Confecting the Sacrament

[axolotl]

Would anyone care to critique the following?

The priest leads the assembly in praying the Eucharistic Prayer. We call upon the Holy Spirit to make our gifts of bread and wine holy and that they become the Body and Blood of Jesus.

 

[Della]

Would you please cite the source of this statement? Can you give us a link? Thanks!

 

[axolotl]

It’s from my kids’ CCD books. I was wondering if i was correct, or if I was inferring things they weren’t trying to imply, or if I’m just a nut seeing heresy and dissension everywhere.

FWIW, it goes on to say

The priest then prays for the Church. He prays for the living and the dead.

 

[Evan]

It appear accurate to me.

We are to pray, along with the priest, the eucharistic prayer.

He does call on the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood. This is called the epiclesis. When I was young this was one of the 3 times the bells were rung and in some places still are. (in some ancient traditions the words of institution are left out! only the epiclesis is included)

 

[Chickamauga]

It does appear to be a generally acurate description, however it sure doesn’t have the ompf of the description found in the Catechism. No ambiquities there:

1348 All gather together. Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose “Amen” manifests their participation.

 

[mercygate]

Would anyone care to critique the following?

It’s a misleading statement in that it could be read to mean that the assembly speaks the words of the Eucharistic prayer along with the Priest.

More accurately, what DOES happen is that by “active participation” – meaning, in this case, attentive listening and by common intent – the priestly people, joined with the ministerial Priest, are united in heart and mind in the consecration.

Of course that does not mean that the Sacrament is not confected if the people are distracted or dissident Sigh.

Very confusing way of presenting the sacramental action.

 

[axolotl]

More accurately, what DOES happen is that by “active participation” – meaning, in this case, attentive listening and by common intent – the priestly people, joined with the ministerial Priest, are united in heart and mind in the consecration.

Which I entirely agree with. For the most part, I’m rather pleased with this series. Hey, they even get the theology of confirmation right.

 

[Walking_Home]

Just to clarify:

Code of Canon Law
vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P38.HTM

Can. 907 In the eucharistic celebration deacons and lay persons are not permitted to offer prayers, especially the eucharistic prayer, or to perform actions which are proper to the celebrating priest.

 

[batteddy]

Yeah…it is a statement that may not be technically heretical in and of itself…BUT it is (in the world of Clement X’s Unigenitus):

“captious, evil-sounding, offensive to pious ears, scandalous, pernicious, rash, injurious to the Church and her practice, insulting not only to the Church but also the secular powers seditious, impious…suspected of heresy, and smacking of heresy itself, and, besides, favoring heretics and heresies, and also schisms, erroneous, close to heresy,”

The Priest acts in persona christi and confects the sacrament. He doesn’t need us, he could do it alone. Only the deacon, perhaps, as an ordained minister…can be considered as “cooperating” in a unique way (like Mary’s unique cooperation with Christ on the cross). But the sacramental power flows from the hands of the priest and he certainly doesn’t* need *the deacon, nor the congregation.

He doesnt “lead the assembly in praying the eucharistic prayer”…he PRAYS the eucharistic prayer and we join with him. We can unite our hearts and intention to his prayer, but it is still his Sacrafice in terms of Active Participation.

And the epiclesis isnt even the words of consecration (at least not in the west) so I don’t know what this book was thinking. Get far away from it.

The Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on Laity says (though this was pre-Novus Ordo…the essence of the ordained ministry and sacraments hasnt changed):

As to Divine service, the liturgy and especially the essential act of the Christian worship, the Holy Sacrifice, the active ministers are the clergy alone. But the laity really join in it. Not only do they assist at the Sacrifice and receive its spiritual effects, but they offer it through the ministry of the priest. Formerly they could, and even were obliged to, bring and offer at the altar the mater of the sacrifice, i.e. the bread and wine; that is what they really do to-day by their offerings and their stipends for Masses. At several parts of the Mass, the prayers mention them as offering the sacrifice together with the clergy, especially in the passage immediately after the consecration: “Unde et memores, nos servi tui (the clergy) sed et plebs tua sancta (the laity) . . . offerimus praeclare Majestati tuae, de tuis donis ac datis”, etc. The laity reply to the salutations and invitations of the celebrant, thus joining in the solemn prayer; especially do they share in the Holy Victim by Holy Communion (confined for them in the Latin Liturgy to the species of bread), which they can receive also outside of the time of Mass and at home in case of illness. Such is the participation of the laity in the Liturgy, and strictly they are limited to that; all the active portion is performed by the clergy.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

Would anyone care to critique the following?

The priest is the one who leads everyone in the Eucharistic Prayer. He prays it out loud and we pray along in our hearts, silently.

The part about the Holy Spirit coming upon the gifts to make them holy and to become the Body and Blood of Christ is called the Epiclesis. In more traditional parishes, you will hear bells when this part is done (audible cue). You can also see when the priest places his hands over the bread and wine (visible cue) as he says these words. This is always said before the Words of Institution because the Holy Spirit acts through the priest to consecrate bread and wine into our blessed Lord.

If more people paid better attention to what goes on at Mass, there would be a lot less confusion about these things (I’m not criticizing anyone here, btw )

 

[axolotl]

The priest is the one who leads everyone in the Eucharistic Prayer. He prays it out loud and we pray along in our hearts, silently.

The part about the Holy Spirit coming upon the gifts to make them holy and to become the Body and Blood of Christ is called the Epiclesis. In more traditional parishes, you will hear bells when this part is done (audible cue).

Yes, I know all this. My issue was if *we *call upon the Holy Spirit, (before “we recall what happened at the last supper”).

It just gives me mental images of everyone’s hands outstretched toward the altar, joining in.

But I also admitted that I may be oversensitive. Perhaps due to a Litugy Committee meeting I attended last week.

 

[Dandelion_Wine]

I think it makes it sound like EVERYONE (we) confects the Sacrament.