The thing is if you listen to the
words of the Mass which the priest is saying and which may be read in a Missal
or Missalette (sometimes provided by a Church), you will note that the entire
Mass is being offered to God, the Father.
Please consider: When a person is dying, they often want to be
remembered by those with whom they have lived while they were here on the
earth. And very often they leave a Will
specifying mementos to be given to children, friends, and others after their death.
Please consider: When Jesus knew that His hour was coming,
that He would die, He wanted to leave something by which His friends and those
who would follow Him and who would be a part of His Church would remember
Him.
Please consider. Jesus’s legacy is the transformation of the
host and the wine into His real body and blood.
The “host” is the present day representation of the unleavened bread
which Jesus used at the Last Supper, Holy Thursday, the night before He died.
Please consider the physical aspects
of the Mass. The altar on which the
priest offers Mass is in fact God, the Father’s altar on which He is receiving
the body and blood of His Son, Jesus every time a Mass is said by a priest
anywhere in the world. The thing is we
sometimes believe that God’s Altar is somewhere in Eternity and at the
Consecration of the Mass, the Angels bring Jesus’s body and blood to God at His
altar in Heaven.
The thing is not long ago at Sunday
Mass, I was thinking about the idea of God’s altar and heard that someone on
the altar serving the Mass was having some doubts about faith and the Church’s
teachings. Then I heard, in my mind, “Then
get off My altar.” The altar in each and
every church of the faith which Jesus and His Father established is God, the
Father’s altar on which He receives the Body and Blood of His Son, Jesus. All care should be taken that no offense be
given while in Church and especially at His – God’s – altar.
Please consider: The actual transformation of the host and wine
occurs after the words of the Consecration have been spoken by the priest. It is the priest who experiences the
transformation most deeply within himself, since it is Jesus Himself Who acts
within the priest to make the transformation happen.
Please consider the words of the
Consecration. For the host: “Who, the day before He suffered, took bread
into His holy and venerable hands, and having raised His eyes to heaven, to
You, O God, His Almighty Father, giving thanks to You, He blessed it, broke it,
and gave it to His disciples, saying:
Take this all of you and eat of it:
For this is my body.”*
For the wine: “In like manner, when the supper was done,
taking also this goodly chalice into His holy and venerable hands, again giving
thanks to You, He blessed it, and gave it to His disciples, saying: All of you take and drink of this: For this is the Chalice of my Blood of the
new and eternal covenant: the mystery of faith: which shall be shed for you and
for many unto the forgiveness of sins.
As often as you shall do these things, in memory of Me shall you do
them.”*
Please consider the Eucharistic
Miracle of Lanciano, Italy, which occurred some time in the 700’s A.D.
“The alleged miracle is usually
described roughly as follows: In the
city of Lanciano, Italy, then known as Anxanum, some time in the 700s, a
Basilian hieromonk was assigned to celebrate Mass at the monastery of St.
Longinus. Celebrating in the Roman Rite
and using unleavened bread, the monk had doubts about the Catholic doctrine of
transubstantiation. During the Mass,
when he said the Words of Consecration ("This is my body. This is my
blood"), the priest saw the bread change into living flesh and the wine
change into blood which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing
in shape and size.[2] The
alleged miracle was contemporaneously investigated and confirmed by the Church,
though no documents from this investigation are extant.[2]”**
“As of 2012, the relics of
this miracle are kept in the Church of San Francesco in Lanciano.[7][footnote
omitted] In 2004 Pope John Paul
II recalled visiting the relics there while a cardinal.[8][footnote
omitted] They are displayed in a
silver and glass reliquary made in Naples in 1713.[7]” **
Please consider that in the Roman
Catholic faith, a person can receive Jesus in the Host every single day. How do you know this is Jesus? When you receive the Host on your tongue and
It begins to move as with a life of Its own and you hear, “Swallow Me, swallow
Me,” know it is Jesus impatient to enter in and be with you. Try not to hold Him in your mouth. Swallow Him.
Why would Jesus remind His Father of
His very horrible death every day? How
does Jesus show His love for human beings by becoming a human being through the
words of the Consecration at Mass?
How does the relationship between
God, the Father, Jesus and human beings show itself at the Mass?
God’s Altar – His Holy Table where He receives His Son’s, Jesus’s, Body and Blood
Human Beings – Watching and wondering***
Jesus’s words of the Consecration of
the Wine perhaps summarize the Mass service best: “. . .As often as you shall do these things,
in memory of Me shall you do them.”**
*Taken from Saint
Joseph Daily Missal, © 1959 by Catholic
Book Publishing Co., N. Y. United
States and Canada — Printed in U.S.A.
**Taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms
of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia®
is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization.
**2. Saunders,
William (7 September 2000)."The Miracle of Lanciano"
http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/the-miracle-oflanciano.html).
Arlington Catholic Herald – via
Catholic Education Resource Center.
**7. Lillie, Barry (26 March 2012). “Take a Faith Break in Lanciano” (https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/take-faith-break-lanciano). Italy
Magazine. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
**8.
Pope John Paul II (4 October 2004), Letter
of John Paul II to Archbishop Carlo Ghidelli of Lanciano-Ortona (Italy)
(https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2004/documents_jp-ii_let_20041004_carlo-ghidelli_en.html). Libreria Editrice Vaticana, retrieved 21
April 2019
***The above picture was taken from Microsoft Clip Art and is cited as “FreeStockPhoto6685 Altar at StGeorgesChurch…”
Copyright Bernardette Grant 2020 All Rights Reserved
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