XIII.

SETTING THE ALTAR:

Before the collection is brought forward, the altar servers assist the deacon or acolyte in preparing the altar for Mass. The deacon or acolyte brings over the priest’s chalice and paten (a flat dish for holding the priest’s host), and unfolds a special cloth called a corporal where the chalice and paten are placed. Sometimes, the chalice will be covered with a pall, a stiff piece of fabric designed to keep particulates or insects from flying into the chalice. The servers bring the ciboria (vessels containing unconsecrated hosts) and cups for the precious blood. All of the vessels to be consecrated are placed on a corporal. The corporal is folded in a special way so that any particle of the host that falls from a host can be folded up and not brushed to the ground. Whenever a vessel containing the Body or Blood of Christ is placed on the altar, it must be on a corporal.

Offering of Gifts:

The preparation of the gifts serves a twofold purpose. First, the gifts of bread and wine are prepared for their consecration at the Eucharistic prayer. Second, through the prayers during this time, the priest and the people are prepared to take part in the Eucharistic prayer.

At Mass, the gifts of bread and wine are offered..and it can be said “we offer them” if each of us does join our self to these gifts to offer all to God.  Bread and wine recall last supper Jesus shared with his disciples.  They ate bread and wine because it was everyday fare. The gifts are food, nourishment necessary for living. So our bread and wine at Mass represent our everyday lives, our every day selves, the essence of our lives.  They express our own self at the deepest level.  Whether the gifts are proffered in silence or in song, the ritual will have meaning for us only insofar as we are offering our own selves., along with the gifts.

The prayer said over the bread and the wine comes from the Jewish tradition of the Berakah prayer (“Blessed are you, O Lord”), prayers that give thanks for the bread and wine that are still said as part of the Jewish Friday night Sabbath meal blessing. In this prayer, the priest gives thanks for the gifts of bread and wine, acknowledging that only because of God’s generosity do we have these gifts to offer and  recalling that these gifts will soon become the Body and Blood of Christ. To each of these prayers, the people respond “Blessed be God forever” when there is no music, joining our thanksgiving to that of the priest.

Before the prayer over the wine, the deacon or priest mixes a little bit of water into the wine. This was a very common practice in the early times to dilute a very strong wine that otherwise might be too strong to drink. Today, this gesture has a spiritual significance. The deacon says, “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ (wine), who humbled himself to share in our humanity (water).” We pray that just as the water and wine become one, that we also become one with Christ.

The water symbolizes our ordinary human nature and the wine symbolizes the divine nature. A little of the water mixes with the wine, gets lost in the wine, participates in the wine. Just so, the prayer says: “May we come to share in the divinity of Christ. Wine, though everyday fare, has always symbolized divinity as well. It has the color of blood (life).

We need to be aware that we get back only in proportion to what we put in the mass…

What do we offer at Mass, what is our real motivation for it?

Ask yourself if you are fully satisfied with your present level of self-offering. Then ask whether in your deepest heart you honestly want to “participate in the divinity of Christ” in this very life.

The priest invites the congregation then to pray saying: Pray my brothers and sisters that My sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father. The congregation asks God to accept our gifts for “the praise and glory of his name, for our good, and the good of all his church”. We pray that the outcome of our giving will be God’s glory and goodness in the earth.

We offer bread and wine separate not together symbolizing the sacrifice.

(Priest Melchizedek offered wine and bread …)

At solemn Masses, incense is used during the preparation of the gifts. Remember from our earlier discussions that the church incenses holy objects to signify our prayers rising up to God. The gifts of bread and wine are incensed, then the altar, the crucifix, and the Paschal Candle (during the Easter season or at funerals).

Then, for the first time at the Mass, we incense people! The deacon or acolyte receives the incense from the priest and incenses him and the other clergy present, recognizing Christ’s presence in the priest as our head (in persona Christi capitis). Then the deacon comes to the front of the altar and incenses the people. Why does the deacon incense us? Christ is present in the assembly as the gathered body of Christ. We are holy people through our baptism, and we pray that through this Mass we continue to be made holy. Then the priest washes his hands. While this originally served as a practical cleansing (see last week’s article about the variety of gifts received), the priest also prays silently the words from ps.51, a prayer for spiritual cleanliness, “Lord, wash away my iniquity; cleanse me from my sin.”

After inviting everyone to pray for the offering be acceptable to the Lord, he prays prayers over the gifts and concludes the preparation.