Part 3 of 4
We offer and receive
Liturgy of the Eucharist
At Emmaus: At table “he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them” (Luke 24:30).
Jesus did the same four things at the Last Supper, and this part of the Mass follows them: take (the gifts), bless (the Eucharistic Prayer), break (the Lamb of God), give (Communion) (GIRM 72).
Posture for this part. Sit while the gifts are prepared; stand from “Pray, brethren”; kneel from after the Holy, Holy until after the Great Amen; stand for the Our Father, the sign of peace and the Lamb of God; kneel when the priest says “Behold the Lamb of God”; stand to go up for Communion; afterwards, sit or kneel (GIRM 43).
12The gifts are brought up
- Take
- Bless
- Break
- Give
The bread and wine, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands”, are carried to the altar with the collection for the Church and the poor. Offer God your own week too, your efforts, worries and joys, because at Mass we offer ourselves along with Jesus.
Do Sit. Stand when the priest says “Pray, brethren”.
Say “Blessed be God for ever.” Then: “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church.”
Did you know?
What might be hidden inside the altar?
Relics of saints. The Church keeps the custom of placing them under the altar on purpose (GIRM 302). In Revelation, the souls of the martyrs are seen “underneath the altar” (Revelation 6:9).
For parentsThe theology behind this moment, and where every fact comes from
Go deeper
- 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.
Where this comes from
- Teaching The bread and wine are the same things Jesus took into his hands at the Last Supper (GIRM 72).
- Teaching Collecting gifts for those in need goes back to the first Christians (CCC 1351; GIRM 73).
- Teaching Bringing bread and wine echoes Melchizedek, the priest-king who “brought out bread and wine” (Genesis 14:18; CCC 1350).
- Teaching The Church wants us to offer not only Jesus but ourselves with him (GIRM 79f; CCC 1368).
- Teaching The water in the wine: the priest’s quiet prayer asks that “we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity” (Roman Missal, Order of Mass).
- Teaching Incense shows the Church’s offering and prayer rising to God (GIRM 75).
- Teaching The hand-washing expresses the priest’s wish to be made clean inside (GIRM 76); its prayer comes from Psalm 51:4.
What the labels mean: Teaching, Tradition and Tip.