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:
- 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)
- 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).
- 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).
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