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.

XIII.

OFFERTORY COLLECTION.

After we have sat down following the prayers of the faithful, the collection takes place. The collection is not just a practical need that must take place but has spiritual significance as well. Collections were given even in the Jewish community. Book of Sirach 35:6-12 reads”

Appear not before the LORD empty-handed,
for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts.
The just one's offering enriches the altar
and rises as a sweet odor before the Most High.
In a generous spirit pay homage to the LORD,
be not sparing of freewill gifts.
With each contribution show a cheerful countenance,
and pay your tithes in a spirit of joy.
Give to the Most High as he has given to you,
generously, according to your means.
For the LORD is one who always repays,
and he will give back to you sevenfold.
But offer no bribes, these he does not accept!
Trust not in sacrifice of the fruits of extortion.
For he is a God of justice,
who knows no favorites.

The collection has existed at its current place in the Mass since the 2nd century. In the early days of the church, people would bring whatever gift they had for the good of the community: bread and wine for the Mass, but other gifts, too: animals, eggs, produce, cloth, thus the necessity for the Lavabo, the washing of the hands for the priest after handling the offerings. Whatever was their best gift to offer and was needed for the good of the people. In fact, to not bring anything for the community, or to bring something that wasn’t your best was considered an insult to the community! In our modern society, where we work not necessarily for items but for a salary, the monetary gifts we place in the collection represent the gift of our lives, and the gift of living out the faith in the world during the past week. When we bring forward the collection to the altar, it represents our lives also being united with the altar and what is about to take place.

As a side note: These days many of you pay through direct deduction from your bank account. It is a wonderful way of making sure that you don’t forget to give and even if you go out of town for a weekend you don’t fail to pay your share to the parish. It facilitates and makes it easy to deal with the offertory. But this can probably diminish an important aspect of the offertory. The witnessing value is diminished in this mode of giving. Your children don’t see you giving. Even if you mention to them you pay through the bank it does not stick up in their mind always. Imagine, if every family gives through automatic deduction the next generation wouldn’t know about this practice and the need to give to the Church because they don’t see that being done in the Church. Therefore to overcome this pitfall, I would recommend to those giving through automatic deduction, please put just one dollar in your envelop besides your automatic deduction and drop it in the collection basket as a token of your giving. And let that pass from the oldest member of the family to the youngest one and that person may place it in the basket. The earner passes it through every member and symbolically make it everyone’s. Along with the bread and wine the envelops are brought up and they are offered on the altar. The bread and wine and bought by the collection taken and so they are fruit of your labor and they will come back to you as changed and transformed into the body and blood of Christ.  

While the offerings are being taken up, a song is usually sung. This song should express our joy at what is about to take place in the Mass, and often will further reflect on the Gospel of the day.

XII.

Symbolum Apostolorum ("Creed of the Apostles")

The Church always believes as she prays. (Lex orandi, lex credendi.  This simple Latin phrase is the driving force behind the Church’s understanding of liturgy. In English it means, “the law of praying, is the law of believing.” In other words, the manner in which the Church prays effects that which She believes.) 

Church’s prayer is most completely revealed within the liturgical life – the celebration of the Sacraments and other ritualistic actions. In the second century, the Church of Rome was using a baptismal formula, which had the catechumens (those to be baptized) declare their belief in the Triune God as well as the Church and the resurrection of the body via a series of questions. These questions, which find similarity to the baptismal rites of today, developed into the Apostles’ Creed by the end of the seventh century.

The Apostles' Creed is the oldest creed, and lies at the basis of most others. Throughout the Middle Ages it was generally believed that the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, composed our present Creed between them, each of the Apostles contributing one of the twelve articles. Though it is not the direct work of the Apostles, it has its roots in apostolic times, and embodies, with much fidelity, apostolic teaching.

A quick mention should be made about the statement, “…descended into hell.” This statement calls reference to the Sheol, or the place of the dead. Here the Church Fathers as well as early Christian iconography depict the Lord Jesus preaching salvation to those who died before his incarnation. It should not be thought of as the place occupied by the devil and his minions – as if Jesus would have been subjected to him. Sheol is not the hell, hell we understand and the place of torture or punishment.

The Creed is a statement of the truths which we hold as Catholics. When we recite this prayer together, we express not only our individual belief but the faith which all of us hold in common. We return to these familiar “words of faith” week after week to remind and refocus ourselves on the truth.

The Prayers of the Faithful, also known as the General Intercessions or the Universal Prayers, take place at the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Word, and serve like a hinge connecting the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of the Eucharist (the next part of the Mass). The structure of the prayers of the faithful is generally the same: a short introduction by the priest, followed by 5-7 intercessions proclaimed by the deacon or lector, with a short concluding prayer led by the priest. At the end of each petition, we respond “Lord, hear our prayer.”

While there are no official texts for the prayers of the faithful, they follow a general order:
For the needs of the Church
For public authorities and the salvation of the world
For those burdened with any kind of difficulty
For the local community and the deceased in the parish.

At some Masses, the deacon or priest will also include a moment of silence for which to pray for our own personal intentions.

The prayers of the faithful truly belong to the faithful; that is, all who are baptized. This is a time not just for those needs close to us as individuals, but for the needs of this parish, this diocese, this country and for the Church as a whole. When we pray in this way, we recognize our place within the larger community of the baptized, and bring those prayers and intentions with us as we move forward in the Mass.

When we offer these prayers we exercise our ministry as the priestly people of God.

Intercessory prayers of Abraham, Moses and Samuel are noted in the Bible. Abraham interceded for the righteous people in Sodom requesting God not to destroy the city if there are 50 righteous ones. He then debates with God for 40, 30 20 and finally for 10. And God saved Lot and his family because of Abraham’s intercession.

Jesus tells about a persistent neighbor looking to borrow bread at midnight. Imagine it’s you ringing the doorbell.  The door opens. “What are you doing here?” he asks. You answer, “A friend of mine has arrived for a visit, and I’ve nothing for him to eat.”

Finally he takes you to his pantry. And, as a result, your surprise guest doesn’t have to go to bed hungry. All because you spoke up on behalf of someone else. This is intercessory prayer at its purest. This prayer gets God’s attention. If your cranky and disgruntled neighbor will help you out, how much more will God do? Therefore our intercessory prayers for others is highly pleasing and valuable before God.