Devotion for today: The Final Doxology

In our study of the Mass, we have now come to the end of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It is indeed fitting to end the most glorious event we could ever witness, the Consecration, with a hymn of praise and total commitment of our lives, in every way, to God. The priest elevates the host and the chalice, and with great solemnity proclaims the final doxology, a short hymn of praise. Fr. Barron tells us it is the modern day equivalent to the sealing of the covenant performed in the Old Testament. The priest presents us with the Consecrated Elements, proclaiming that through this sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, all praise and honor and glory is due to God, and we willingly give it to Him, sealing the covenant between God and us with our lives joined to His Son’s.

Romans 11: 36

For from him and through him and for him all things are. To him be glory forever. Amen

Ephesians 4:3

 Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force.

Revelation 7:11-12

 All the angels who were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures fell down before the throne to worship God. They said: “Amen! Praise the glory, wisdom and thanksgiving and honor, power and might, to our God forever and ever. Amen!”

Fr. Barron tells us: At the close of the Eucharistic prayer, Jesus, who is really present under the forms of bread and wine, is offered as a living sacrifice to the Father. Lifting up the elements, the priest prays,

“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, for ever and ever.” At this moment the Catholic priest is in the true holy of holies, and what he does is analogous to what the high priest did in the Temple on the Day of Atonement. In ancient times the Jewish priest would enter the holy of holies, which was symbolic of the heavenly realm, and there he would sacrifice an animal to Yahweh on behalf of all the people. Then he would sprinkle some of the blood around the interior of the sanctuary, and the rest he would bring out in a bowl and sprinkle on the people, sealing thereby a kind of blood bond between God and the nation. The Catholic priest, at the climax of the Mass, offers to the Father not the blood of bulls and goats but the Blood of Christ beyond all price. Since the Father has no need of anything, that sacrifice redounds completely to our benefit. (Catholicism, Image Books, 2011)

And Edward Sri reminds us, “We praise the almighty Father best by offering our lives through, with and in the Son who surrendered Himself completely on Calvary and in the unity of his Spirit who abides in us.” (The Mass, Ascension Press, 2011)

Prayer: The Glory Be

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.