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.