Sacred Heart Parish
August 7, 2011
Praying the Liturgy: “The Eucharistic Prayer or Canon of the Mass is the central prayer of the entire celebration. The Church tells us that liturgy (and the Mass is the highpoint and heart of liturgy) is the action of Christ the priest and His Body, the Church. In the celebration of Mass, during the Eucharistic Prayer, not only does Christ become present, body and blood, soul and divinity, under the forms of bread and wine, but Christ’s saving action, His passion, death and resurrection are once again enacted and offered to the Father by Christ Himself in the person of the priest, and by all present. This action of Christ which brought about our redemption from sin and eternal death, offered once for all on Calvary, becomes present again for us , here and now, in this time and place, so that we can join in Christ’s perfect offering and can ourselves participate in His perfect worship.
And what is most important, we do not offer Christ alone; we are called to offer ourselves, our lives, our individual efforts to grow more like Christ and our efforts as a community of believers to spread God’s Word and to serve God’s people, to the Father in union with Christ through the hands of the priest. Most wonderful of all, although our offering is in itself imperfect, joined with the offering of Christ it becomes perfect praise and thanksgiving to the Father.” (Based upon Roman Missal Formational Materials from Secretariat for the Liturgy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2010).