a non-profit sort of set-up.  Most Catholic Churches these days just hope to break even financially for the year.  Unfortunately, because of hard economic times, this isn’t always the case, and many Churches have fallen into debt.  The money we put in the collection goes to these basic operations costs.  Without money, parishes cannot afford to control their debts, and, as many parishes have seen across the country in the past few years, face the harsh reality of closing their doors.

With this in mind, though, there’s a pretty upsetting mentality amongst many Catholics that causes people to say things like, “I can’t believe the Church is asking for money again!”  We need to remember that this is OUR Church, and we need to do our part to keep it going forward.  So let’s take the rest of this post to talk about money and the Church, shall we?  Many (if not most) Protestant churches seem to be hung up on this idea of giving “one-tenth” of your money to the church.  Some churches go as far as to require their members to submit their W-2s (official document that proves your annual income) to the church so that the church staff can see if they truly ARE donating one-tenth to the church.  If they’re not, some churches have been known to give those members “the boot”…pretty harsh in my opinion.  They call this “tithing” and claim to get it straight from the Bible.  To a point, they’re right.  The Old Testament mentions giving one-tenth of the harvest of grain of the fields or the produce of fruit of the trees, one-tenth of new pressed wine & oil, and every tenth firstborn animal of the herds or flocks.  However, we believe that certain things in the Old Testament are not now necessarily meant to be kept word-for-word.  Look at Jesus, Himself.  The Ten Commandments included one saying “Keep Holy the Sabbath day.”  The Jewish law of the Old Testament went so far as to say that people should not do ANY kind of work on the Sabbath day.  However, in Luke 13:10-17 we see that Jesus had no problem doing certain kinds of work on the Sabbath day, and He really tore into the Jewish leaders who criticized him for doing work.  Now, this doesn’t mean that we just throw the Old Testament out because Jesus came along and threw it out, Himself.  In fact, in Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” 

So how do we interpret all this?  Should we give one-tenth?  Should we give a fixed amount?  What does Jesus say about this?  A quick jump over to Luke 21:1-4 shows us exactly how He felt about how much to give: 

“When he looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says it this way:  “…the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.” (CCC 2043)  So while some churches may try to make you guilty because you don’t put in 10% of your annual household income, the Catholic Church is a little more realistic and understanding, and won’t kick you out if you don’t.  The Catholic Church just asks that you give what you can without putting an unnecessary burden on your family and its well-being. 

If you are really struggling with the fact that you can’t give as much as you’d like to give, think about other ways you can give.  Maybe look into being a Religious Education teacher.  Maybe think about proclaiming the Word of God as a Lector.  Maybe you could come up with a whole new ministry to provide to the Church.  Give to God what you feel called to give, and don’t let others judge you for how much or little you give.  In the end, it’ll be between you and God, and that’s all that matters.

One love. One blood. One life. You got to do what you should.

Sorry for the break in the action, everybody.  Sarah and I celebrated our 4^th anniversary last week, and took a couple days’ vacation.  It’s a little tradition we started of taking off, just the two of us, and going somewhere far away for a few days.  Some people think we’re crazy to leave our kids behind and take off like that, but, while we love our kids as much as (if not more than) humanly possible, we recognize that our marriage is our primary vocation (and the reason we have kids in the first place).  So to all those married couples out there (especially the young ones—before you develop bad habits of not making time for each other), we highly recommend making time for yourselves at least once a year (and your anniversary is a good excuse) to drive away (or fly if that’s your “thing”) and just be you.  Anyway, I took off the whole week from the blog, because last week was incredibly hectic leading up to the vacation, but here we are back on track again.

Now that we’ve completed the first half of the Mass, it’s time to move right along to the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  So the obvious question now is, “What IS the Eucharist?”  The short version is to say that it is the Body of Christ.  The long version is what you will get in the next slew of posts.  I’ll say for starters, though, that the word Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharistein, which means “to give thanks.”  The Eucharist is our way of experiencing God in a REAL way here on earth and being thankful that we CAN have this experience.  Of course, the Eucharist isn’t ACTUALLY in the Bible, right?  This is just something the Catholic Church made up as it went along, right?  NO…a RESOUNDING “no.”  Look, for example, at the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 22 Verse 20: “Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.’”  I don’t really know any simpler way of pointing this out.  Jesus said “This is my body.”  He didn’t say, “This is a SYMBOL of my body.”  He didn’t say, “This is bread, but just pretend for a minute that this is my body.”  He said, “This IS my body”…p lain, and simple.  Nothing lost in translation along the way, just straight up Truth from the very mouth of Jesus, Himself.  Communion, the Eucharist, the Body of Christ—whatever name you use—IS Jesus. It IS His body, and NOT a symbol or a reminder, or a representation.  It simply IS His body. 

So Catholics are cannibals??  Catholics EAT the skin of Jesus???  Even if they think they do, it still looks, tastes, and feels like bread!  How do you explain that?  My answer: All in good time, guys…all in good time.  This post is just a little introduction.  Tomorrow we’ll start unpacking the entirety of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and when the moment is right, we’ll answer these questions…or at least answer them the best we can with our limited human understanding.  Until then, don’t forget to click the “Follow” button in the right-hand column and tell your friends about this blog.  Peace!