Photo by Tarsem Saini

Drop down dew from above, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down the Just One; let the earth be opened and bring forth a Savior. (Isaiah 45:8)

Entrance Antiphon for the 4th Sunday of Advent

It has been raining quite a bit here in East Tennessee this past week. Perhaps God is trying to remind us that even while the rush of the secular celebration of Christmas continues, we are called as Christians to wait in stillness for the coming of the Lord. Just as the people of Israel waited expectantly for the birth of Jesus, we await his birth within our hearts.

The new version of the Second Eucharistic Prayer begins,

“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.”

During the liturgy we don’t just pray for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the bread and wine placed upon the altar, but also that He will fall upon each of us, allowing our hearts to be watered with His grace. We pray that Christ the savior will be welcomed, unworthy as we are, to enter under our roof and find a home with us.

I’m praying for more rain this weekend.

Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads us to death. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian. They are two of the early Church martyrs, one a Pope and both Bishops who helped the Church withstand the errors of Novatian who held that those who had denied the faith during earlier persecutions could not be reconciled to the Church. One of the things that I found interesting in reading about these two saints was this bit of trivia on the numbers of the Church of Rome during the middle of the third century when Cornelius and Cyprian lived. The Church of Rome in the mid-third century had 46 priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons and about 50,000 total members of the faithful. Those numbers are not that different than the Church of Knoxville, where I serve.

As we were celebrating a feast of two early martyrs, and particularly because these two saints are commemorated in the Roman Canon, this is the Eucharist Prayer I chose for the mass. Something struck me during the prayer that I had never really paid close attention to. These words seemed to jump off the page at me:

For ourselves, too, we ask some share in the fellowship of your apostles and martyrs, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia and all the saints.

In the early Church, it was pretty rare for someone to become a saint who had not died some sort of horrific death. The good news for those who sought after sainthood is that there were plenty of persecutions to go around. The thing that stood out for me in the prayer that we use so often is the fact that we are asking to share fellowship with the martyrs, meaning we are asking God for suffering and ultimately we are asking to die. This shouldn’t surprise us, as our life as Christians requires taking up the Cross of Christ, but I wonder how many of us, like myself, fail to hear what it is we are praying each week for the simple reason of being too familiar with the words of the prayers. Perhaps one of the blessings that will come with the implementation of the new Roman missal will be an opportunity for Catholics to hear the prayers anew and to let their meaning be heard in our hearts again so that we may more readily follow Christ through death to eternal life.

The word doxology literally means, glory. This part of the Eucharistic Prayer is meant to give glory to God in return for all He has given to us. This part of the liturgy is more likely to be sung, even during a daily celebration with the words,

Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours Almighty Father, forever and ever.

The celebration of the liturgy is meant to teach us that we are in communion with God and with one another. We see this expressed in the interchange that happens during every celebration of the Eucharist. First God gives us food by way of wheat and grapes which we take and make into bread and wine. We then offer the bread and wine back to God along with our lives as we place them on the altar. Then God sends His Spirit to transform the bread and wine into His Body and Blood. At the Doxology, we offer it back to Him. It is beautiful to see this continual exchange unfold during every celebration of the liturgy. The new General Instruction of the Roman Missal uses these words to describe the doxology,

Final doxology, By which the glorification of God is expressed and is confirmed and concluded by the people’s acclamation, Amen.

My continual hope when celebrating the Eucharist is that myself and those gathered will mirror our prayer by how we live our lives, that we will give thanks for the gifts God continues to bless us with and freely offer them back to Him in prayer and service.

I recently learned that the last words of Fr. Alexander Schmemann were, Amen, Amen, Amen. Perhaps we should remember each time during the doxology, as we sing the Great Amen, that if lived properly our very lives can become a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

Let the people say, Amen.

]]> http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/12/07/doxology/feed/ 4 http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/12/05/saturday-evening-blogpost-more-on-the-eucharist/ http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/12/05/saturday-evening-blogpost-more-on-the-eucharist/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:47:39 +0000 Fr. Christian Mathis http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/?p=1903

Today I am happy to be participating again in Elizabeth Esther’s Saturday Evening Blogpost. I am choosing to share a post from my recent series on the Eucharist. I hope that readers will take a look at not only this post, but all of the recent posts on this topic. You can find my chosen post from November at the link below.

The Eucharistic Prayer: Acclamation

Catholics often get accused of worship Mary, saints and whole host of things including statues, icons and various other items that symbolize the holiness of things on earth through Christ’s Incarnation. One reason I believe this happens is a misunderstanding when it comes to a particular form of prayer, that being prayer of intercession. We do indeed ask Mary and the saints to intercede on our behalf. We also ask for the prayers of those who are still here with us on earth.

I recall fondly the first day I met my friend Lance. I was at a New Year’s Eve party and had just come from mass. It was the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. He asked me, as I have been asked many times before, “Why do you Catholics pray to Mary?” My response was my normal one in which I explained that we do not worship Mary, but that we ask for her intercession in a similar way that we might ask a friend to pray for us, except of course that Mary has a unique and special connection to Jesus, her son. The reason I remember this particular conversation is the exchange that followed. Lance listened to my explanation and then said, “Can I ask another question?”

“Here comes the argument”, I thought to myself but replied, “Sure.”

“If that’s why you pray to Mary, why wouldn’t you pray to other holy people for their help, like St. Joseph for example?”

After the shock had subsided from this conversation not going in the usual direction of someone trying to sway me from my idolatrous ways of worshipping Mary, I answered him by explaining that we do turn to the saints for their help.

The new General Instruction of the Roman Missal describes this section of the Eucharistic Prayer in these words:

Intercessions: By which expression is given to the fact that the Eucharist is celebrated in communion with the entire Church of heaven as well as of earth, and that the offering is made for her and for all her members, living and dead, who have been called to participate in the redemption and the salvation purchased by Christ’s Body and Blood.

It is our firm belief that the grave is not the final word to Christians, but through the resurrection we have the opportunity to enter into everlasting life in heaven. It is with this belief that we continue to share communion with those who are no longer physically present with us on earth and continue asking for their prayers.

One of the most striking examples of intercessory prayer is found in the Roman Canon when we ask for the assistance of many holy men and women who have gone before us.

In union with the whole Church we honor Mary, the ever-virgin mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God. We honor Joseph, her husband, the apostles and martyrs Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; we honor Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian and all the saints. May their merits and prayers grant us your constant help and protection.

And again later in the prayer,

For ourselves, too, we ask some share in the fellowship of your apostles and martyrs, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia and all the saints.

In my younger days, I used to be very uncomfortable speaking about Mary and the saints with those who did not share my own Christian beliefs, but over time it has become a conversation I look forward to having. It is an opportunity to share the richness of our faith with other Christians who are missing an opportunity to more fully embrace the Incarnation of Christ and the reality of heaven.

The next part of the Eucharistic Prayer is called the offering. One of the things I like about the liturgy is that there is a continual exchange between God and his people. We give Him thanks for all he has given and offer these gifts back to Him for blessing. He sends the Holy Spirit to change these gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ. We offer them back to Him. The GIRM describes this part of the liturgy in these words,

Offering: By which, in this very memorial, the Church–and in particular the Church here and now gathered–offers in the Holy Spirit the spotless Victim to the Father. The Church’s intention, however, is that the faithful not only offer this spotless Victim but also learn to offer themselves, and so day by day to be consummated, through Christ the Mediator, into unity with God and with each other, so that at last God may be all in all.

It is not only the bread and wine that has been transformed into Christ’s Body and Blood, but also those who have gathered as the Body of Christ who are transformed. First by the calling down of the Holy Spirit, and then by being offered back to the Father through the Holy Spirit, we are meant to be slowly transformed over our lifetimes to resemble more and more the person of Christ. Here again we see that the celebration of this sacrament is centered on theosis. The purpose of the Eucharist is both to give thanks for all that God has done for us and all that he has given to us as his children and then to offer it all back and more in return.

Perhaps one of the best responses that can be given once we come to realize the full measure of what God is offering to us in the Eucharist is to turn to this ancient prayer of the Old Testament:

How can I repay the Lord for all the good done for me? I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. (Psalm 116: 12-13)

May it be a prayer that echoes in our hearts during every celebration of the Eucharist, as we offer ourselves along with Christ to the Father.

]]> http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/11/18/the-eucharistic-prayer-offering/feed/ 3 http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/11/17/the-eucharist-prayer-anamnesis/ http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/11/17/the-eucharist-prayer-anamnesis/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:22:28 +0000 Fr. Christian Mathis http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/?p=1828

The Eucharistic Prayer continues following the Institution Narrative and Consecration with the Anamnesis. The General Instruction to the Roman Missal describes this part of the prayer in these words:

In the Roman Canon this is expressed in these words,

Father, we celebrate the memory of Christ, your Son. We, your people and your ministers, recall his passion, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into glory; and from the many gifts you have given us we offer to you, God of glory and majesty, this holy and perfect sacrifice: the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation.

One of the things that struck me when I was being taught about liturgy in the seminary is that the early Christians adopted the Jewish notion of memorial. This view holds that remembering is not simply thinking with nostolgia about someone or some event in the past, but rather to remember makes that person or event present now. When we remember Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension we make it present to those gathered at the Eucharist. This does not mean, as some of my protestant friends have suggested, that we are celebrating those events over and over and that we believe Christ’s sacrifice must be repeated at each celebration of the liturgy. It simply means that we can continually be connected to that event through re-membering Christ through the sacraments.

A good example might be the celebration of passover when the youngest son asks the question, “Why is this night different from every other night?” The question is answered by remembering what God has done for the people of Israel and it makes present the events of the past. We have similar language in our celebration each year of the Easter Vigil. The exultet prayer that is sung at the beginning of the liturgy is always sung in the present tense, but recalls the past in order to make it present to us today:

This is our Passover feast, when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain, whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers. This is the night when first you saved our fathers: you freed the people of Israel from their slavery and led them dry-shod through the sea. This is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin! This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace, and grow together in holiness. This is the night when Jesus  Christ broke the chains of death. and rose triumphant from the grave. What good would life have been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer? Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave you gave away your Son. O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer! Most blessed of all nights, chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!

As we continue celebrating the liturgy each week, let us always remember that Christ is truly present with His saving power that is timeless.