An Explanation of the Holy Mass

Offering

Offering 1

Bread and Wine 2

Lord's Supper 3

Offertory

After the Prayers of the Faithful we take up the collection. Notice that the collection comes up with the bread and wine. The collection is supposed to stay up by the altar with the bread and wine. The collection is a tangible part of your work and your life. It is holy too, so it should be offered up to God. By keeping the collection by the altar, we are offering up your gifts to God, asking God to bless them and your life.

Preparation of the Gifts

If the song for the Preparation of the Gifts is still being sung, the priest will silently say the prayers over the bread and wine. If the song has finished, the priest has the option of saying those prayers out loud. If the priest says the prayers over the bread and wine out loud, then at the end of the prayer the people will say, “Blessed be God forever.”

What is the purpose of the prayers over the bread and wine? We should always say grace before we eat. As Catholics we typically pray this prayer before we eat, “Bless us O Lord, and these our gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Saying Grace before meals recognizes that everything, including our food, are gifts from God, so we should be thankful for what we have, and ask God to bless what we are about to eat. The prayers over the bread and wine are fancier prayers that achieve the same purpose. Before we consecrate the bread and wine and later consume the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we simply say “thank you” for them and ask God to bless them. It’s as simple as that, but with fancier words than we use before meals.

After the prayers over the bread and wine, the priest turns around and the altar servers wash his hands. The prayer the priest prays silently while his hands are being washed is: “Wash me O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” The prayer is a silent preparation prayer for the priest as he prepares to call down the Holy Spirit, and prays the words that Jesus used at the Last Supper to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is certainly a good time for the priest to once again ask for forgiveness of his sins. Yes, priests still need to go to confession. However, at this point in the mass, it is a good thing for the priest to once again say to God, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.” Many centuries ago, this washing also had a practical purpose. If folks brought up produce from their farms for the priest to receive, then it would be a good thing for him to wash his hands before he continued.

After this washing of his hands, the priest will say, “Pray brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father. The people respond with, “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 holy Church.” Is the Catholic Church holy? Yes. However, it is full of sinners because everyone is a sinner. In the creed we state that, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” The holiness of the Church comes from the fact that it is the mystical body of Christ. The Church is here on earth to do the work of Jesus Christ, and that is holy work. Jesus also looks on us as being connected to him. He told us in the Parable of the Separation of the Sheep from the Goats (Matt 25:31-46) that, “Whatever you do to the least among you, you do to me.” We are so connected to Jesus, that what we to do others we do to Jesus. We can’t get much holier than that. Sinners though we are, the Church is here to do holy work, and in the eyes of our Lord we are part of his body, we are the mystical Body of Christ, and that certainly makes us a holy Church, but composed of sinners.

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