14The Consecration
- Take
- Bless
- Break
- Give
The priest asks God the Father to send the Holy Spirit, then says Jesus’ own words from the Last Supper: “This is my Body.” Now the bread and wine are really Jesus, not just a sign of him, even though they still look and taste the same. And the gift Jesus made of himself on the Cross becomes present right here on the altar.
Do Kneel. Look at the Host and the chalice when they’re raised.
Say Nothing aloud. You can pray silently, like St Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Did you know?
Where does the word “Host” come from?
From the Latin hostia, which means a sacrifice offered to God (Catholic Encyclopedia).
For parentsThe theology behind this moment, and where every fact comes from
Go deeper
- The Real Presence and transubstantiationWhat the Church means when it says the bread and wine become Jesus.
- The Mass as a sacrificeHow the Mass makes the Cross present without repeating it.
- Two kinds of priesthoodWhy every baptised person is a priest, and what the ordained priest does that no one else can.
- Why the Mass?Where Jesus asks us to celebrate it, and how the first Christians did.
Worth knowing
- Anyone who can’t kneel bows deeply when the priest genuflects after the consecration (GIRM 43). Teaching
Where this comes from
- Teaching The priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit on the gifts (CCC 1353; GIRM 79c).
- Teaching By the words and action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine become Christ’s Body and Blood (CCC 1353; GIRM 79d).
- Teaching Christ is present “truly, really, and substantially”: body, blood, soul and divinity (CCC 1374). The whole substance of the bread and wine changes (transubstantiation), and only their appearance remains (CCC 1376).
- Teaching The priest acts “in the person of Christ”; Christ himself presides, unseen (CCC 1348).
- Teaching The Mass makes present the one sacrifice of the Cross; it doesn’t repeat it (CCC 1366–1367).
- Teaching The bells call our attention (GIRM 150).
- Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: Matthew 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19–20; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25. “I am the living bread”: John 6:51–58.
- Tradition Praying “My Lord and my God” silently when the Host is raised. Pope St Pius X granted an indulgence for it in 1907 (Raccolta 116), and the Church’s handbook of indulgences still lists it among short prayers that can be said just in the mind (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, appendix).
What the labels mean: Teaching, Tradition and Tip.