Devotion for today: Ours is the Church of the Suffering

This is a passage from the book “God is Near: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life” by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVII). I found it to be an interesting discussion on the idea: was Jesus’ death on the cross a failure? I know, shocking, but read on…

Some years ago, Gonsalves Mainberger-who was at that time still a member of the Order of Preachers-shocked his audience in Zurich, and soon after that his readers right across Europe, with the assertion: “Christ died for nothing.” Bultmann (a German scholar) says: We do not know how Jesus met his death, how he endured it. We must leave open the possibility of his having failed.

Did Jesus fail? Well, he certainly was not successful in the same sense as Caesar or Alexander the Great. From the worldly point of view, he did fail in the first instance: he died almost abandoned; he was condemned on account of his preaching. The response to his message was not the great YES of his people, but the Cross. From such an end as that, we should conclude that Success is definitely not one of the names of God and that it is not Christian to have an eye to outward success or numbers.

God’s paths are other than that; his success comes about from the Cross and is always found under that sign. The true witnesses to his authenticity, down through the centuries, are those who have accepted this sign as their emblem. When, today, we look at past history, then we have to say that it is not the Church of the successful people that we find impressive; the Church of those Popes who were universal monarchs; the Church of those leaders who knew how to get on well with the world.

Rather, what strengthens our faith, what remains constant, what gives us hope, is the Church of the suffering. She stands, to the present day, as a sign that God exists and that man is not just a cesspit, but that he can be saved.

This is true of the martyrs of the first three centuries, and then right up to Maximilian Kolbe and the many unnamed witnesses who gave their lives for the Lord under the dictatorships of our own day; whether they had to die for their faith or whether they had to let themselves be trampled on, day after day and year after year, for his sake. The Church of the suffering gives credibility to Christ; she is God’s success in the world; the sign that gives us hope and courage; the sign from which still flows the power of life, which reaches beyond mere thoughts of success and which thereby purifies men and opens up for God a door into this world.

So let us be ready to hear the call of Jesus Christ, who achieved the great success of God on the Cross; he who, as the grain of wheat that died, has become fruitful down through all the centuries; the Tree of Life, in whom even today men may put their hope.

Devotion for today: the epiclesis: calling upon God to bless our gifts

For many of us, the Epiclesis is sometimes said so quickly at Mass that if we are not following along in the Mass Guide or in the Magnificat, we really don’t catch all that is being said. I have printed the four versions that are used in your basic Sunday and weekday Masses, with the exception that I did shorten Eucharistic Prayer I as it is quite long, but very beautiful. If you would take time today to read these carefully, you will find that we are never assuming that God will accept our sacrifice; we ask Him to do so. We do not acknowledge that the bread and wine are acceptable sacrifices: we ask God to send the Holy Spirit to make them holy. The language in these prayers is quite lovely, even in the very short ones, with words such as “dewfall” and “from the rising of the sun to its setting." I hope that you  take a little more time on Eucharistic Prayer IV, for here you will find a summation of salvation history, from the fall of man until the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, always emphasizing God’s mercy for mankind. This prayer is very similar to the ancient Jewish prayers, where the table blessing included a prayer to God to send the Messiah. Here we are asking God to send the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus, the Messiah, into the bread and wine we offer. At this part of the Mass, let us pray that as the priest asks God to bless and make our gifts holy, we pray that God come to us as well, so that the sacrifice we make of our lives will be blessed and made holy, and that the Holy Spirit will fall upon us to fill us with Christ.

Eucharistic Prayer I: Therefore, Lord, we pray: graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family; order our days in your peace, and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen.  Be pleased, O God, we pray, to bless, acknowledge, and approve this offering in every respect; make it spiritual and acceptable, so that it may become for us the Body and Blood of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eucharistic Prayer II: You are indeed Holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness. Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eucharistic Prayer III: You are indeed holy, O Lord, and all creation rightly gives you praise, for through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy spirit, you give life to all things and make them holy, and you never cease to gather a people to yourself, so that from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name. Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.

Eucharistic Prayer IV: We give you praise Father most holy, for you are great and you have fashioned all your works in wisdom and in love. You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all the creatures. And when through disobedience he had lost your friendship, you did not abandon him to the domain of death; for you came in mercy to the aid of all, so that those who seek might find you. Time and again you offered them covenants and through the prophets taught them to look forward to salvation. And you so loved the world, Father most holy, that in the fullness of time you sent your Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to the sorrowful of heart, joy. To accomplish your plan, he gave himself up to death, and, rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life. And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose again for us, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first fruits for those who believe, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full. Therefore, O Lord, we pray: may this same Holy Spirit graciously sanctify these offerings, that they may become the body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ for the celebration of this great mystery, which he himself left us as an eternal covenant.

Devotion for today: We are part of a treasure

We have just praised God and joined with the angels in singing Hosanna! Now we kneel and face the altar, ready to begin the most solemn part of the Mass. This is called the Canon of the Mass and it has several parts. Today we will look at a brief summary of each part before looking individually at the history and purpose of each. Again, my prayer is that by studying the Mass in a slow and systematic fashion, we can come to appreciate its rich heritage and roots in the Bible, and see the tremendous gift Christ gave us at the last supper. It is up to us, however, to bring our whole being into the Church, and to work hard to concentrate on the words being said. To go to Mass simply to fulfill an obligation, to avoid sin or because our parents once told us we had to do it, is to miss the incredible gift of grace that awaits us at every Mass. Let us not waste time worrying if the priest is a great homilist or if the altar servers are well trained or if the music is modern/traditional enough for us. Rather, let us thank God that we can attend a Mass, and let us pray for the many people in the world who suffer persecution, and who are willing to die, to appear before the altar of God. It is a reality for much of the world, so being present at the Eucharistic feast is a tremendous gift and treasure. We should treat it as such by dressing up, maintaining a respectful silence in the Church before Mass, receiving Communion in a reverent fashion, staying until the priest leaves the church and teaching our children the importance and beauty of what is unfolding before them. A treasure mistreated and neglected eventually becomes a treasure lost.

The Important parts of the Canon of the Mass (the major body of the Eucharistic prayer)

1)       Epiclesis: the priest places his hands over the bread and wine, blesses them and prays to God to send down the Holy Spirit that, through His power, the gifts will become the body and blood of Christ.

2)      Institution narrative: the words of Christ, used at the Last Supper are now used by the priest (in union with the Holy Spirit) to consecrate the bread and wine, and through transubstantiation, make sacramentally present the body and blood of Christ.

3)      Anamnesis: “remembrance”: Here we remember the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord, His eminent coming again, and His presence now in our living mystery of the Mass.

4)      Supplices: The priests asks God to take the sacrifice we have just offered to His heavenly altar so that those who will receive it will “be filled with every heavenly grace and blessing”.

5)      Petitions: “We pray for”: Here we invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, the Apostles, martyrs and all the saints to help us pray for the intentions of our Pope, Bishop, and the living and deceased members of the Church. (adapted from Straight Answers II, Rev. William P. Saunders, PhD., Cathedral Foundation Press, 2003)

 Psalm 96: Call to Worship the Lord the Righteous Judge

Sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.
Tell of His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name;

Bring an offering and come into His courts.
Worship the Lord in holy attire;
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved;
He will judge the peoples with equity.”

 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, and all it contains;
Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
 Before the Lord, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness.