Month: May 2024

In its simplicity, the Lord’s Prayer is the greatest Christian prayer. Jesus taught it to the disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. The apostles must have been fascinated to see Jesus’ prayer, his intimacy with the Father. Out of this admiration sprang his plea: “Rabbi, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).¹

At the end of the Eucharistic prayer, the priest celebrant invites the assembly to pray together with him, the prayer that our Lord Jesus Christ left us, for which the priest celebrant extends his hands (GIRM 152), he does this gesture because he is the one appointed by God and the Church to pray officially in the name of the whole Body of Christ, that is, us gathered in the Eucharist.

While we all pray at Mass, we don’t all have the same role. The priest has the responsibility to offer prayers and sacrifices in union with Christ’s sacrifice at Mass.

When the priest raises his hands and prays the Lord’s Prayer, he is speaking to God on our behalf. It is the priest who is offering our prayer to God. ²

This is why only the priest celebrant is the one who raises his hands during this prayer, “the non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers, or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant priest or use gestures or actions which are proper to the same priest celebrant.” (Pontifical Council for the Laity, 1997)³

At the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, the priest continues in prayer, expressing the desire of the assembled Church for the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus establishing a continuous Advent, where the Church enjoys the presence of Christ, but longs for his triumphant return.

Finally, let the people conclude the prayer with a doxology, which echoes the heavenly liturgy: “For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever “ (cf Revelation 1:6; 4:11; 5:13)

Let us pray with faith and humility the prayer that Jesus Christ himself taught us, with folded hands, so that the praises, glorification and supplications of such a beautiful prayer may be channeled to God through the priest celebrant, and thus we be worthy to receive the bread of eternal life.

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[1] López, Féliz, “Explanation of the Mass: Our Father”, Home of the Mother, accessed 21 May 2024, https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/549-explanation-of-the-mass/2383-our-father

[2] Keller, Paul, “At Mass, only priest raises hands during ‘Our Father’”, Catholic Times Columbus, 18 July 2023, https://catholictimescolumbus.org/news/father-paul-keller-op-s-t-d/at-mass-only-priest-raises-hands-during-our-father

[3] Castrillón, Hoyos et al, “Instruction: On certain questions regarding the collaboration of the non-ordained faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest”, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1997, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/laity/documents/rc_con_interdic_doc_15081997_en.html

The entire celebration of the Mass has the function of praise, blessing, glorification. But the Eucharistic prayer is the heart of this liturgy. The prayer begins with the preface, lifting hearts to the Father. It continues with the Sanctus, proclaiming God’s holiness and his glory that fills the universe. At the end of the Eucharistic prayer, the priest recites this concluding doxology, praise of the Trinity. In it, the priest lifts up the sacred Victim and, holding it aloft, above all temporal realities, says:

“Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, forever and ever.”. (GIRM 151)

The Church confesses the unique mediation of Christ and his supreme priesthood. Only “through Christ, with Him and in Him” can we reach the Father, “no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We know that our works are pleasing to God through the mediation of Christ. Our lives, united to his life, death and resurrection, are the honor and glory of the Trinity.

The Church exists for the glorification of God, and this is precisely why the Christian priestly people have been gathered: to raise to God in the Eucharist the highest possible praise and to draw innumerable material and spiritual goods for the benefit of all humanity. For this reason, it is in the Eucharist that the Church expresses and manifests herself totally.

The Christian people make the Eucharistic prayer their own, and respond to the great Trinitarian doxology by saying: “Amen”. This is the most solemn Amen of the Mass.

The word Amen is possibly the chief liturgical acclamation of the Christian liturgy. The term Amen comes from the Old Covenant: “The Levites shall lift up their voices, and in a loud voice shall say to all the men of Israel… And all the people shall answer, saying, Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:15-26; 1 Chronicles 16:36; Nehemiah 8:6). According to different contexts, Amen means: “This is it, this is the truth, so be it”

Like the whole liturgy, saying Amen has a vital meaning. It is not a mere answer given with the lips, but has a value of adherence to the mystery being celebrated. To say Amen means to unite with Christ, to desire to make our whole life a doxology, that is, a glorification of the Trinity united to the Paschal Mystery of the Redeemer.

To be “to the praise of his glory” is an essential part of the Christian vocation. In the doxology there is a recapitulation of the glory of all creation in Christ. Through His obedience and love unto the cross, Christ has accomplished the perfect glorification of the Father: “Father, glorify your name” (John 12:28) and has attained the perfect glorification of his humanity united to the Word: “Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). We must unite ourselves, with our lives, to this glorification of the Trinity. Uniting ourselves to Christ, offering our whole life with Him, joys and pains, success and failure, work and everything that we do, we will become praise of the glory of the Trinity “through Him, with Him and in Him.”

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López, Félix “Explanation of the Mass – The Concluding Doxology”, Home of the Mother, Accessed 13 May 2024, https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/ 549-explanation-of-the-mass/2440-concluding-doxology

In all Eucharistic Prayers there is a second invocation to the Holy Spirit. This clearly shows us the Church’s awareness that only the Holy Spirit can bring about the transformation of the faithful in a similar way as he does the transformation of gifts.

The Eucharist, which is the very sacrifice of the cross, has a fundamental difference. If on the cross Christ offered himself to the Father alone, on the liturgical altar He now offers himself with his mystical body, the Church.

In every Eucharistic celebration the Church offers and is offered with Christ. In Lumen Gentium we read: The faithful, “Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It” (LG 11).

It is true that this participation in the Church’s offering is not automatic, that is, the physical presence of the faithful in the Eucharistic celebration is not enough. Each person will participate according to his degree of union in charity with Christ.

Eucharistic Prayers ask for three things:

1. We ask God to accept the sacrifice that we offer Him today: “Look with favor on these offerings and accept them” (Eucharistic Prayer I); “Look with favor on your Church’s offering, and see the Victim whose death has reconciled us to yourself” (Eucharistic Prayer III); “Lord look upon this sacrifice which you have given to your Church” (Eucharistic Prayer IV)
2. We ask that through Him we be brought together in the unity of the Church: “May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit” (Eucharistic Prayer II); “become one body, one spirit in Christ” (Eucharistic Prayer III); “and by your Holy Spirit, gather all who share this one bread and one cup into the one body of Christ” (Eucharistic Prayer IV).
3. We ask that we may become victims offered with Christ to the Father, by the work of the Holy Spirit, whose action is here implored: “May he make us an everlasting gift to you” (Eucharistic Prayer III), and thus we become in Christ “a living sacrifice of praise” (Eucharistic Prayer IV).

The true participation in the sacrifice of the New Covenant implies this offering of the faithful as victims. According to this, the Christians are in Christ priests and victims, as Christ is, and they continuously offer themselves to the Father on the Eucharistic altar, during the Mass, and on the altar of their own daily life, day by day. Therefore, they are in Christ, through Him and with Him, “lambs of God”, accepting the will of God, unconditionally and without resistance, unto death. Like Christ, they sacrifice, which means to say, they “make sacred” their whole life in an unceasing spiritual movement, finding in the Eucharist their constant origin and impulse.

This is how the whole life of the Christian becomes a continual Eucharistic sacrifice, glorifier of God and redeemer of men, as the Apostle wanted: “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

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López, Félix “Explanation of the Mass – Second Invocation of the Holy Spirit ”, Home of the Mother, Accessed 6 May 2024, https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/549-explanation-of-the-mass/2439-second-invocation

Within the Eucharistic Prayer, after the words of consecration comes the memorial in the Eucharistic Prayers: “Therefore, Father, as we now celebrate the memorial of the saving passion of your Son, of his wonderful resurrection and ascension into heaven.”

Christians, East and West, daily obey Christ’s last will in the Eucharist, “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). This was the command that the Lord gave us clearly at the Last Supper, that is, “on the eve of his passion, the night on which he was to be betrayed.” And we can fulfill that command, many centuries apart and in many places, precisely because the priesthood of Christ is eternal and heavenly (Hebrews 4:14; 8:1).

Remembrance is the word that ideally links the Eucharist to the Jewish Passover, which was also “a memorial” (Exodus 12:14). It is of such importance that St. Paul, in the account of the institution, repeats twice that command of Jesus; and it further specifies the content of the remembrance to be made of Jesus, saying: “For whenever you eat of this bread and drink of the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The content of this memorial is the death of Christ.

The memorial of the Eucharist is not a mere remembrance of past realities, of events that occurred centuries ago, but it is a “re-presentation”, that is, to make present here and now, in a sacramental and real way, the same mystery that is celebrated: the Paschal Mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection.

In this way the Eucharist remains in the Church as an ever-living heart, which with its beating brings to the whole Mystical Body the life-giving grace which is the blood of Christ, the eternal priest. In fact, “the work of our redemption is accomplished whenever the sacrifice of the cross is celebrated on the altar, through which ‘Christ, our Passover, has been slain’ (1 Corinthians 5:7)” (LG 3).

In a theological sense, the memorial consists in remembering Jesus to the Father, inviting the Father to remember all that Jesus has done for us, and out of his love, to forgive us and to help us. In the Old Testament, in the moments of greatest trial, one would turn to God and exclaim, “Remember Abraham our father, remember Isaac and Jacob” (Exodus 32:13). But now we, the People of the New Covenant, can raise to God a cry infinitely more powerful than this; we can say to him, “Remember Jesus Christ your Son and his sacrifice!”

The Church remembers (anamnesis) these facts, and in this way, thanks to the liturgical action of Christ the Priest, actualizes them, makes them present and active with all their salvific power in our midst.

In this way, every person can experience a personal encounter with the work of salvation that Christ has accomplished. Christ offers it to him personally. Each one must welcome and live that mystery which is part of his own life, allowing himself to be saved by Christ, accepting the communion in his divine life that he offers us. Every man must give his “yes” to Christ’s love in every personal encounter with Him in the Eucharist.

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López, Félix “Explanation of the Mass: The Memorial”, Home of the Mother, Accessed 29 April 2024, https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/549-explanation-of-the-mass/2305-memorial