After the universal prayer, once everyone sits down, the offertory song begins, it is at this moment that the offerings of bread and wine are presented by the faithful to the priest, processing from among the community; the priest receives the offerings on the steps of the presbytery, and then, assisted by the acolyte or the deacon the offerings are taken to the altar, the priest proceeds to bless the offerings, purifies his hands, and pronounces: “Let us pray that your sacrifice and mine, maybe acceptable to God the almighty Father”, to which the community responds: “May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of His Name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church”. These two prayers are where our sacrifice is presented by the priest ‘In persona Christi’ directly to God and us as a community ask for their acceptance by praising Him and asking for blessings. This bread and wine will then be consecrated and transubstantiated in the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and offered in communion to the community.
This bread and wine not only commemorate the bread and wine of the Last Supper, but also represents the whole community gathered offering themselves as a sacrifice so that not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all (Sacrosanctum Concilium 48). This bread and wine, our sacrifice, will be made into the Body and Blood of Christ who died for our sins, is then offered to us so that we may join Him in communion, and obtain eternal life in Him.
Let us always be prepared to receive the sacred sacrament of communion, for that is the banquet that gives us eternal life and we are all invited to the Lord’s Supper.